125 Years Ago - 1892

A cynical opponent of woman’s suffrage insists that the invention of shirt studs is the cause of women’s incursion into politics and other isms. He says that in the days of shirt buttons she had so much occupation in sewing them on that she could not give her attention to anything else. He sighs for the return of the good old times.

Much excitement was caused in the vicinity of Town Side on Tuesday by a cow getting into the room which has been taken as a mission-hall by the Roman Catholics of the township. The cow, which was being drive down into the streets, bolted into the open doorway. It is also said that on the same day a cow entered the milliner’s shop in New Briggate. Truly the cows of Yeadon seem to have a desire for religious worship and new bonnets.

100 Years Ago - 1917

The death occurred from pneumonia in France, on October 15, of Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant Maurice Dacre, youngest son of Mr. J. W. Dacre, Mount Pleasant, Ilkley. He was 26 years of age and educated at the Ilkley Grammar School; up to joining the Army with a big contingent of Ilkley men at the beginning of September, 1912, being employed as salesman with his father’s firm , Messrs. Dacre and Son, auctioneers and valuers, Otley and Ilkley.

The Rev. A. T. Guttery gave a lecture in Ilkley entitled “My Visit to Our Army in France.” He said this war came upon us like a bolt from the blue and found us unarmed and unready. We had to start from the bottom, but had built up a colossal system, and to-day our lads, many of whom two years ago had never put in a single drill, or handled a gun, were grinding the pride of the German army to powder, and God bless them. His heart was not with the 900 conscientious objectors who complained of their treatment, but with the five million boys who were doing the fighting and otherwise helping to win the war.

75 Years Ago - 1942

Mrs Barley, of Nelson Road, Ilkley, has received a photograph from her son, Officer’s Steward Albert Barley pictured with another Ilkley man, Petty Officer J Wilkinson, of Leeds Road, reading the Gazette whilst on board one of His Majesty’s ships.

Two Addingham men who have met in the Middle East are LAC Bernard Bester, son of Mr and Mrs Percy Bester, of Low Mill, and Cpl Lawrence Greenwood, who was his next door neighbour at home.

50 Years Ago - 1967

An employee on the Farnley Hall estate for over 40 years, Mr. Ernest Clark, of Leathley Lodge, retired last Friday. Presentations of a cheque were made to him by Mr. Nicholas Horton-Fawkes, and Mr. R. W. Lythe on behalf of the estate employees. Mr. Clark, a widower, aged 66, started work on the Farnley Hall estate in 1925 as a farm worker, and later became a mason’s labourer.

Almost 50 years ago to the day after the old Otley Battery had its blackest day, with heavy casualties in the mud and horror of Passchendaele, the surviving members of the Battery Old Comrades Association held their annual reunion dinner in the Wharfedale Cafe on Saturday. The thinning of the ranks of the old soldiers was evident, in the attendance reduced to 17 members of the Association and by the announcement that four members had died since the last re-union. On November 3, 1917 they had experienced the blackest day in the history of the Battery, almost a complete detachment being wiped out by enemy gunfire.

25 Years Ago - 1992

Schoolgirls Loren Blair and Eleanor Trueman were treated to a VIP tour of Burley and Menston waste water treatment works, near Otley, after they wrote to the Prime Minister calling for action to clean up polluted rivers. Yorkshire Water offered the young environmentalists the trip when they learned of their letter to John Major.

The Vicar of Burley-in-Wharfedale, the Rev John Tidy, has been appointed Dean at the Cathedral Church of St John the Martyr in Jerusalem. As Dean, Mr Tidy will seek to develop the cathedral’s role as a resource for the thousands of Anglican pilgrims who visit Jerusalem each year, including many from the Bradford Diocese.