125 years ago

An inquest was held at the Middleton Hotel into the death of a young woman who had lately been residing in service with a family on The Grove, Ilkley. She had been missing for a week and her body was found in the River Wharfe by some men who had been engaged in dragging the river, a short distance from Ilkley Bridge. The body was identified by a relative who stated that her father and a cousin had committed suicide. A verdict of ‘found drowned’ was returned.

The 400th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther was commemorated at Ilkley with a juvenile magic lantern entertainment by the Rev B Wheeler, illustrative of Luther’s life, sermons at various Protestant places of worship, and a public lecture on the great reformer’s life and work, by the Rev S G Potter.

The Reverend Dr Stephenson gave a musical and pictorial lecture in The Lecture Hall, Riddings Road, Ilkley, of the great philanthropic work in which is engaged – the rescuing of children from the streets, placing them in a home and learning them some useful trade.

100 years ago

William Sheldon, an Ilkley labourer, about 50 years of age, on Saturday night slept in the hayloft of Mr Lister Dean’s stable in Mount Pearson, and on George Greenwood, Mr Dean’s man, going into the stables about five o’clock on Saturday morning, he found Sheldon on the floor of the stable in great agony, having in some way fallen from the hay loft. Sheldon was taken to the Coronation Hospital, where he was found to be suffering from a fractured collar bone and a number of bruises.

This week has seen the most remarkable changes in the weather imaginable. For some time it has been wonderfully mild and one was beginning to think that such conditions were likely to continue, but on Monday evening there was a cold snap which brought down the thermometer during the night to about 12 degrees below freezing point, and throughout the whole of Tuesday frost was prevalent.

The annual meeting of the Ilkley and Wharfedale orphanage and children’s home took place on Tuesday afternoon. Prior to the meeting tea was served and a new departure was that all present took 1lb or more of provisions, fruit, etc, the result being the contribution of a very large quantity of groceries, fruit, biscuits, sweets, jam, etc.

75 years ago

As the years go by the commemoration of the anniversary of the Armistice arouses ever increasing interest in Ilkley, and on Sunday both St Margaret’s Church and the Parish Church were crowded to their utmost capacity. The service at St Margaret’s was attended by over 200 ex-servicemen who paraded at the Town Hall along with the 276th (Ilkley) Howitzer Battery and the members of the Ilkley Urban District Council. There was an impressive scene at the War Memorial, where the procession from St Margaret’s marched with their wreaths of remembrance and placed them on the Memorial. Australian Rugby League Tourists who attended St Margaret’s were also present, and one of their number placed a wreath there.

Reports on the progress of the Book Club associated with the Ilkley Public Library, presented to the annual general meeting of the members on Friday, were followed by interesting discussions concerning changes in reading tastes during the past generation. Mr J C Scott said nowadays writers like Macaulay, Kinglake and Gibbon were hardly read at all yet they could not afford to scrap such books. Mr Graham: And people don’t now read Fennimore Cooper. The Chairman: Do they read “Eric, or Little by Little?” Mr Graham (emphatically): No. The late Mr Hoffman Wood, of Hall Croft House, Addingham, is well remembered in Ilkley and Addingham districts for his encouragement of thrift amongst young children. In his will, which has just been proved, he has made provision for the maintenance of this encouragement for amongst the bequests is an item of £500 in trust to pay the income to the headmaster of each provided school in Ilkley, Denton, Ben Rhydding and Addingham such an annual sum as will enable him to give each new scholar a bank book with one shilling credited to the account, any surplus to be used in prizes for sport.

50 years ago

Ilkley Rugby Union Club, the West Holmes on which Ilkley British Legion AFC play, the East Holmes, and houses between the river and the Old Bridge are seriously affected by amendments to the line of the proposed trunk road on the Middleton side of the river. Information has reached Ilkley Council that further consideration has been given to the proposed road by the Ministry concerned.

Remembrance Day was observed in Ilkley on Sunday when various members of local organisations met outside the Town Hall in the afternoon to form the annual parade which proceeded to the Congregational Church, and then afterwards reformed for the wreath-laying ceremony at the cenotaph.

The sheep nuisance, the closure of the Nursery School and the danger of parked cars on both sides of Wells Road and Cunliffe Road were some of the main matters discussed by the Standing Conference of Women’s Organisations of Ilkley and Ben Rhydding. Other matters discussed included the provision of seats in Valley Drive, Ghyll Bank Road and the Moor Top

25 years ago

At a special Remembrance Day assembly at St Mary’s RC Primary School. Ilkley, a memorial plaque was returned to the school by the Rev Fr P V Roches, who conducted the service. The plaque had been presented to the school in 1947 to commemorate the deaths of two former pupils of the school, Douglas Swann and Thomas Wilkinson, during the Second World War.

The memories of a former Ilkley soldier who saw front line action in the trenches of France during the First World War and which were serialised in this newspaper during 1981, are to be published in book form next month. Readers will recall that Norman Tennant, who as a young lad enlisted in the local territorial army unit before the outbreak of the war in 1914, saw action in some of the major campaigns.

If you want both a distinctive picture and to assist the funds of Amnesty International, the human rights organisation, you have the opportunity at the Hawksworth Galley, Ilkley. The Gallery’s current exhibition, “Painters for Amnesty”, comprises pictures donated by well-known local artists.