125 Years Ago - 1894

The unsettled state of the weather this Whitsuntide has unfavourably affected the different pleasure resorts in the country, in which Ilkley was included. Throughout the whole of holidays we have not had a really reliable day, and this has been the cause of falling off in the number of visitors. On Saturday there was nothing much observable, excepting by the arrival of visitors coming to take up their abode at the hydropathics.

Ilkley College is soon to be again occupied, and thus the building which Mr . Sewell, the founder inaugurated by a single bell peal, will cease to have the desolate appearance common to all untenanted buildings. According to our information, the new occupant will have an entourage - pupils, and necessary staff for same, of something like 100 souls - a substantial addition to the population of Ilkley and a valuable auxiliary to the financial resources of the place.

100 Years Ago - 1919

Street Watering - Several people have complained to us this week about the dust in the streets, and the absence of the water cart.

The monthly meeting of the Ilkley Old Age Pensions Committee was held in the Town Hall on Wednesday evening under the chairmanship of Mr. W. Dobson. Four old age pensioners and one Army separation allowance claim were examined, and in each case the recommendation of the Pension Officer was upheld.

75 Years Ago - 1944

In the course of the next few days many organisations will be learning from their own members of the urgent need in the coming agricultural season for all the spare time help that may be available to be given to the winning of the essential food crops. This will be explained by representatives who attended a meeting in the Town Hall and heard Mrs. Baker, of the County War Agricultural Executive Committee, explain the aims and objects of a Land Club. A Land Club is an organisation of people who are willing to give what help they can to the winning of the nation’s harvest.

Periods of waiting are always difficult; we grow restless, for patience is not one of the strong human virtues. Maytime of 1944 will long be remembered by those who have lived through its hours. For amid all the freshness and radiant beauty of these Spring days, there is a sense of strain and tension, and though we control our emotions, we wonder from hour to hour what news will break in upon us.

50 Years Ago - 1969

The tenant of the White Wells Cafe on Ilkley Moor who has written to Ilkley Urban Council expressing concern over the present state of White Wells has been told that the council is now considering the demolition of the cafe itself. The tenant has suggested an appeal to to raise money for the repair and renovation of White Wells with a view to emphasising the historical importance of the building.

A collection of two albums of Chinese stamps that was presented in 1960 by Mao Tse Tung to Field Marshall Montgomery and signed by the Field Marshall, will be among items that will be offered for sale by auction by Dacre, Son and Hartley, in Ilkley on Wednesday.

25 Years Ago - 1994

Details of how three friends were guided off Ilkley Moor at night by an unidentified flying object will be revealed next week. Menston-based ufologist Nigel Mortimer hopes one of the witnesses will discuss the sightings at a meeting. “These people have not told anyone about it for fear of ridicule. But hopefully I will get one of them along,” he said. Mr Mortimer said the incident took place about two years ago when the friends visited the moor’s Swastika Stone landmark during a church outing. “They arrived on the moors at about 7pm and went to the Swastika Stone where they found they had fallen into a trance and when they woke up it was 11pm,” he said. “then there was a bright white light the size of a football which led them across two streams which they never would have been able to negotiate on their own at that time.”

Clevedon House School refuses to hear talk of boarding schools going out of fashion. The private school in Ben Rhydding has been given the go-ahead to press on with its expansion plans - bucking a national trend which has suggested that the days of boarding schools are numbered.