125 Years Ago - 1894

Few country people appreciate what luxuries to the city folk are cream, butter, milk, eggs and all the good things in which these so lavishly enter good country living. Cream cheese, for instance, is a dish seldom seen on an average city table, but one always esteemed a luxury.

In cleaning house one of the principal cares should be the pictures. It is too often overlooked or left to the care of the servants, when the mistress should give it her personal attention.

On Tuesday next the Royal Handbell Ringers will visit Ilkley. This will immediately precede their departure to Sweden for a three months tour, which will take them to very high latitude, Haparanda, the most northern point on the Baltic. We hear that nearly everybody is going to the Ilkley performance, which means that the lecture hall will be well filled.

100 Years Ago - 1919

On Friday a taxi cab accident occurred at Burley. The taxi, which belonged to Ilkley, skidded and crashed into an electric power standard for propelling trackless trams, and was badly damaged. The driver escaped injury, but the passenger, a Mr. Harrison, of Denton, was slightly cut on the forehead and also over the right eye.

On Peace Night bonfires are to be lighted on all the high hills possible, the same as was done at Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebration and the Coronation of King Edward VII. On these occasions there were many fires on the hills above Wharfedale, Airedale and Nidderdale, and from the tops of Ilkley Moor and Middleton Moor most of these were visible.

75 Years Ago - 1944

Have you ever handled gunpowder? Reader, you are doing it now. Not the kind that will blow buildings sky-high, admittedly. But explosive all the same. Explosive ideas. This may seem a strange way of looking at a newspaper. None the less, it is the truth. Words are weapons. Ideas make or break nations. Every newspaper reflects a philosophy of life. It picks up the ideas by which a community lives. Thus self interest or sacrifice, “gimme” or “give” become accepted as the normal thinking of the nation. In the news of the way people are living today, the history of the future is written. The fight for the right ideas which will secure a new world must be the task of every newspaper and every reader.

Captain Harry Aryton (34), elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Aryton, Derry Hill, Menston, has been promoted to the rank of Major. Serving in India with the R.A.S.C., he was promoted last year from the rank of Staff Sergt-Major. He joined the Army 12 years ago. He served in Shanghai and Hong-Kong and went to France early in the war, being evacuated from Dunkirk.

50 Years Ago -1969

A Menston housewife and mother Mrs. Barbara Howdle, of The Crescent, is in the process of launching what is believed to be a unique scheme for helping families over difficult domestic periods. Mrs. Howdle’s basic aim is to compile a register of women who would be willing to ‘mother’ a family when the real mother is ill or away from home, and she appropriately calls the scheme ‘Rent-a-Mother’.

A relief party from Kettlewell struggled through extreme storm conditions and deep snow drifts last Thursday to reach a party of 14 boys, mostly members of the 1st Ben Rhydding Scout Group, staying at the Hag Dyke Scout Hostel 1525 feet up on the slopes of Great Whernside. In case this party was unsuccessful a group of skiers was notified in Ilkley. they were ready to move up to Kettlewell if required. All the boys returned safely to Kettlewell on Friday.

25 Years Ago - 1994

A book club which is perhaps one of the only ones of its type in the country has celebrated its centenary. Ilkley Book Club, which still abides by its Victorian rules, celebrated the occasion at its annual dinner. Membership of this circulating book club is limited to 25 and its rules are virtually unchanged since they were drawn up in 1894 - apart from the figures for subscriptions and fines.

Next month British Gas is to close the showroom it opened in The Grove, Ilkley, just over two years ago. The closure is said to reflect shopping trends and a decrease in the number of customers calling to pay their bills.