125 Years Ago - 1893

Yet another accident has happened near the Railway Bridge crossing the Bradford Road between Otley and Menston, by which Mr. Newton, of the Bay Horse Inn, Otley, who was returning from Menston in a trap, was thrown out on Monday, receiving several bruises.

Splendid cream, separated by machinery, fresh daily, 1s. 4d. per pint, at Dobson’s Confectioner, 57, Kirkgate, Otley.

100 Years ago - 1918

People are more and more realising there is a war on. For some time pleasure journeys by motor have been prohibited and yesterday an order came into force which states that no public vehicle constructed to carry more than six persons is to be allowed to be used for pleasure. This will be a serious thing for waggonette and char-a-banc proprietors, and curtail the pleasure of many visitors to Ilkley and other resorts. No official instructions respecting the order seem to have yet reached Ilkley and char-a-bancs and waggonettes are running as usual.

Private Joseph Bell, an Addingham man in the Lancashire Fusiliers, is a prisoner of war in Germany. Before joining the war he was a painter and decorator at Ilkley.

75 Years Ago - 1943

L.A.C. Sutcliffe Slater , whose home is at 132, Main Street, Burley, writes from Ceylon, where he has been serving for about two and a half years, going abroad a few months after joining the RAF, in June 1940, to say that he has met another Burley man, L.A.C. Jack Lupton, of Sun Lane, Burley. That “the world is a small place” must have seemed a truism to the two Burley lads. Slater was standing in a picture queue when he spotted Lupton, whom he knew very well, having played cricket with him at Burley Sports Club.

One day somebody will undoubtedly compile a detailed record of the work performed by women during this war. Mr. Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour and National Service, has paid a well-deserved tribute to women in the factories. He admitted that he had asked much of women, and had never expected quite the full response which he received. He went so far as to say that one of the reasons we were now so far ahead with our war production was not only because of the number of women who had come forward, but because of the skill and ingenuity which they had shown in tackling tasks which in the past had been performed only by men.

50 Years Ago - 1968

By a family doctor- Cold in the head is as prevalent in warm weather as in cold - a fact which shows us that we must seek for another cause besides climatic conditions for this complaint. It is certain that the cause is an organism of a very minute kind called a “filter passer” because it cannot be filtered off from the solution and examined by the methods used for larger organisms. Vaccines are already in use for the cure of catarrh, which is the name given to the common cold in its chronic form. But they are somewhat “hit and miss” in their action because we are in the large majority of cases ignorant of the exact bacteriology of the condition.

The poor state of the lettering on memorial crosses in the forecourt of the Queen’s Hall, Burley, was raised at the monthly meeting of Burley Women’s Liberal Association on Tuesday. It was pointed out that one of the crosses was in memory of Mr. W. E. Forster, who resided in Burley and was the prime mover in the passing of the Education Act of 1870.

25 Years Ago - 1993

Wharfedale’s newest landmarks seem certain to be two satellite masts each nearly 50ft high. The towers are earmarked for sites behind Myddleton Lodge, north of Ilkley, and off the A660 Otley Road, near Green Gate House, Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Pupils from the Wharfe Valley have won a competition to name giant wind turbines. The four 100ft high landmarks at Chelker Reservoir on the edge of Addingham are now called Blademan, Chelker Whisper, Dragonfly and Scenic Spinner. The name Blademan was chosen by children at Addingham First School while youngsters at Sacred Heart Primary School in Ilkley, came up with Scenic Spinner.