125 Years Ago - 1894

At about half part four o’clock yesterday afternoon, an accident befell Mrs. H. Ickringill, of Brook Street, Ilkley, she being run over by a trap belonging to Mr. T. Grunwell. It appears that Mrs. Ickringill, in company with Mrs. Grunwell, was driving in the trap from Otley, when proceeding up Leeds Road the horse for some reason or other bolted. The harness was smashed, the shafts trailing along the ground. When near the Wharfedale Inn the trap came into contact with a wall, the occupants thrown out, and Mrs. Ickringill run over.

100 years ago - 1919

On Friday night, October 31st, a window 18 inches square at the rear of the premises of Messrs. Beanlands & Sons Limited, Brook Street, Ilkley, was taken out, the cash register wrenched open, and £9 6s. 4d. stolen. Other articles missing included a piece of cheese, condensed milk, soap and matches.

Throughout the British Empire there was a hushed silence at eleven o’clock on Tuesday morning; the first anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, with the object, as indicated by the King in his message to the nation, of perpetuating the memory of a great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it. Just on the stroke of eleven we were reminded of our two minutes obligation by the blowing of the buzzer at the Electricity Works, and the firing of a gun.

75 Years Ago - 1944

In this, the sixth winter of the war, it is more than ever essential that we must mend and make do. Clothing coupons simply must be reserved for only the very essentials, and commodities in short supply must be nurtured and looked after as never before.

Mr. H. B. Rose, of Thornhill, Kings Avenue, Ilkley, received this morning a postcard from his brother Cpl. J. Rose, saying that he is a prisoner of war in Germany. Cpl. Rose, who was serving with an Airborne Division, had been reported missing: he reports he is in good health. Cpl. Rose is an old boy of Ilkley Grammar School.

50 Years Ago -1969

On Saturday 14 members of the Old Comrades Association of the 10th West Riding Howitzer Battery held their 43rd reunion in Otley. The reunion has always been held close to the date of the black day in November, 1917, when a third of the Battery was wiped out within an hour by German artillery fire. Mr J. W. Stephenson, the Association’s Secretary, said recently he had been told that it was time they forgot the 1914-18 war. He said: “That is not my way of thinking, and I’m pretty sure it is not yours. Among the many who made the supreme sacrifice in that war were some of our comrades, most of them young men whom we knew personally. We remember them tonight with pride.” Mr Stephenson said they were the men who helped to make history.

25 Years Ago - 1994

The recent visit to Coutances by a civic delegation was particularly special for one Ilkley man. Sidney Beck, 79, of Eaton Road, was presented with a medal recognising the part he played in in the D-Day landings and the liberation of Normandy. Mr Beck was a member of the 86th Field Regiment Royal Artillery in 1944. It was the regiment’s responsibility to fire over the heads of the first craft to land on the beaches.

A new twist has been added to a well-documented account of alien abduction on Ilkley Moor. Ufologist Nigel Mortimer, of Stocks Hill, Menston, has met two men from Horsforth who had an unexplained experience just 100 yards from where the incident allegedly took place. Mr Mortimer said: “They went for a walk just above White Wells at about 5pm on October 29, 1991. When they got to West Rock they found a great big ball of light 15ft across hovering above the rocks.” The men, who wish to remain anonymous, claim the ball of light then advanced and chased them for for a quarter of a mile as they ran back to Ilkley. This allegedly took them only ten minutes. Mr Mortimer’s attempts to get from West Rock to Ilkley have taken a minimum of half an hour. As a result he believes a “time warp” may have affected the two men.