125 Years Ago - 1894

About half-past three o’clock on Friday morning last, it was discovered that a robbery had been perpetrated at the shop of Mr. Brown, New Briggate, Yeadon. Mr. Moore, who lives opposite, heard a noise, and getting up to ascertain the cause, saw four men running away, but he could not identify them in the darkness. It was afterwards found that one of the shop windows had been broken, and fifteen watches stolen.

In his sermon on Sunday morning at St Margaret’s Church, the Rev. I. Smith (vicar) alluded to the death of the late Emperor of Russia, Alexander III.

100 Years Ago - 1919

The Ilkley war trophies have arrived, and are now located at the District Council Depot. They consist of a trench mortar and machine gun captured from the Germans by the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment.

The thirty-fifth annual meeting of the Ilkley and Wharfedale Orphanage and Children’s Home was held on Friday. Lady Duncan, of Otley, presided over a good attendance. Lady Duncan said it was good to think that even in the troublesome times through which we had been passing, certain agencies were able to carry on their work of succour. The Ilkley Orphanage during the war had not abated its energies in the slightest. She had always been struck by the bright and happy looks of the children, as well as the air of well-being that they always had.

75 Years Ago - 1944

An important disease of the autumn is typhoid. Of course everyone who reads about typhoid will immediately make certain he has it already. Such is the power of suggestion. No, friend, you have not got it, but there is no harm in knowing a little bit about it. In typhoid the onset is very slow, very quiet, very insidious. If you ask a man who has recovered from typhoid what was the very first thing he felt wrong, he will hardly be able to tell you. He just felt a bit off colour and not quite up to the mark.

A visitor to the Dutch orchards, in which a Yorkshire ack-ack regiment is awaiting the order to advance and invade Hitler’s Reich, is likely to give a start of surprise before he has been there five minutes. For mingled with the sturdy accents of the three Ridings, he will hear sudden commands barked out in guttural German. The explanation is that the Yorkshire gunners are busy learning German in readiness for the invasion of Germany.

50 Years Ago - 1969

An initial supply of 120 million decimal 50 new penny (50p) coins will start to enter general circulation for use as 10s. next week and will gradually replace 10s. notes. The 50p coin, which is seven sided, is the third decimal coin to be brought into circulation in advance of D Day, 15 February, 1971, when Britain begins changing to decimal currency.

Would you ring the police if you saw someone carrying an armful of clothing out of a house or shop in the early hours of the morning or if you saw a building site machine being driven along the road after midnight. Thankfully the police say that people do just this. No-one need be afraid of ringing the police . The caller won’t be laughed at if there was no cause for alarm.

25 Years Ago - 1994

Ninety-four per cent of visitors to Ilkley leave with a higher opinion of the town than they held previously. This is one of the statistics in a survey by Bradford Council examining tourism in the town. Most visitors made positive comment - one found Ilkley a “Lovely friendly town and litter free!” But mention was made of “disgraceful” public toilets and an over-abundance of charity shops.

An 85-year-old grandmother took an unexpected trip on her birthday - in a helicopter. Last Sunday, Doris Rose, of The Grove, Ilkley, thought she was going to see two of her great-grandchildren in a play at Clevedon House, Ben Rhydding Drive. But when she got there she was surprised to see a helicopter landing on a nearby football pitch. She was then told by her grand-daughter, Sally Wilkinson, that it had come to take her to the Devonshire Arms Hotel in Bolton Abbey for a slap-up birthday lunch.