125 Years Ago - 1891

A select number of friends who met at the Bay Horse Hotel, Otley, held their annual dinner at the above-named hostelry on Wednesday evening. A goodly number sat down to a sumptuous repast., which was served in capital style by the hostess (Mrs S S Newton), all the edibles being well cooked and put on in a very pleasing way. On the cloth being cleared, the remainder of the evening was spent in toast, song and sentiment. Mr Benj. Munroe (a blind man), of Guiseley, presided at the piano and accompanied the songs in a praiseworthy manner.

A lecture in aid of the Armenian Christians of Asia Minor was given in the Congregational Lecture Hall, Ilkley, on Friday evening last by Madam Thoumain, a Swiss resident in Marsovan. The lecturer spoke English with a foreign accent, but her delivery was most pleasing and attractive.

100 Years Ago - 1916

News has just been received of the death in action on April 7th, of Pte Noel W Little J.P., whose parents Mr and Mrs W Little reside at Holmgarth, Menston. Pte Little, who was educated at the Ilkley Grammar School, went out to Canada some years ago on account of his health. His sterling work soon won for him a prominent position at Alberta, Canada, and a short time ago he was appointed on the commission of the peace. He joined the Canadian contingent and went out to France, leaving a farm of 320 acres. His many friends and acquaintances in Wharfedale will deeply regret to hear of his death.

After an immunity for several years from any serious outbreak of fire among the industrial concerns of the township, Guiseley on Saturday afternoon last was the scene of a conflagration by which two large store sheds were completely gutted, and a large quantity of raw material either utterly destroyed or rendered almost worthless except for salvage purposes.

75 Years Ago - 1941

Tomorrow's call-up of girls of 20 is the first step to mobilise Britain's woman-power for the expansion of our war effort. In the last war our women did brilliant work. In the filling factories, in the aircraft works, in the groups attached to the fighting services they were "steel-true and blade-straight". They have not lagged behind in this war. Women wardens have proved their valour and their usefulness. The women who have already gone into the factories have shown that their hands have lost none of their cunning.

This year, whether we like it or not, we are going to eat more vegetables than ever before. Up and down the country, allotments and gardens will soon be sprouting with fresh produce of all kinds, and many "Victory-diggers" will for the first time be eating food produced by their own labours. The restoration of the vegetable to its proper place on the dinner-table is long overdue. When the joint was a joint, vegetables were only an incidental part of the meal. Now that the joint has shrunk to the dimensions of a daily meat flavouring, vegetables move into the foreground.

50 Years Ago - 1966

The last and irrevocable step in the withdrawal of railway services between Ilkley and Skipton was taken this week with a start on the removal of the lines. Once that work is completed the way is open for a series of developments. It seems most unlikely that the bridges which carry the line over roads or the viaducts will be allowed to remain for long after the permanent way has gone.

Appropriate action is to be taken against the owners of cars found to be obstructing the highway in the vicinity of the Cow and Calf Hotel, Ilkley, the Police Superintendent at Otley has told Ilkley Urban Council. It was suggested that the solution to the problem would be the provision of adequate off-street parking and the prohibition of parking between the cattle grid in Hangingstone Road and a point some 200 yards on the Burley Woodhead side of the Cow and Calf Hotel.

25 Years Ago - 1991

The former Wharfedale Children's Hospital on the Menston-Otley boundary, is finally to be demolished after several months of pressure from different directions. The extensive stone-built hospital and its adjacent wards - at one time know locally as the isolation hospital - has been subjected to vandalism since it was closed as a hospital some time ago.

On Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the abduction of reporter John McCarthy, was marked by special services around the country and news bulletins highlighted the plight of the hostages. In Ilkley, the home of his aunt and uncle Mr and Mrs John McCarthy, family friends and supporters attended a service at St Margaret's Church, Ilkley. Reporter John, 33, has been a hostage since being taken in Beirut by Iranian backed terrorists in April, 1986.