125 Years Ago - 1893

Last evening an Anti-Home Rule Meeting was held near the Conservative Club, Addingham, and was very well attended. The chair was occupied by Mr. J. T. Mills, who was supported by Mr. Wilson (Dublin), and both gave addresses antagonistic to Home Rule.

Yesterday was the day originally fixed by the Midland Railway Company for the formal opening of the Yeadon new railway for mineral traffic, but owing to the line not being quite ready for use, the opening has again been postponed.

100 Years Ago - 1918

Recently Mrs Mary Ann Slade, of Hastings, celebrated her 95th birthday. She is in wonderful health and spirits and retains all her faculties. Her memory is extraordinary. Mrs. Slade was born in Leeds in1823, and at the age of ten was sent to a boarding school at Westfield House, Rawdon. Whilst there she made the acquaintance of Charlotte Bronte, who was governess to the children of Mr. White, Acacia Lodge, Rawdon. Mrs Slade was for many years a frequent visitor to Ilkley; being still remembered by some of the older residents.

During the next few weeks we are likely to have little else but frozen meat, and those who purchase it, or are obliged to eat it, will be doing their country a patriotic service. There is now in the country sufficient to last for some time, and it is to be withdrawn from cold storage to allow for fresh supplies being stored for next winter and spring. By thus releasing the frozen meat we are certain of another year’s food supplies, so far as we can see.

75 Years Ago - 1943

An Ilkley correspondent asks. “Could a hint be given that children with whooping cough should not ride in milk carts?” and tells me of seeing a coughing child in a milk cart and an older one, also suffering, giving assistance. One is tempted to ask what are the use of “hints” to people with so little common sense as to permit such a thing.

An old boy of Ilkley Grammar School,Warrant Officer Vertican, was a member of the crew of a Halifax bomber who, after making a forced landing in the Mediterranean, drifted in a dinghy off the coast of Tripolitania for 11 days. Warrent Officer Vertican was a boarder at Ilkley Grammar School in the early ‘thirties. Praising the seaworthiness of the little dingy, the crew rationed their water supply to one-seventh of a pint daily, and yet still had enough for six days when they reached the shore. Warrant-Officer Vertican, who piloted the bomber, said he made the men take two dips in the sea daily - thus lessening their thirst by one hour each day. The men who could not swim, he said, were lowered over the side of the dingy by ropes.

50 Years Ago - 1968

A party of Round Tablers and their wives were the guests of the members of the Round Table of Zaanstreek, Holland, at the Dutch Table’s 20th birthday celebrations last weekend. The Ilkley Tablers presented a block and gavel and an ivory hammer to their hosts. They also took with them a typical English birthday cake.

Theories on the cause of disease were vague and varied - before the discovery of germs. The vast majority of diseases are attributable to these minute bodies, so small that beneath the strong lens of the microscope they appear only as tiny dots or rod-shaped bodies. During the course of an illness germs can generally be discovered in the blood or other fluids of the body.

25 Years Ago - 1993

Bored Ilkley youngsters are flocking to Addingham for fun because of the lack of things to do in their home town. The demise of the youth service in Ilkley has sent more and more teenagers to join the thriving youth centre in the neighbouring village. Now, almost half of the centre’s 200 strong membership is made up of youngsters from the Ilkley area.

Live and let live - that was the view of householders this week as they backed defiant travellers in a fight to stay on waste ground. Residents in Carters Lane, Middleton, say people who descended on land near their homes on the North Yorkshire boundary should be allowed to stay.