1885

THE cattle nuisance in the Otley streets has about reached its culminating point just as the Local Board has obtained its power to remedy it. On Easter Wednesday, the public thoroughfares were literally impassable, and I hope the Board will now adopt vigorous measures for speedily removing the intolerable nuisances. Last Friday there was a complete block at Robinson’s corner; three carriages had to stand still for some time until the drovers cleared a road through the herd of cattle, and that operation was not performed without the use of such language as should not have been heard by the occupants of the conveyances.

WITH a view of supplying the populous manufacturing towns of Yeadon and Rawdon with a long-felt want, a bill has been promoted in Parliament, to authorise the formation of a company and invest it with powers to purchase land and effect other necessary works in the construction of a branch railway from the Midland Company’s line in Guiseley to Yeadon and Rawdon. The application is now before Parliament, and on Tuesday morning it came before a Select Committee of the House of Commons.

JOS Robinson, a collier, of Leeds, but who is better known as a skillful player on musical glasses at public houses, and Patrick Skhaine, an Irish labourer, of Yeadon, were brought in custody at West Riding Police Court, charged with stealing an old fashioned metal teapot, the property of John Jackson, weaver, of Leeds. Sgt Poyser deposed that he was on duty when he found the two prisoners standing talking together. He noticed that Robinson had got a suspiciously large coat, whereupon the officer asked “What have you got there?” The man replied “Nothing belonging to thee.” He had a tussle with him and got the teapot, but Robinson bolted.

1910

A BOY, two-years-old, had a narrow escape from drowning in the Silver Mill reservoir at Otley on Tuesday afternoon. The son of Mr Fred Paxton of Silver Mill Cottages, he was playing near the house a few minutes before and must have wandered to the side of the reservoir. He fell in at a spot where the water is a considerable depth. His sister, aged five, managed to catch hold of his jersey and support him for some time. Miss Leeming, who lives next door, heard the children's cries and ran to the reservoir. She quickly pulled the boy out and now he is no worse for his adventure. Miss Leeming's prompt action undoubtedly saved the boy's life for his sister had just lost her hold when help arrived.

THE spirited endeavour on the part of some of the members of the Otley District Council to establish a system of boating on the Wharfe about the vicinity of the Otley Bridge has resulted in failure. It is not seriously to be regretted that the movement has come to nothing. Even under the most favourable auspices boating on the river in that neighbourhood could not be conducted with every facility, inasmuch as in the dry summertime the bed of the river about the bridge is very shallow and there would always be a risk of restless youths landing against the interests, comfort and privacy of the riparian owners. The land proprietors above the bridge having vetoed the scheme so far as it affected them, little scope was left for boating between the bridge and the weir; and the objection of Messrs Garnett is not really to be wondered at.

TRADITION, poetry and euphony alike commend Cross Green as a name of a locality worthy to be perpetuated by Otley posterity, and yet there was a proposal lately that in view of the tree-planting there the title should be changed to Darwin Avenue. Artistic taste prevailed however, and Cross Green beautified is still Cross Green. Apropos of that episode, the following comments in a letter from Mr Francis Darwin, of Creskeld Hall, to the Otley District Council are of interest: “I feel the compliment they propose to pay me by naming their new avenue Darwin Avenue but I trust the idea will be reconsidered. Every street in a town should from its name be a guide to strangers using it. You have Westgate leading westward, Boroughgate and Kirkgate all telling their own story, and even Cross Green reminds one of the Maypole. But Darwin Avenue would tell nothing beyond recalling an attempt made many years ago by an individual to beautify the town.”

1935

YEADON people are taking a close interest in the aerodrome developments, but as lookers-on! The interest was exemplified on Monday morning when a new air service was inaugurated between London and Edinburgh, which Yeadon as the mid-way halting place. The two new air liners that took part in the inaugural flight were Airspeed Envoys, and prior to the flight they were christened “Wharfedale” and “Tynedale” respectively.

THE decision of the West Riding Education Committee to give fountain pens and pencils to elementary scholars on the occasion of the Royal Jubilee was criticised at the meeting of Guiseley District Education Committee on Monday night. Mr GM Jones CC said: “They are a wash-out!”

POOL Parish Council at a meeting on Wednesday evening decided to pay a deposit on the purchase price of playing fields for the village. It was announced that the field which had been secured adjoins the school, but nothing further would be done in the matter until after the Silver Jubilee celebrations.

1960

YJE Kirkgate Cinema, one of Otley's only two cinemas, is to be closed on May 29, following a big property deal involving the sale of the cinema and adjoining shop properties. The deal involves a block of property in the centre of the town. It has been purchased by Beckside Properties Ltd of Bradford. Mr KE Hanson, of Messrs Dacre, Son and Hartley, of Otley, who have negotiated the deal, says “it runs well into five figures”. Mr Hanson said the cinema would be closing in June. Otley’s other picture house, the Beech Hill cinema, in Kirkgate, will not be in any way affected.

A night-duty police officer, patrolling the lonely West Chevin Road in the early hours of Sunday morning found that someone had stolen Post Box 551 from the roadside wall above Chevin Grange, in which it has been embedded for the last 20 years. The box was cemented into the three-foot stone wall, where it has served a little colony of houses and the nearby nursing home, high on the slopes of the Chevin overlooking the valley. Not only has the box gone but about a yard of the wall was demolished to get it out.

IN plans submitted to the Airedale Division Education Executive, at a meeting at Horsforth, a bigger Aireborough Grammar School, and a new Menston RC Secondary School were envisaged. One argument advanced for the bigger Aireborough Grammar School was the fact that the number of students who could be offered places in schools outside the area was likely to be reduced because new housing at Otley, Ilkley and Pudsey was likely to lead to increased demand for places at the Otley, Ilkley and Pudsey Grammar Schools.

1985

THE Governors of Menston Junior and Infants Schools have decided to abolish the use of corporal punishment at the village's two schools after lengthy discussion and the expression of conflicting opinions.

ACCIDENTS in the Otley area over the last three years have decreased, it was reported at a meeting of Otley and District Road Safety Committee. Figures showed 110 casualties in 1982, 104 in 1983 and only 94 in 1984. The accident report by Mr Hinchcliffe showed that of the 94 casualties last year, sixty were slight, 31 were serious and there were three fatalities. It was noted there had been a slight increase in the number of accidents regarding the children between the ages of five and 14. Mr Hinchcliffe said this was the age children began to venture out alone and he stressed the need for adequate road safety training.

MARCH had 3.22 inches of rain, part of which fell as snow on several days. The total rainfall for the first three months of 1985 is less than eight inches.