Illuminating meeting of the Ilkley Local Board

5:28pm Thursday 18th October 2007

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125 years ago

A special meeting of the Ilkley Local Board was held for the purpose of taking into consideration an application to the Board of Trade for a licence to use the electric light for lighting all streets and roads, for public and private buildings, or for other purposes in this district, and if need be to appoint a committee.

A new addition to the organisation of the parish of Saint Margaret in Ilkley will be formally opened. The premises, as most of our readers will be aware, were used a s a place of worship by the Weslyan Methodists prior to the erection of their commodious church in Wells Road.

The winter term of the Ilkley Government School of Art has commenced and we cannot sufficiently draw the attention of all classes, especially the artizan class, to the great advantages offered by this institution. The fees for artizans are so low that there cannot be an excuse on that account if young men do not fully avail themselves of the exceptional advantages offered to them for their education.

100 years ago

On Wednesday morning the Town Hall clock struck eight at a quarter to nine, and several gentlemen usually travelling by the 9am North Eastern Train to Leeds, and a policeman amongst them, did a sprint in the belief that they had somehow mistimed themselves. More than these were for a time thrown out of their reckoning though it transpired that the clock itself was not at fault, but that some timber had come in contact with the mechanism.

For several hours during the early part of Thursday rain fell very heavily, with greater volume and persistency indeed than had been recorded in some parts of the Wharfe Valley for years past. At Ilkley the rainfall was nothing abnormal, but the Wharfe rose to a great height and near Otley overflowed its banks.

These are humanitarian days with a vengeance. During the last year or two we have heard a good deal about the feeding of school children and so much have some people been prepared to do in this direction that had they their way the responsibility for parents would soon be entirely non est. Already a good deal of this has been placed on their shoulders, for children of very tender years can now be sent to school and same be cared for and looked after in many ways better than at home.

75 years ago

There is a wide difference of opinion between the Addingham Parish Council and the West Riding County Council as to the best method of dealing with the traffic dangers in Addingham Main Street. The county council proposal is the construction of a bypass road but the parish council has for a considerable time been pressing upon a higher authority the view that it would be cheaper, and Addingham better served, if the county were to widen the Main Street. The narrow state of that street and its many dangerous corners lead to frequent accidents.

If there should be in Ilkley any wireless pirates they will be wise if they take out their licences without delay. The famous Green Van that is the wireless detection finding van is paying visits to Ilkley. "Indoor aerials are no longer safe from detection," said one of the officers in charge.

An incessant downpour of rain throughout the whole of the morning and afternoon marred to a sheepdog trial at Ilkley. In spite of the state of the ground, however, which must have been anything but pleasant for men, sheep and dogs, some remarkably fine performances were achieved.

50 years ago

The proposed firework display to be held on behalf of the Daily Mirror on Ilkley Moor on November 5 has fallen through. In a letter to Ilkley Council the newspaper indicates that they have learned with astonishment that none of the principal manufacturers was prepared to supply materials or technicians on account of a trade tradition' which prohibits them from staging or contributing to a display on November 5, or within seven days either way.

Every schoolday of the week a taxi travels from Briery Wood at the top of Hebers Ghyll Drive, Ilkley, to the Infants School on Leeds Road carrying one seven-year-old pupil and each night calls to take the child home. On its way to and from school it passes other children from the same school who are having to walk to their homes on, or near the same route, because they live under the one and a half mile limit. The parents of two of the walking children have asked the Ilkley Education Committee for permission for their children to travel in the taxi.

An exhibition designed to illustrate the history of the Ilkley Grammar School and to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the school, provided a most interesting aspect of an open night organised for the parents of new pupils at the school on Wednesday. This is the second time such an exhibition has been presented at the school, the first being at the end of term presentation earlier this year.

25 years ago

Muscle power has taken over from mechanical horsepower as a management scheme for Ilkley Moor's footpaths takes place. Vehicles have been banned in an attempt to minimise damage - which means that all equipment involved in the scheme has to be hauled manually over a mile onto the top of the moor. Teams of young men from Manpower Services are now carrying heavy railway sleepers, planks and tools from the main road up the steep bank.

"We are entering the most dangerous decade in human history. A Third World War is not merely possible but increasingly likely." These were the opening sentences of the appeal for European Disarmament launched in April 1980 - and with talk in the US of a limited nuclear war in the European theatre the threat to Europe has clearly never been greater. With this in mind the Ilkley Peace Action Group discussion meeting had reports from the first European Nuclear Disarmament Convention in Brussels.

A public meeting has to be held next month to discuss and create a forum to help the unemployed in the Ilkley District.