'Raging fire' was exercise test for fire brigade

5:07pm Thursday 4th October 2007

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125 years ago

A rumour was widely spread that a fire was raging at a residence near the nursery gardens. Numbers of people made for the scene of the supposed conflagration and on arriving found that the scare had been arranged to try the efficiency of the fire brigade. Alarm was given in the usual form to the sexton, who set the bell ringing in the tower of the parish church.

At the Ilkley Local Board, it was brought to the members' attention that the there was a dangerous footpath near the river in the vicinity of Ash Grove. It appeared that the Board would be responsible for any accident which took place. Therefore it was moved and passed that repairs should take place.

A letter was read to the Burley-in-Wharfedale local board asking for a lamp in Booth Street. After a short discussion, during the which the need for a lamp was proven, Mr Whitehead proposed that a gas lamp be placed in Both Street that the Road Committee view the place in order to decide where it should be put.

100 years ago

In the establishment of institutions that make for enlightenment and progress, Ilkley has many times set an example to larger and more important centres of population, and in the erection of a Free Library, Public Office, and Assembly Hall, the Ilkley District Council are in the very vanguard of municipal programmes so far as urban districts are concerned.

A meeting took place at the Tokyo café on Thursday evening to consider the formation of a workplace hospital fund for Ilkley and District, with a view to giving support to the Coronation Cottage Hospital. A deputation was appointed to visit the workshops with a view to enlisting the practical sympathy of the workers with the object in view, and afterwards some system to ensure regular contributions from work people will be noticed.

Ilkley Riffle Club dried a novelty in the way of handicap shooting was tried. This took the form of a 'egg' shooting contest and the marksmen were handicapped by being placed at varying distances from the objects.

75 years ago

Subject to the sanction of the Ministry of Health a £6,000 sewage improvement scheme is to be carried out in connection with the Middleton Sewage Scheme. It will abolish the evil-smelling arrangement near the bottom of Carters Lane and the sewage, carried over the river by a bridge near the cemetery, will be treated in the works on the south side of the river.

Retiring from the Ilkley Postal service today, Mr Charles Mellor has an amazing record as a postman. He has had 43-and-a-half years official service, and a total of over 45 years. Throughout the whole of that period his round has been the very distant country round which includes Nesfield and Langbar, and he has established the remarkable record of tramping 226,640 miles.

The Road Traffic Committee resolved that as from the end of October the stand for two hackney carriages at the head of Brook Street should be discontinued. Mr W Dobson said the volume of vehicles now passing up and down Brook Street necessitated the abolition of that stand and the erection of a 'safety island' for the use of pedestrians.

50 years ago

Estimates ranging from £5,000 to £10,000 for making up the Ilkley portion of the moor road to Keighley were mentioned at the meeting of Ilkley Council on Wednesday. The 'high cost' said Coun E Wolfe, he was advised, was £10,000 or thereabouts and this would amount to a tenpenny rate or 1s rate. Coun J Hardy said he was rather surprised to hear that the cost would only be about £10,000. He rather thought the figure was nearer to £30,000.

An application by the Daily Mirror to present a bonfire and firework display on Ilkley Moor on November 5 has been approved. The display will be organised by technical experts connected with firework manufacturers, and full safety precautions will be observed, says the application. Concentrated publicity would be given to the event for some days in advance and it was felt this would not only draw attention to the display, but to Ilkley.

Attempts will be made in the very near future to eliminate the dangers provided by the two sharp and blind corners on the moor road at the Youth Hostel, Burley Woodhead, known as Robin Hole, and the blind acute bend on the same road between the camping site above Woodhead and between the Cow and Calf Hotel. These three blind and treacherous corners have in post-war years been a matter of great concern to the Ilkley Road Safety Committee and Ilkley Council.

25 years ago

Objectionable and pornographic graffiti on the inside walls of the toilets at Ilkley's central car park has caused an Ilkley parish councillor to hit out against a further outbreak of vandalism in the town. Coun Kenneth G Johnson had wanted to produce photographs at this month's meeting of the parish council on Monday night but the graffiti was so bad he had decided not to.

A pre-historic cairn on Ilkley Moor is to be excavated as part of a research project because it is threatened by vandalism and the severe elements. The cairn at Woofa Bank between Ilkley and Burley-in-Wharfedale was one of 88 discovered during a six-year survey. The cairnfield was part of the ancient prehistoric settlement comprising enclosures and cup and ring rocks.

Skeletons and coffin fittings are expected to be among archaeological finds when an excavation is carried out within the tower of the ancient parish church at Ilkley. Ilkley Parish Church was of considerable historical importance, and the Anglo-Saxon church was built within the area of the Roman fort.