125 Years Ago – 1892

On Monday morning last, a serious accident befell Henry Davidson, head cloth miller at Messrs. Pratt's mill, Green Lane, Rawdon. Whilst some men were engaged throwing bags of wool from a wherry, Davidson came out of the milling place with an end of cloth on his shoulders. This covered his head, and, not seeing him, the men went on throwing off the bales of wool, one of which knocked Davidson down, very seriously injuring him about his head and neck. Dr. Dawson was called in and he recommended the patient's removal to the Leeds Infirmary, to which he was conveyed as speedily as possible.

On Sunday morning the infant child of Harry Norfolk, stonemason of 12, Bingley Lands, died very suddenly. The child, which was 14 days old, had suffered from thrush since its birth, but no medical man was called in. Early on Sunday morning the mother noticed that the child had some difficulty in breathing. It, however, soon went to sleep, but on the father awakening at a quarter past four he found the child was dead.

100 Years Ago - 1917

The Ilkley No. 3 Auxiliary Military Hospital (Congregational Lecture Hall premises) was opened on Monday when 35 wounded soldiers from the 2nd Northern General Hospital, Beckett’s Park, Leeds, were received. The batch sent to Ilkley on Monday numbered about 50, and six of these were stretcher cases. There are beds for 200. Men of the Ilkley V.A.D. convey the stretcher cases from the Railway Station to the Hospitals, and the medical officers are Dr. W. R. Bates and Dr. T. Brownes Hearder.

The question of Woman’s Suffrage was considered in the House of Commons on Tuesday, and an amendment proposed by Sir F. Banbury, to reject Woman Suffrage was defeated by 385 votes to 55. Sir Hastings Duncan, M.P. for the for the Otley Division, voted with the minority.

75 Years Ago - 1942

Two old boys of Ilkley Grammar School, one from Ilkley and one from Menston, have met up in a German prison camp. Sgt. Ernest Holmes and Sgt. Brian Booth are both gunners and wireless operators.

Mr. Percy Dalton, President, took the chair at the first annual meeting of the Ilkley War Savings Committee. He congratulated the workers on their wonderful achievements during the past 15 months. They had created a national record, he said, and were close runners-up in the Warship Week.

50 Years Ago - 1967

Irritability caused by a hot spell is a feature of these countries in which the climate is normally cold and sunless. In this country a heat wave is usually of such short duration that most of us fail signally to adapt ourselves to the altered conditions. To take violent exercise or to go out with the head and neck unprotected in the hottest part of the day, to expose the body to the burning ultra-violet rays - these are forms of madness peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race.

Continuing the survey of local inns which have become redundant, Mr. Morrell deals with those within the township of Otley, and finds that ten have been closed down since the middle of last century. The first was the Grey Horse in Kirkgate, an old established inn, which belonged to Daniel Neale, a maltster, in 1790, who mortgaged the inn to Mary Dixon for £300. She died in 1793, leaving the property to her grandson, John Dixon Cunliffe, who was innkeepr to his death in 1843. The Grey Horse closed in December 1849.

25 Years Ago - 1992

Warning cries over water levels in the River Wharfe were given added volume by a national watchdog this week. The National Rivers Authority has placed the Wharfe among the top 40 priority waterways in the country which are in danger of drying up.

A Menston man who holds the rare distinction of serving at every rank and position in the Royal Navy Reserve has received an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Lieutenant Commander David Dennis, 50, of Croft Rise, Menston, joined the RNR at the age of 18 and since then he has served with the army and navy in Germany, Belgium, the Mediterranean, Baltic and the Falklands.