Across the Years.

125 Years Ago - 1889.

On Thursday afternoon a lad named Wm. Wilkinson, residing in Main Street, Burley, met with a serious accident at Messrs. Wm. Fison & Co's mill, by falling down a hoist three stories. He sustained concussion of the spine and severla internal injuries. Dr Hebblethwaite was immediately in attendance. The injured lad was conveyed to his home on a wagon about an hour after the accident, and now lies in a precarious condition.

During the summer heat it is necessary for Ladies to take especial care of their complexion. The blinding sun, the burning dust work sad havoc with the refined and delicate complexions which are the proud boast of English female beauty. Ladies nowadays play tennis, they indulge in boating, yachting and bathing, and in other ways expose themselves to the noon-day heats. Rowlands' Kalydor is a cooling and refreshing wash for the skin.

100 Years Ago - 1914.

Ilkley is already represented by several men in the British fighting line. Mr Jasper Barnes, of Ash Grove, Ilkley, has two sons in the 18th (Queen Mary's Own) Hussars - Lance-Sergeant Edward Barnes and Lance-Corporal Frank Barnes - from both of whom letters were received on Sunday, August 16, just before their departure from Tidworth for Boulogne. Queen Mary, who is colonel-in-chief of this regiment, visited Tidworth and presented every officer and man with a handsome wood pipe and a quarter pound tin of tobacco.

Sir John French reports that yesterday out troops were opposed by huge forces of German cavalry. Our Second Army Corps, in the 4th Division, bore the brunt of the cavalry attack, whilst our 1st Army Corpswas attacking on the right, and inflicted very heavy losses on the enemy. The British casualties were very heavy.

75 Years Ago - 1939.

Though the Prime Minister was of necessity extremely cautious in his statement to the house on Tuesday, he was able to say that the choice between peace and war had been deferred, and that was a comforting assertion. So long as peace is preserved, even the most troublesome matters can be settled, given goodwill on both sides. Yet it cannot be denied that the news generally from Europe was bad. Germany and Poland had both mobiliesed and closed their frontiers, and an order from Berlin might set the Continent in a blaze.

Following the announcement yesterday that evacuation from the danger areas was to proceed today, preparations were made for putting into operation the scheme which has been prepared for Wharfedale. Otley, the Wharfedale Rural area, and Ilkley Urban District have all been scheduled as safe areas, and schemes have been prepared which provided for nearly 3,000 children, mothers and other evacuees to be brought into Otley and a further 2,500 into the Wharfedale Rural District. The Ilkley, Burley and Menston area has been scheduled as a receiving area for 4,000.

50 Years Ago - 1964.

In spite of civilisation, with its progress in art and science, a perfectly balanced brain is probably rarer today than it was in less enlightened ages.Real health, by which is meant mental as physical fitness, cannot be experienced by any individual unless he at least approaches this idea of "brain balance."

The sloop on which the Yeadon Fleet Air Arm cadet, David Thompson , sailed in the Tall Ships' Race, has a grim historic background. It once belonged to Hermann Goering and was handed over to the Fleet Air Arm at the end of the last war and re-christened Merlin.

25 Years Ago - 1989.

Ilkley's War Memorial Trust which was formed in 1947 to raise a fund to provide a memorial to those who had served and those who had fallen in the Second World WAr has been disbanded. The Chairman, councillor Mrs Molly Renton told the "Gazette" the original aims of the Memorial Trust Committee - set up in 1947 - had been fulfilled with money raised to provide a suitable memorial to those who had served in the Second World War.

Currently on display at Ilkley Manor House are some rare and rather unusual "Funeral Biscuit Molds" once commonly found in kitchens throughout Yorkshire. The molds - which are very rare - were used by families throughout Yorkshire for stamping biscuits for funerals.