125 Years Ago - 1892

It is barely fifteen months since a small group of inhabitants of the town banded themselves together under the name of the "Ilkley Museum Committee" determined to bring their work to a successful issue, undeterred by the failure of similar endeavours in the past, and without, at that time, any single offer of pecuniary help. Yet today Ilkley is in possession of a model institution for its size and scope. We are glad to see a very large proportion of those relics of the Roman occupation which the committee knew to exist, and the presence of which, in such numerous and varied forms, justifies the view, held by many antiquarians, that Olicana was something more than a mere military outpost.

Fred Farrar, of Littlemoor, while playing on a wall last Friday, fell and broke his left arm above the elbow. Dr. McLean, of Yeadon, set the fracture, which is doing well.

100 Years Ago - 1917

At the Ilkley Parish Church, on Saturday, Miss Elizabeth Peacock, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. Peacock, Nelson Road, Ilkley, was married to Private William Townson, West Yorkshire Regiment, son of Mrs. Townson, Addingham. The bridegroom was wounded in the early part of the year, and is now home on furlough prior to returning to the front.

Sec-Lieut. H. Douglas Jobling, R.F.A., formerly of Springbank, Menston, has been severely wounded. While on observation duty he was struck by fragments of a shell, and received three wounds in the back and one in the head. Lieut. Jobling was in business in South Africa at the outbreak of the war.

75 Years Ago - 1942

"Headaches, pale faces, stunted growth, backwardness at school, dullness and lethargy are all the results of children staying up at night," writes a doctor for the Ilkley Gazette. "The more experience I have the more convinced do I become that going to bed early is the rule of health most completely broken. The child begs to sit up longer, the elder children think it is babyish to go to bed early, and it is difficult to instill into their minds the importance of having plenty of sleep."

The Ilkley Christmas Parcels Committee has received details of more than a thousand men and women from the town and surrounding villages who are serving in the forces.

50 Years Ago - 1967

Mr. John Reynolds, Menston's oldest tradesman, who has travelled the street's of the village selling greengroceries from his horse and cart for 50 years, retires at the weekend. Mr Reynolds, who is 83, was born in Menston, and can well remember paying 2d. a week to go to the village school. His grandfather was the first verger of Menston Parish Church.

Local bus services at Otley were disrupted on Friday by a lightning unofficial strike by bus crews at the Otley depot of Messrs. S. Ledgard's bus company. The strike, which lasted only for the day, was to draw attention to the pay and conditions which members of the road staff say will apply when the Ledgard company is taken over by West Yorkshire this month. The strike caught bus travellers unawares. Many people who travel to work in Otley from the housing estates had to walk. They were joined by women with shopping baskets making their weekly visit to Otley market.

25 Years Ago - 1992

The name of Samuel Ledgard entered the history books some time ago. To many it brings back memories of a bus company which was renowned in Ilkley, Otley and other towns and villages from Leeds to Wharfedale. Next Wednesday it will be 25 years ago to the day that the Samuel Ledgard Company operated its last service through Wharfedale. To commemorate the event, enthusiasts have got together to plan a cavalcade of vintage buses which will set out from Ilkley to make the journey to Armley in Leeds.

Caterers at a research centre have won an award for playing their part in the battle against heart disease. A healthy menu in the restaurant of the International Wool Secretariat in Ben Rhydding has earned catering manager Ian Addy and his staff a nationally recognised Heartbeat Award Certificate.