1884

IN keeping with the custom of previous years the annual treat to the inmates of the Workhouse was given on Christmas Day, at the expense of the Union. Roast beef and plum pudding was set before the delighted guests and, needless to say, they made a vigorous onslaught. Spice, tobacco, oranges, etc were afterwards distributed to those who needed such luxuries, and altogether a happy time was spent.

THE proposals of the different townships surrounding this locality to include within their division the township of Rawdon have given rise to much discussion in the town. The plan circulated from Pudsey to include Rawdon within a division of which Pudsey shall be made the centre has not met with any great favour, neither has the scheme promulgated by the representatives of the Bingley and Morton polling districts.

A SHOCKING accident, attended with fatal consequences, befell a drayman in the employment of Messrs Walker & Co, brewers, Wakefield, on Tuesday in last week. The deceased was employed at the company’s Leeds branch and on the day in question had gone to Yeadon with a load of beer, taking also some Christmas presents for customers. He was proceeding up Moor Lane on his way to Horsforth when from some cause he fell from the waggon head, where he had been sitting, the wheels passing over his chest.

1909

ONCE again the Guiseley District Council have shelved their responsibilities in regard to the fire engine question. A month ago there seemed a possibility that the council were about to assume those obligations which undoubtedly rest upon them for the protection of property, private and public. But at a discussion at last week’s meeting the general principle of the question seems to have been lost sight of altogether, all the talk being about little details and alleged inefficiency on the part of the present brigade. Whatever may be their present faults the brigade have undoubtedly done excellent service in the past, especially when one considers the appliances at their disposal, and it is a thousand pities that the council have not seized the favourable opportunity which presented itself for inaugurating what would eventually have become a town's brigade and engine.

ALTHOUGH Otley has not during the year enjoyed a measure of prosperity such as to warrant a congratulations to the community, there has been sustained a sufficiency of general trade operations to sustain a fair standard of success. Otley has become known world-wide by its chief staple trade of printing machine making, and short time in that branch of affairs has largely tended to give gloomy conditions during the latter half of 1909. Mr Fred Payne, the manager of Messrs Payne and Sons (Otley) Limited, said the early months of the year found them very well off for orders and though these fell off towards the middle of the year they had been able to keep all their hands going by putting in a little short time now and again.

THE holidays have, on the whole, been celebrated in a quiet manner in Yeadon. The factories closed on Christmas Day and Monday, there being a general resumption of work on Tuesday morning. There were very few carol singers on Christmas Day morning but during the day and also on other days this week the brass band have visited and played sections in almost every part of the town. It was remarkable how many were using the trams to head in the direction of the city of Leeds after dinner on Christmas Day.

1934

FIVE youths were charged with stealing two ducks at the value of 12s which were the property of the manager at the Station Hotel in Guiseley. Three ducks had been kept in a pen at the rear of the hotel but two of them disappeared on Christmas Eve. The matter was reported to police on Christmas Day and it was found that the defendants had been seen, with the ducks at a Guiseley Dance Hall. Someone had taken the number of their car and the defendants were subsequently traced. Each was fined 10s and ordered to pay 3s each towards the costs and the value of the ducks which were found.

CHIEF Supt. Wilfred Blacker who has been awarded the King’s Police Medal in the New Year’s Honours List is a former superintendent of the Otley Police Division and held in high esteem throughout the police force. He is now chief of the West Riding CID at Wakefield and the honour has been bestowed upon him for distinguished service.

OUR North Rigton correspondent sends us the following details of an aeroplane crash on a North Rigton farm. At about 12.20pm on New Year’s Day an aeroplane caught the higher branches of a large oak tree some 80 yards from the farmstead of Mr Joseph Clapham. It crashed to land 20 yards nearer to the house, scattering bits of branches in its fall and leaving a small portion of the wing high up in the tree. The machine appeared to be a total wreck. Onlookers rushed to the scene to find the only occupant Mr T C Pick of Thirsk. The doctor was called and the pilot was given a few stitches to his lip and taken home. He was fortunate to escape serious injury and that the petrol tank did not ignite.

1959

A RIVER of floodwater swept down Belmont Avenue at Otley on Sunday morning, following the overflowing of the culvert under Weston Lane. In parts of the Avenue the floodwater reached a depth of two feet. The water was from the beck that passes under Weston Lane. On Sunday, following heavy rain, it overflowed onto the highway, and for a considerable time pedestrians found the way absolutely impassable.

OTLEY AFC retained the invitation cup for another year with a 7-2 victory over Ilkley British Legion the team they beat in the final last season on the Guiseley Ground on Boxing Day. The game was played in atrocious conditions, with rain falling steadily throughout almost the whole of the match, and the field churning up into a muddy morass. Play went from end to end, at a fast pace for such bad conditions.

NEWS has been received at Otley of the activities of Canon Guy Marshall, a member of a formerly well-known Otley family and an old boy of Prince Henry’s Grammar School, who is doing outstanding work as Rector of St Stephen’s Church, Toronto, and Chaplain to the missions to seamen there. Widely known among merchant seamen as Toronto’s Padre of the Flying Angel the sign of the Anglican mission to seamen Canon Marshall chats with them, talks over their troubles, shares their jokes and prays with them in his pier-side trailer.

1984

FOUR Otley children raised £82 when they decided to sing for Ethiopia. Rebekah and Ben Watson and Jemima Perry and Joanna Spencer asked people if they could sing them a carol. They sang on pavements in the bus station or in public houses for two and a half hours and presented the money raised to the Westgate branch of Oxfam.

RESCUE services were put on alert when an Air UK plane carrying 26 people was forced to make an emergency landing at Leeds Bradford Airport. Pilot Paul Smith brought down the twin engined turbo prop aircraft without any hitches. And 15 minutes later the passengers were transferred to another plane to continue their journey to Belfast. It is believed the hydraulic system powering the undercarriage of the plane had failed.

A Horsforth mum gave birth to the first arrival of the New Year at Leeds General Infirmary’s Clarendon Wing. Mrs Susan Higo of Breary Avenue gave birth at 1.42am to William David. He weighed in at 7lbs 15oz.