125 Years Ago - 1891

On Thursday in last week a young woman named Rebecca Exley, 18 years of age, daughter of Samuel Exley, of Back Alma Street, Yeadon, died very suddenly. She was at her work on the day previous but was seized with inflammation and died in less than 24 hours.

A meeting of the committee of the three football clubs in Yeadon - the Yeadon Cricket and Football Club, White Star and St. Lawrence - convened by circular by Mr P. M. Slater, the president of the first named club, was held at the Commercial Inn on Wednesday evening for the purpose of considering a proposal which had been made in favour of the amalgamation of the three clubs. It was decided that each of the three clubs should call a special full meeting of its members and ascertain whether or not they were favourable to the proposal.

100 Years Ago - 1916

The question of the employment of children over 12 years of age on farms was considered at a meeting of the West Riding Education Committee on Tuesday. The matter arose on a report by the Elementary Education Sub-Committee that they had considered the resolution of the West Riding War Agricultural Committee in favour of the extension of the arrangement for the employment of boys and girls over 12 years of age. Ald. P. H. Booth, who moved the adoption of the recommendation, said that in normal times he would have been the last man in the world to move it, but these were extraordinary times.

Following the gratifying news conveyed in these columns five weeks ago of the honour conferred upon Sec. Lieut Laurie Richie Armitage, comes the sad intimation of the death of that gallant young officer as a result of wounds received at the front. It will be remembered that he was seriously wounded in the head and thigh by shell fire on November 1st, and was conveyed to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich, where an operation was performed by an eminent surgeon, but unfortunately it proved to be abortive, and he passed away on Saturday. Lieut Armitage spent his boyhood in Otley, his family at that time residing in Grosvenor Terrace.

75 Years Ago - 1941

Women born in 1910 must register for national service tomorrow (Saturday), unless they are in exempted classes. These women of 31 are the first group above the proposed conscription age.

Interesting sidelights on Soviet Russia were given by Mr. F. Hutson, of the Ministry of Labour, Leeds, at Otley Rotary Club lunch yesterday, when he spoke on his experiences in an extensive tour in Russia in 1938. Mr Hutson spoke of the things he saw, the towns and cities, the lives of the people, and the development of the great schemes of national planning.Women were paid the same rate of wages as men for the same sort of job, and if a woman could do a man's job, whatever that job might be, there was nothing to prevent her from doing it.

50 Years Ago - 1966

The audience of 800 who packed into Yeadon Town Hall for the concert in aid of the Aberfan Disaster fund shared in a memorable occasion. It was one that worthily recalled to many of the older generation the great concerts that were given in Yeadon at the turn of the century and between the wars. For the younger generation it was quite an experience to realise at first hand the tremendous wealth of choral and instrumental talent that can be gathered together in this district.

St Andrew's Parish Church, of Yeadon, which which has just celebrated its 75th anniversary, has routes which go much deeper into local history than the three-quarters of a century that was marked last weekend. A Wesleyan chapel was built on what is now the site of the Church Institute as far back as 1766 and four years later was doubled in size, with John Wesley himself preaching at the opening service.

25 Years Ago - 1991

People voted with their feet in favour of Sunday trading. This was the verdict of management at Tesco after their first successful Sunday opening in Ilkley. Tesco's became the second store in the town to open on Sunday as Woolworth has been open for the last three weeks and has reported a very good response from the public.

Worshippers and concertgoers who are in wheelchairs will now find it easier to get into an Ilkley church. In co-operation with Five Oaks Residential and Training centre of the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association at Ben Rhydding, members of St Margaret's Church raised money for both the ramp and the centre in a sponsored wheelchair push during the summer.