125 Years Ago - 1891

The second annual meeting of the William O'Brien Branch of the Irish National League of Great Britain was held on Monday evening in the new premises, situated in Crow Lane, Otley. During the last two months the local branch of the League has made considerable progress.

The ice on the extensive and popular skating resort at Yeadon Dam has been in excellent condition and skaters have been having a most enjoyable time.

100 Years Ago -1916

The Wharfedale Board of Guardians were invited to support a resolution urging the calling to the colours of all men of military age classified as fit for general service or garrison duty abroad in preference to married men with families. Mr Jonathan Peate (chairman) in moving that the resolution be supported, said he knew of many cases where single men had avowed that they had gone to work on munitions for the express purpose of avoiding being called up. Mr A. B. Bonwell pointed out that as a member of an appeal tribunal he had heard thousands of cases, and one of the things that had struck him most was the number of single young men, with a widowed mother or father who could not work, who were pluckily keeping the home together.

Private Charles Noel Dalton, West Riding Regiment, younger son of Mr A. Dalton, Nelson Road, Ilkley, who was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans last October, in a letter received by his parents this week, says: - "Three other fellows, besides myself, are working on a farm for a few weeks, doing a bit of threshing. We get the big wage of 3d a day; you would laugh to see them. They do their work in the old-fashioned way. It's like living in the days of the Bible to see girls and boys driving oxen about in a wagon. We "live in" with the family, and all feed out of one pot. It's the limit I can tell you. The sooner the war is over the better.

75 Years Ago - 1941

A scheme for the establishment in Ilkley premises for a Junior Approved School was approved by the Bradford Elementary Education sub-committee. The step has been taken in an effort to assist the Home Office in providing remand homes up and down the country. Mr Thomas Boyce, Bradford Director of Education, told the "Ilkley Gazette" he was not yet in a position to divulge the precise whereabouts of the new school.

During Christmas festivities at the Ilkley Coronation Hospital two presentations were made. One was to the Matron, Miss E. M. Jones, retiring after 16 years, and the other to Mr. L. Hartley, secretary to the hospital for three and a half years, who was to join the forces.

50 Years Ago - 1966

Servicing the automatic telephone exchange at Nairobi is Mr. Kenneth Chapman (39) son of Mrs Rose Chapman, of Weston Road, Ilkley. Recruited for this work by the Ministry of Overseas Development, Mr. Chapman, is assisting the Kenya GPO. Mr Chapman has been in Nairobi for almost three years.

Over 40 years ago a Southerner living in Wharfedale wrote of the local weather "Here are only two seasons - Winter and less Winter!" It may have been gross exaggeration then, but in 1966 it was not far from the truth. This has been the year with only six snow-free months, and for the second consecutive year, the rainfall was over 40 inches. Weather scientists agree that we are experiencing a series of shorter, cooler summers, with colder, longer winters than in the thirty year period before the last war, and that we must expect this relatively cool weather to continue for some time.

25 Years Ago - 1991

The building tucked away in a corner of Wharfedale General Hospital once housed inmates of Otley workhouse and its new occupants must sometimes think they, too, are living on the breadline. It has now become the Wharfedale Diabetes Resource Centre and was one of the first in the country to offer a complete service to diabetic patients and their relatives. Yet although the centre saves the NHS a lot of money it has to scrounge to stay in business.

Sunday trading fever seems to be at an end in Otley. Several shops in the town opened in the run-up to Christmas but they will not be following in the footsteps of other rebel stores throughout the country, they vowed this week. Supermarket giants Safeway and Netto opened their Otley branches during the festive season and Morrisons opened its Guiseley store. But all agreed this week that they would not continue to open their stores on the Sabbath in 1992.