125 Years Ago - 1888

On Friday last a horse belonging to Mr Wm Lister was feeding upon a piece of grass near Brewery Cottages when a little lad, seven years of age, named Frank Botterill, the son of Mrs Botterrill, of Wellington Road, approached it from behind and hit it with a stick. The horse immediately kicked out, striking the lad upon the side of the face, which was shockingly injured, the lower jaw bone being broken.

The funeral of Mrs Sallitt Critchley took place at the Ilkley Cemetery on Wednesday last. A large number of friends showed their respect by following the remains to the grave. The deceased lady, who was 24 years of age, only died on Sunday last, leaving two children – one an infant daughter little more than a week old.

100 Years Ago – 1913

Well-known tree on fire – On Tuesday afternoon someone, either thoughtlessly, carelessly or wilfully, threw a match into the decayed hole of one of the two large trees on the Middleton side of the old Ilkley Bridge, and but for the early arrival of a couple of gentlemen, the tree would have been destroyed.

The tradesmen’s annual cricket match took place on Wednesday, an event that has now had existence amongst us for 33 years. Its distinctive feature is that all the players wear tall hats – one side black and the other white – and this year the Black Hats were captained by Mr Joe Hanson and the White Hats were captained by Mr George Calvert.

75 Years Ago – 1938

Gas masks commenced to arrive in Otley on Tuesday morning and were delivered to Barker’s old factory in Gay Lane, where an upstairs room was hastily fitted out as a central depot. The first batch consisted of about 10,000 masks, all of which were in need of assembly, and there were further consignments during the day. At Otley drill hall work was commenced on the preparation of a large gas-proof room.

Everything in this week of tension has been overshadowed by the crisis, and most of us have neither time nor inclination to think or talk of much else. There had been quite a deal of thinking in Otley itself that the local arrangements were not so far on as some people would have liked but even the most carping critic could not complain of any lack of energy since Sunday when special meetings of wardens and councillors have been followed by whirlwind activity.

50 Years Ago – 1963

Because she was “fed up” with paying high prices for meat and dissatisfied with the prices that she and her husband were receiving for the fat stock from their own farm, 40-year-old Mrs Elizabeth Norfolk, Cragg Farm, Farnley, decided to remedy the situation by opening her own butchers shop. For the past three weeks she has been in business on the Wrenbeck Estate at Otley, where she sells meat direct from her husband’s farm and from the farms of relatives.

Steps are being taken to try to provide logs at Christmas time for Otley’s elderly people. The Estates Committee have been approached by Otley Toc H about the possibility of obtaining scrap timber from the Danefield Estate to enable them to make a distribution of logs to elderly people at Christmas time.

25 Years Ago -1988

A clampdown on youngsters riding skateboards on roads and pavements in Ilkley is being stepped up by the police. As the dark winter nights quickly approach, the police are appealing to skateboards and roller skaters to keep off the streets, as it caused a nuisance to pedestrians and motorists.

People in Ilkley who have already paid their gas bills may find reminders being dropped through their letter boxes this week. “It’s all the result of the postal strike and British Gas have apologised in advance to those who have paid,” said Kevin Glover, British Gas North Eastern’s Customer Accounting Manager.