125 Years Ago - 1894

A beautiful stained window has been placed in the St Margaret’s Church, Ilkley, by the children and friends of the parish. It will, we learn, be unveiled on Easter Eve, and a special service of dedication will be held on the second Sunday after Easter.

On Monday evening an adult temperance meeting was held in the Grove Schoolroom. Mr. W. Wade presided. The proceedings commenced with a hymn followed by prayer.

100 Years Ago - 1919

As the first Local Board was established in 1869, Ilkley has now had half a century of local government, and its progress and development during this period has been very considerable. Fifty years ago it was a small village with less than 400 houses and a population of 2,500. Today there are just under 2,000 houses and an estimated population of 8,150.

The military camp in Farnley Park, Otley, is now to be used as a sanatorium for soldiers and sailors suffering from tuberculosis. Mr. F. H. Fawkes, the owner of the park, is agreeable to lease the land necessary to the County Council for this purpose.

75 Years Ago - 1944

High testimony to the value of the services rendered to patients in the Ilkley Convalescent Home was given in the annual meeting at the Home over which Mr. George E. Foster presided. There was a large attendance, including many visitors associated with various workpeople’s convalescent funds through which patients are sent to the home. Mr. Foster said this was the 82nd meeting in connection with the Home and the 116th year of the Ilkley Bath Charity. A new record had been established in the number of patients admitted: it was 1,642, as compared with 1,401 in 1942. There were furnace men and iron workers from Middlesborough, steel workers from Sheffield, dock workers from Liverpool, transport workers, miners, and textile workers from Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Members of the Addingham Knitting Circle are making the arrangements for the “Salute the Soldier” week at Addingham, which is to be held from April 22 to 29. They have fixed their target at £3,000, and amongst the attractions in aid of their post-war funds there will be a dance and whist drive, children’s fancy dress party, concert and a visit from a cinema van.

50 Years Ago - 1969

Anyone who has stood on the edge of Ilkley Moor on a dull winter afternoon knows that Ilkley has a smoke problem. You can see it - a dense, dull blue haze over the whole town and, away to the West, a lesser concentration over Addingham. But how much of a problem is it? And how much damage does it really do? There can now be no doubt that one of the major problems of the 20th century is the extent to which man is polluting and destroying his environment. When the brook ran down Brook Street a few cottage chimneys puffing smoke made little odds. Now communities grow and the pollution of the atmosphere grows too. Has the time come to experiment with smoke control in Ilkley?

Modern research has brought to life new and startling facts on the subject of life and death. At what point can one say that an individual has ceased to live? Until recently respiration and the heart-beat were held to be the criterion of living existence, but since the discovery of the stimulant adrenalin many people have been brought back to life several minutes after the heart had ceased to beat and the lungs had ceased to perform the act of respiration. In future times it is likely that the state of the brain will be of increasing importance in deciding this difficult point.

25 Years Ago - 1994

Ilkley’s controversial bypass scheme has been suspended as part of a Government review of the national roads programme. The Department of Transport insists that the dual carriageway proposals have not been not been scrapped. The DoT’s £17m to £20m Ilkley bypass route stretches from near Ben Rhydding Sports Club’s grounds in Coutances Way, to near Low Mill at Addingham.

More than 50 sixth-form students at St Mary’s Comprehensive School , Menston, went without food for 24 hours at the end of last month to raise money for the people of Mozambique and other refugees.