VERY different views of the same street show just how much Ilkley changed in the 19th and 20th centuries.

From a 1830s etching of Brook Street to two mid-twentieth century shots we can see how the area evolved from a village to a bustling spa town.The images, from the Ilkley Local History Hub, show a dramatic transformation over more than 100 years.

The early etching looks north down Brook Street and shows small bridges over an open brook which flows from Corn Mill Gill down to the River Wharfe on the eastern side of the street. The carriage way was on the western side.

Alex Cockshott and Denise Shillitoe from the history hub said: “In the early 1830s there were some thatched cottages along the brook with midden heaps which caused the curate Rev George Fenton to campaign for improvements. The brook was culverted in the 1850s, which is why the road is so wide today.

“Brook Terrace was a purpose-built group of four shops with houses above, constructed in 1855 for Sarah Beanlands of Moor Lodge. Above the terrace was a farm house. The last tenant was Billy Hawksworth, remembered in Hawksworth Street. This farm and the old thatched cottages were demolished after the land sales started in 1867 when William Middelton had the new roads and building plots planned.

“At the junction with the turnpike road, later the A65, is The Crescent Hotel designed by Bradford architect Samuel Jackson, built in 1860 for £8,000 as a commercial hotel. Like most of Ilkley’s buildings it was built from stone quarried on Ilkley moor. It had large stables and a bowling green. The grounds ran up to the new Railway Road. In a marquee here the first land sales were held from June 1867.

“Francis Dobson’s house stood on the west of Brook Street. From 1849 he met trains at Arthington to bring passengers to and from the railway. By 1865, when Ilkley Railway opened, the house was known as The Station Hotel. It was demolished in the 1880s when the railway was extended to Skipton.”

A metal girder bridge was built to carry the line extension to Skipton. Behind it can be seen the spire of the Wells Road Wesleyan Church which opened in 1870. The White Wells bath house can be seen in the distance. There was a horse trough under the bridge where horse and carriages waited to be hired.

By 1871 the houses on the east had ground floor shop windows. On the west were the Brook Terrace shops part a row of late Victorian shops running up Brook Street.

Alex and Denise said: "At the top corner there was a group of three, two of them on The Grove, designed by Samuel Jackson. The one on Brook Street was Joseph Moon the chemist’s, later Arthur Mason the butcher’s and then Dalton’s butchers. There are still a few butcher hooks left under the glass canopy.

"Further down was the shop occupied by Boocock bath maker and ironmonger. By 1910 this was Duckworth the chemist’s, later Boots. Then came Yorkshire House for H J Rose & Co drapers, later Busby’s part of the Bradford department store, with curved glass windows."

Brook Street saw many important parades and celebrations over the years, including Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, fund-raising parades for Coronation Cottage Hospital which opened in 1904, and the peace celebration parade in 1919.

Anyone with memories of activities and shops on Brook Street is invited to find out more and share information at a zoom meeting on Saturday, January 30. The event will be staged at 2.45pm for 3pm. Contact localhistory@civicsociety.ilkley.org for more information.