125 Years Ago - 1894

When one sets a candle in a window on a dark night he never can tell how many lost and bewildered travellers it may guide on their way. I once knew a dear old lady who habitually did it on every dark night. The road that passed her house was always forsaken and lonesome enough, and the houses were far apart. So she placed her candle in a sort of projecting window, where it would shine both ways and do the most good. She is dead and gone now, but let us hope that her family keeps up the custom. To be sure it brought her many a strange guest, yet she did what she could for them and never grumbled.

100 Years Ago - 1919

It may not be known to many amongst us that Ilkley has already enjoyed Royal favour so far as the granting of a Charter is concerned, for in 1252 Henry III raised Ilkley to the dignity of a market town by Royal Charter. “Know ye,” said the King, in this ancient document, “that we have granted, and by this our Charter have confirmed to our beloved and trusted Peter de Percy that he and his heirs may have forever a market every week on Wednesday, at his manor of Illeclay, in the county of York, and that they may have a fair there every year lasting for eight days following, unless such market and fair be to the hurt of neighbouring markets and fairs.”

75 Years Ago - 1944

The Government proposals for a comprehensive National Health Service, published last week in a White Paper, are of great interest and far-reaching importance to all of us as individuals and for our national well-being. There is no doubt that health of body and mind is one of the greatest personal blessings, and to say that health is true wealth is no exaggeration.

“The Man Upstairs brought me down,” said a United States pilot, as reported recently in the Press. “I talked to Him plenty and He must have heard me,” added Lieut. Vinson. He had landed a Flying Fortress safely back on English soil after a double explosion forced ten of his mates to bail out. This is another of the many battlefront stories which show that there are no atheists in fox holes or in burning planes. Men in danger of their lives turn to the Man Upstairs” and find that God is not only there in a pinch but singularly effective.

50 Years Ago - 1969

An electric light bulb is something which the average householder only really thinks about when it stops working and he has to replace it. Crompton Parkinson Ltd., of Guiseley, have introduced a development which it is stated, will mean that people will take even less notice of its product. The firm is marketing a lamp which it calls the Double-Life Lamp, which has a guaranteed life of 2,000 hours, twice the life of the normal light bulb.

Even opponents of psychology have to admit that the practice has at least drawn attention to the mental factor which exists in all illness. Most modern doctors regard the patient who consults them as an individual, not as merely a collection of symptoms to be labelled “influenza,” “rheumatism,” and the like. Mental and physical health are so inextricably mixed that we cannot disentangle the two factors.

25 Years Ago - 1994

Menston’s Methodist Society is is celebrating its 250th birthday. The ideology was introduced to Menston back in 1744, after travelling preacher, Jonathan Maskew, stayed there. He had been savagely beaten by Guiseley inhabitants. who objected to his message, and was taken back to the village to recover. Residents in Menston responded differently and within a century the society had more than 60 members.

A renaissance doublet which is expected to fetch £130,000 when it goes on sale at Christie’s later this year has a Rawdon link. The doublet was worn by Margaret Layton, who died in 1641. She was outlived by her husband Francis Layton (1572-1661), who was born near Richmond, North Yorkshire, but became better know as a landowner in Rawdon. Margaret Layton was often to be found at the court of Elizabeth 1, where she belonged to a privileged inner circle of confidants.