1885

On Saturday afternoon the interesting and historical little village of Burnsall, in Upper Wharfedale, was the scene of great festivity, in consequence of the formal opening of a handsome bridge over the Wharfe, which has been built by the county authorities. The old bridge was destroyed on January 29, 1883, at half-past six in the morning, by the heaviest flood that has been known to visit the Wharfe Valley. Although Burnsall Bridge fared the worst, there were only about two bridges over the Wharfe that escaped injury, those being at Ilkley and Pool, the bridges at Kettlewell, Coniston, Barden,Bolton and Otley being seriously damaged at the time.

On Wednesday night a meeting of ratepayers was convened in the Mechanics Hall, Otley, to consider the advisability of purchasing additional land adjoining the cemetery for burial purposes. Mr J Johnston occupied the chair, and there was but a meagre attendance. As the meeting convened at the instance of the Burial Board, Mr Lund was called upon to explain the object of the meeting. He said that some time since the Burial Board thought it was desirable to secure additional land adjoining the cemetery, especially as the available space was being fast appropriated.

1910

On Friday afternoon last the men employed by Messrs Hall Bros, Kirk Lane Mills, Yeadon, struck work as a protest against the dismissal of one of their number for what they alleged was not a justifiable reason. On the other hand the firm stated that the man had been guilty of insubordination and that was the just cause of his dismissal. The strike was not of long duration for on Saturday morning arrangements were made for the men, including the one who was dismissed, to resume work on Monday morning and for a deputation to present to Messrs Hall a statement of the grievances of which they complain.

The Otley National Infants School being closed on account of measles was discussed by Otley Education Sub-Committee on Wednesday. Mr Humphreys said it seemed that an outbreak of disease occurred periodically at this school. In spite of contradictions, he still thought that the school was not in a proper sanitary condition. One part of the school had been condemned, and at present three classes were being taught in one room at the same time.

1935

A mechanic from Leeds was summoned by Otley Police Court for causing unnecessary suffering to fowls, and also for failing to produce a certificate of insurance for a motor car. An inspector for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said he went to Whack House Lane, Yeadon, on September 2, and found about 30 fowls in a hay barn. It was very dark, there was no food in the troughs and no water. He made inquiries but could not at once find the owner of the birds. The defendant said he normally visited the barn every other day but admitted on one occasion he had not done so for two days. The defendant was fined £2 and ordered to pay 10s costs.

Yeadon and District Ladies Choir, which can now fairly claim to be one of the leading musical organisations of the district, enhanced an already established reputation at their annual concert on Tuesday evening. The concert was the seventh since the formation of the choir, and musically it was quite a triumph, though the attendance was not as large as that of a year ago. Conducted by Mrs W Howarth, the choir of almost 30 voices had a large share of the programme.

1960

The large hall at Otley Mechanics Institute will be out of use for a period stated to be probably a month or six weeks because of damage to a main beam in the under-drawing, following two outbreaks of fire at the Institute on Tuesday evening. After a thorough inspection of the electric wiring system, it was decided on Wednesday afternoon that the smaller rooms of the ground floor can continue in normal use. A number of the meetings came to an abrupt end on Tuesday as people were hustled out of the building when the outbreaks were discovered.

An attack of influenza robbed the Otley club’s centre, Jim Harrison, of his place in the Yorkshire RU team for the jubilee game against Gloucestershire, at Cheltenham, on Saturday. On a thoroughly bad day, in pouring rain, Yorkshire were beaten 10-0. The other Otley player in the Yorkshire side, Don Holdsworth, the captain and pack leader, was one of the outstanding players in the game.

1985

The long drawn-out battle to save the Wharfedale Children’s Hospital at Menston has ended. Mr Barney Hayhoe, Minister for Health, has approved Airedale Health Authority’s proposal to close it. Announcing his decision, Mr Hayhoe said: “Wharfedale is a long-stay hospital for children with mental and physical illness, many of whom live some distance from Menston. At weekends and during the normal school holidays most of these children return to their own homes. We believe that greater efforts must now be made to get children such as these out of long-stay hospitals so that they may have as normal a home and school life as possible.”

Otley bellman Alan Butler has called upon the people of the town to form an Otley tourism association in a bid to stop thousands of pounds of business being turned away through lack of positive action. “At the moment Otley is turning away tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of pounds, through not getting its act on tourism together,” said Mr Butler. “Otley is famous for being Hotton in Emmerdale Farm and the Wharfedale Observer itself is the Hotton Courier, but there is hardly any recognition of the fact in the town. All the other places associated with the television programmes are doing very well out of it.”