Sebastian-Smythe

THE HIGH GNOME & Sounds from The Steppes

2011-11-30T12:32:00.005Z

Anyone with knowledge of THE HIGH GNOME knows his HQ is NOT the north pole. It's on the Steppes where his reindeer, ALL female btw, eat the magical foods which help them fly into other worlds. Common sense animal management when you think about it.

The Lateral Thinkers

2011-11-15T01:50:00.002Z

As a lateral thinker I view the world from a totally different perspective to everyone else apart that is from other lateral thinkers. As our perspectives rarely point in the same directions we are like folk following drummers only to find our drummers are in the next valley. Which is all well and good if there are but few hills in the plain.

However if we find ourselves within a mountainous region we may end up following someonelse's drummer which could prove very interesting, especially if the beat of the drum be faster or slower or of a totally different beat altogether. As happened a while ago when my drummer was going NNW and I picked up on one going WWN...er, what was the question by the way...

Might the answer be in a Hard Boiled Egg?

2011-09-19T13:38:00.002+01:00

Thus the first purpose built egg cups came into being. Depending on how large the family unit dictated the number of hollows. Alternatively those rocks with a great number of ‘cups’ could have been their equivalent of our B&B or communal table. All well and good you say but what about the rings? Simple. Where do you think they put the toast?

An update from a 2008 post.

Journalistic Licence and Historical Fact

2011-08-21T12:50:00.007+01:00

It is a fact that Journalistic Licence has done more to damage History in whatever country than most documents. Lack of knowledge of the subject is the main culprit. Followed by bad research, that is not following leads back to source, and making as sure as possible what you are about to print is 98% safe.

If not DON'T!

In my own small area I often hear mis-information spouted and over the years have come to recognise which publication the spouters have been reading. In the main it can be reduced to three volumes. Each taking mis-information from the other and because few bother to do deep research it carries on like a bad cold getting worse and worse.

If you are a Journalist, a Researcher, or just someone doing someone else a good turn I beseach you all to remember those who eventually will be reading your work.

Ignore the Jounalist's Proverb at your peril
"Don't forget the last phone call."

Tightest Parallel Parking - Guinness World Record

2011-08-06T13:41:00.000+01:00

The Impossible is Possible if you know the Way

2011-07-10T18:28:00.001+01:00

seeing is believing - believing is seeing

If you could save a third of your fuel bills would spend a bit to do it?

Have a look at this and draw your own conclusions -

http://www.ecomagnets.com/thermoflow.htm
Fitted in Royal and not so Royal residences throughout UK and abroad.
Nothing to lose and everything to gain....

http://www.ecomagnets.com/

How Green was Your Valley

2011-07-06T16:56:00.004+01:00

Perhaps Concerned of Ilkley and those who see the felling of trees on Ilkley Moor as scandalous should think about conditions in Australia. There is strong opinion bush fires would not have been as bad if environmentalists had allowed clearance of dead wood, bracken, etc.Phil Cheney, a bushfire researcher, said he was ‘totally frustrated’ by his Government’s failure to reduce forest density.

A resident of Strathewen, ravaged by bush fires, said the Greenies issued a statement that nought had to be touched. That is none removal of dead wood because a little mouse might be living under it. Now both people and the mouse are dead.

Travelling the Yorkshire Dales and other rural areas it soon becomes evident our Countryside is being ruined by misinformed factions who can’t see the wood for trees. Hedges were planted in the main to keep stock in and/or people out. A well laid hedge also provides much needed cover for nesting birds, insects and smaller animals. Leaving a hedge to grow open and as book environmentalists are apt to say, natural, defeats the object of a hedge.It is also open to pest, disease and rampaging peasants. There are many examples close at hand where the book environmentalists have held sway.

The woods over by Middleton are arboreal scrap yards. I warned Ilkley Parish Council and Bradford Metropolitan District Council what would happen if they didn’t clear felled timber. Fifteen years ago I warned them.However they took the book environmentalists attitude and what have we now. Erosion like you’ve never seen before in the bluebell beds. Erosion which should never have happened, if those supposedly in power had listened to people trained in woodcraft and the like. Sometimes folk interpret what they see as a hedge, when in fact it is not, which leads to all kinds of misinformation.

The same goes for the Victorian Landscape Garden some are apt to call the lower reaches of Ilkley Moor. When Man disturbs Nature all hell breaks loose unless a degree of careful management takes place. Look at The Tarn for instance. Look closely. Look at it’s banks, look at the carriageways, look at the footpaths which lead to it. What are natural about those? One could say what indeed is natural.

There’s been talk of late about putting fences on common land. Why did no-one oppose the fence Leeds Diocese put up in front of the four hundred year old way marker at the junction of Langbar Road, Slates Lane and Hardings Lane, beside Bridlepath 1. What about those trees planted along the edge of the moor by the former Darwin Gardens Trust.They are as much out of place as those spreading across The Moor and will, eventually, block any view of White Wells from below, or the Millennium Green from White Wells.

In the year celebrating Charles Darwin’s birth and publishing of his monumental book one does wonder what he, a botanist and scientist, would think of Ilkley Moor and neighbouring countryside today. Equally the attitude to the environment by those so-called experts, the book environmentalists.

Community Websites in Yorkshire

2010-09-19T16:51:00.002+01:00

There are many Community Websites in Yorkshire, some goood, some bad and some.............well let's say they are trying.

Click on Community Websites in Yorkshire for your link to Wharfedale.

The Death of Ebor Mill - Haworth, West yorkshire

2010-08-29T13:21:00.010+01:00

Ebor Mill - Haworth

A former spinning mill in the historic village of Haworth was lost to a great fire.

Demolition of Ebor Mill, Haworth

Early Days of a Millennium Green

2010-05-17T13:44:00.001+01:00

How it all began!

Sebastian-Smythe: That Place on the Moor

2010-05-06T12:01:00.000+01:00

Sebastian-Smythe: That Place on the Moor

Mega Duck in That Place on Ilkley Moor

2010-05-06T11:45:00.002+01:00

Billy flies over Ilkley Moor

2010-05-06T11:40:00.003+01:00

Small or large Kites are a great past time

Look for a Kite Festival near you
or
National Festivals

A Key To Things!

2010-05-06T11:33:00.001+01:00

Tales from Xnorpius

A lone traveller toiled into the deepening gloom. Eyes scanning nearby mountains for an overhang or cave and somewhere to shelter his yaks from the driving snow. The weather was getting worse and maps were useless. Snow fell heavy from the sky and everywhere a stillness but for wolves earie cries of yahoo, yahooo from dense forests.

The track, if that’s what you could call it, climbed steeply then dropped into a sheltered dell. He decided to make camp surrounded by tall white pine spears. Loosening thongs on his packs, eased them off the animals and stacked them in a ring. Not the best hotel he thought, at least they provide shelter and the animals warmth.

Thumbing through the ancient volume, page after yellow page, he found the quotes which led him to this inhospitable land. Before long thoughts of childhood tales and google eyed monsters waiting for unsuspecting travellers crossed his mind. He shuddered.

Turning back to the book for more directions he noted a quote from Mark Twain written on an otherwise blank page. “There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth”. What did he mean? Was this book a directory of sublime thought or Pandora’s box. Who were the April fools now, Martha or Stuart?

The animals were unsettled and rousing himself went to look round. Was that music or another trick of the mind? From the gloom two white pages in strange uniforms appeared, followed by Lords of the Forest who formed a ring round the dell.

Good health stranger, our people search this land for travellers before the snow wizard appears. You are welcome to stay in our Hall until the storm abates, then our pages will guide you. Again there were those startling trumpets and a call of “...to the Hall boys, to the Hall.

That Place on the Moor

2010-05-04T16:40:00.004+01:00

*
The History of White Wells

Three years of hard research has gone into this book.
Possibly the best researched volume on part of Ilkley's history
since Collyer and Turner wrote Ilkley - Ancient and Modern -
in the late 19th century.

'That Place on The Moor'
The History of White Wells
by
Mark Hunnebell

ISBN 978-0-9555126-2-9

Epilepsy Action - 2010

2010-04-17T15:59:00.006+01:00

If you have it, you wish you hadn't.

If you haven't most often you don't understand.

Look out for Bedders in the London Marathon running for our cause.

More info on www.epilepsy.org.uk

For those who have never come in contact with an Epileptic look at the above website.

HELP LINE

0808 800 5050

*****

Ilkley calling Virgin Media Personell

2010-04-12T11:46:00.006+01:00

Mega Duck takes a swim at White Wells on Ilkley Moor.

Hi Folks

Greetings from Ilkley in West Yorkshire to Virgin Mobile Media crew - world wide.

I hope you enjoy travelling through my blogs.

Do any of you have some interesting recipes from your part of the world we could include on the TBSA Pages - The Book of Successful Accidents?

If you are in the Ilkley area be sure to look in on Mint and Bar t'at on Shop Ilkley on http://ilkleymor.blogspot.com/

Just click on Mega Duck – the big yellow one at the bottom of most pages.

Enjoy.

Where in Ilkley am I?

2010-03-03T13:58:00.000Z

This is part of a Grade 2 listed complex.

Backstone Beck as it was.......

2010-02-11T15:26:00.000Z

Ilkley Moor via Keighley Road

2010-02-03T15:25:00.002Z

Hill Top Ladies Home for the infirm to the left and Wells House middle distance.

Something to Look Forward to --

2010-01-30T16:04:00.002Z

Bluebell Woods - Myddleton in Wharfedale.

Ok, So what's a Great Bustard?

2010-01-30T15:58:00.002Z

Never heard of it?

Well take a look at this site
http://greatbustard.com/
and learn more about this magnificent bird.

The Dangers of Cycling in the Countryside.

2010-01-30T15:50:00.003Z

Picture the scene if you will. A narrow un-lit country lane not far from Ilkley and approaching blind bends an ambulance, travelling at approximately twenty five miles an hour. Half way round the bends the driver is met by three cyclists. Three cyclists dressed in dark clothing and without a cycle light between them. Fortunately for the three the ambulance was not on emergency call out, but had it, there could have been a fatal accident. The lane has been designated a cycle route by them over t’ill with it would appear, little if any thought to the safety of all road users.

Not long ago The Gazette reported an accident on this lane between a cyclist and a motor vehicle. If cyclists are to continue using this lane they must equip themselves with lights, reflective clothing, ride in a way appropriate to their surroundings and be alert to all conditions around them. The countryside is a place where people live, work and play. It is a working environment not an urban theme park and as with other work places fraught with danger. Whether it be three, six, twenty six cyclists or them over t’ill in City Hall, they must realise our rural by-ways are used for agricultural purposes. Also by walkers young and old and horse riders. They are not cycle race tracks specifically for use by Urban Man.

2010........

2010-01-30T15:46:00.002Z

.......and nowts changed!

Third November 2000 - Severe Flood Alert.

North Yorkshire hit by record flood levels. I am reminded of something quoted while a student, ‘Little things grow into big things and big things cost money.’ Listening to a Flood Debate with the Environment Agency on Radio York, it struck me communities up river were in part responsible for the disaster in the Vale of York. In years previous copious amounts of water would be taken up by the land and dispersed slowly into our rivers. Now, however, much of the same land is covered with housing and industrial developments, hard landscape and new road schemes.

We live beside one of the country’s fastest flowing rivers. While drawing much water from the upper dales, quantities are magnified when passing through developing areas. Various groups are looking for ways to halt or reduce the amount of development in the Wharfe valley. The above problems should be raised whenever new plans are brought before relevant planning committees. Numerous small, by comparison, developments soon add upto many thousand hectares of roof and hard standing diverting water into already full rivers.

Residents of Burley and Ilkley , of nearby cities, towns and villages have a duty to help stop future disasters down river. How many new developments have the sustainable drainage systems alluded to by the Environment Agency? Will future planning applications require such drainage systems? And if not, why not?

Our local radio stations provide vital links to the populace in times of emergency, in some cases better than television. They need our support as much as we need theirs. So turn off the tele, turn on the radio and hear how much you have been missing.

BBC Radio York 103.7, 104.3 & 95.5FM
BBC Radio Leeds 92.4, 95.3FM & 774AM

For other BBC Radio frequencies turn to http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Stoney Lea & Crescent Hotels - Ilkley, West Yorkshire

2010-01-30T15:18:00.000Z

Be prepared for the thaw –

2010-01-08T14:08:00.004Z

Sandbag Suppliers

Instant Sandbags

Darwin Gardens Millennium Green in snow - 2010.

2010-01-06T14:25:00.001Z

The Cordwainer’s Tale

2009-12-30T12:12:00.001Z

We are witnessing much debate about the ancient lump above Ilkley. With this in mind I turned back the years to a book on Wharfedale's history. A Thousand Miles in Wharfedale by Edmund Bogg C1891 no less. We find reference to, of all places, The Arsenal at Venice and it's famous lions. Stolen apparently from Athens in 1687 (not long after Middleton's missing milestone was erected) by Doge Francesco Morosini.

To the Copenhagen antiquarian Rafn and his study of Harold Hardracla, conqueror of Piaerus, Greece. Their links to Ilkley Moor being the Fylfot symbol. Coming down the years mention is made of Normandy in France and later still the New World through Rev Dr Robert Collyer's preaching.

Bogg states, "A bright clear day and Ingleborough and Whernside are visible west; northward Brimham Rocks and How Hill; the great plain of York and York Minster itself, east; south-east Leeds, likewise Bradford more south." The Hebers, ancestors of Reginald Bishop of Calcutta lived beside Ilkley Moor. Athens, Cranbrook, Copenhagen, Rome, Darwin, Venice, Normandy, India, the Americas, to name a few have links with Ilkley Moor.

By comparison few abroad know of Saltaire, but mention Ilkley or it's Moor and they burst into song. Ilkley and Yorkshire, whether they like it or not, are indebted to a former Cranbrook resident. Had it not been for this shoemaker Ilkley Moor would not be internationally recognised.

Where Do You Live Boy?

2009-12-30T12:08:00.000Z

A question asked many years ago by our history/geography Master. Like my fellow class mates, I answered only to find the Master asking again. “Where do you live?” Do you know where you live?

Have you ever thought where the name for your street, avenue, road or whatever came from? Had it ever crossed your mind how ridiculous some names are in relation to their surroundings. Do you really know where you live?

Britain’s A-Z Town Guides are wondrous works of art. It was to these my former Master turned. Everyone in the class was given a copy and sent out to find where they lived. The history, social and economic, likewise the geography and anything else we may come across.

Within six weeks we really did know where we lived and were all the better for it. Perhaps the same should go for town and country planners who at times appear devoid of any understanding of the areas the cover.

For instance would you think twice about living in Holm Springs? It could refer to Evergreen Oaks growing nearby. On the other hand the land may be waterlogged or apt to flood. Holm being Old Norse for an area of land near a river, which is submerged when the river floods.

There is a certain suburb of Leeds of which the name, so I am led to believe, derives from the Roman for sewer or similar confluence. It certainly lives upto the old Yorkshire saying of where there’s muck there’s brass!

Use of old words could promote hysterics among the more knowledgeable. Or there may be historical reasons for doing so. The planner may have an interest in a particular subject, which at the time, everyone understood. A few years down the road and a load of nonsense erupts on our town maps. An area just north of Bristol boasts some wonderful names.

We find golf courses and birds a plenty. By far the most interesting is Lilliput. I realise we cannot change those already named, however we can go a long way to a sensible use of names for future developments. Also, by using the A-Z Guides students will find an interesting way of understanding their respective areas. Hopefully leading to a wider knowledge of the country.

Ice Wheel - Crum Wheel - Ilkley

2009-12-18T11:29:00.000Z

Hebers Ghyll 1922

2009-12-18T11:28:00.000Z

Parish Waste

2009-12-18T11:17:00.002Z

Dear Councillors

Are you aware a portion of Parish Waste – open land not otherwise used but still belonging to The Parish – has been given away to the Diocese of Leeds. Given away by Bradford Metropolitan District Council without so I am led to understand notification of Ilkley Parish Council. It came to my knowledge while fighting said Diocese to have returned the FOUR HUNDRED year old sign post which stands on the land.

I contacted the Highways Officer originally to ask why the new fence went in front and not behind the milestone. It was then he informed me of the change of ownership. I asked when said land would be returned to the Ilkley Parish, only to be told legal costs would be too great and besides, the Diocese may wish to widen the entrance at some future date, which calls into question the safety of the ancient milestone once more.

Ilkley Civic Society gave up on trying to get the stone replaced some two or more years ago. Not a good show for those who nit pic at various planning regs is it? Ilkley Parish Council and Bradford Metropolitan District Council also threw in the towel. As too did many and varied Societies and Organisations.

However, within TWO MONTHS of a couple of letters from me, the stone was replaced. I am sending this and the enclosed attachments so one can assess the situation.

I may also inform the Open Spaces Society to see if we can retrieve said parcel of land. I hope you will give them every attention required in this matter. One does wonder how many small parcels of land have been lost in a similar way.

I feel neighbouring Land Owners should be made aware of this little known ‘supposed’ change of ownership. It could have repercussions on their lands too.

Myddleton Way Marker

2009-12-18T11:14:00.001Z

Historic landmark: Middleton milestone.

2009-12-18T11:01:00.002Z

Historic landmark: Middleton milestone.
Removed while a fence was being installed.

Yorkshire Post June 15 2006

NEWS

Angry resident calls on Archbishop of Westminster to intervene in fight to get waymarker return. Battle over historic post reaches new milestone.

Lizzie Murphy

A ROW over a missing historic milepost in Ilkley, has sparked an angry resident to write to the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in England, in an attempt to get the stone reinstated. Frazer Irwin wrote to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, after failing to get a response from the Leeds diocese. Mr Irwin said he had repeatedly asked the diocese to resurrect the waymarker, which until 18 months ago had stood for 400 years outside Middleton Grange near Ilkley, which is used as a religious retreat.

Pressure from Ilkley’s parish council and the town's civic society has so far failed to persuade diocesan officials to reinstate the stone which was uprooted in 2004 during the installation of a new fence at the centre. "They have been telling us for more than a year that they are waiting for the contractor to bring in his machinery to put it back in place, but nothing seems to happen," said Mr Irwin. "Perhaps writing to the Archbishop will spur things on."

In his letter, Mr Irwin wrote: "Various excuses have been offered, but nothing positive. Somewhere in your holy texts it says thou shalt not covet anything belonging to your neighbour. Yet what have we here at Middleton? One could say the same about bearing false witness. Equally thou shalt not steal. Your crew in Yorkshire have something which doesn't belong to them and we, the public want it back, thank you very much."

He said yesterday: "At first no-one knew where the milestone had gone, but then it was discovered, damaged, lying on a verge inside Middleton Grange grounds. They had all sorts of reasons why it had not been replaced; even claiming the contractor had a bad back. What does it take to operate a JCB?" The stone dates from 1668 and stands on a historic packhorse route - originally a Roman road - from Keighley in West Yorkshire to Rippon.

On one side, an incised cuffed hand points south with the inscription "Keighley 5M" and the other side reads "Rippon 15M". Peter Scott, who lives near the Grange, said: "In my opinion, it need not have been removed because it was not obstructing the mounting of the new fence. It has been damaged in removal." Alan Heaton of the Milestone Society, which seeks to preserve Britain's 8,000 ancient waymarkers, added: "We have been trying to get this milestone put back in position for more than 12 months now."

A Leeds diocese spokesman, said: "There was no point writing to the Archbishop of Westminster - he does not control what goes on in the Leeds diocese." Instructions have been given by the land agent to the contractor to reinstate this stone, but I cannot say when exactly that will be. I got the impression it would be sooner rather than later."

But Ilkley Parish Council said the diocese's vague response was not good enough. Coun Kate Brown said: "When is sooner rather than later? It is not a satisfactory response." A lot of people are concerned and I really can't see what is holding it up."

I find it hilarious the combined might of Ilkley Parish Council, Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Ilkley Civic Society, The Milestone Society and numerous other groups could not get the stone returned. Yet within TWO months of a letter from IMOR the stone is returned to its hole.

IMOR 1 GOD SQUAD 0

One down two to go!

Re-developments on Brook Street and Station Rd, Ilkley

2009-12-16T14:43:00.002Z

Taken on a 1930s folding camera

2009-12-16T14:34:00.001Z

2009-12-16T14:28:00.000Z

Lights as they used to be - WOW!

2009-12-16T14:16:00.000Z

Street Clutter and 2x2 block paving

2009-12-14T13:19:00.003Z

Ilkley’s pavements have become a trial for those less able on their feet. In some cases those very able. A lady of most senior years tripped over a paving stone and fell very heavily. I understand from those who came to her assistance it is a daily occurrence on the town’s pavements, where the 2x2 block paving has been laid.

Why was the Conservation Area allowed to be vandalised by Bradford Metropolitan District Council?

The old 3x2 paving stones seldom caused so much pain to the populace. Also they rarely moved once in place. Looking at Ilkley’s pavements one does wonder who in Planning had a brainstorm. Alternatively, perhaps they too tripped over an offending paving stone. Again less cosmetics and more Public Safety should be paramount.

When are we to see real paving stones of the era returned to their rightful place?

I heared recently Ilkley had an unblemished ‘townscape’ of the Victorian/ Edwardian era free of street clutter and overbearing lamp posts. Where had the writer been these last twenty years? Central Ilkley has been turned into one of the most cluttered areas I have come across.

The River Dolphins of the World

2009-12-09T12:55:00.004Z

Save the Boto and it’s Friends

River Dolphins of the Amazon

Hong Kong, India and China

Hong Kong

Amazon

Pink Amazon River Dolphin

A CHRISTMAS CARD IN VERSE

2009-12-09T12:52:00.000Z

A CHRISTMAS CARD IN VERSE

Preacher treads the virgin snow,
Past windows glowing with candle light.
The smell of woodsmoke from cottage fires,
Drifts across the silent vale.

Sounds of distant church bells ringing,
Herald the start of the christmas tale.
Farmers, shepherds, foresters and wives,
Children and old folk throng the kirk.

Scarves and bonnets, warmest clothing,
Carollers huddle 'neath flickering lantern.
Shepherds watch while cattle lo,
And think of a stable long ago.

Now they're tucked up in their beds,
Ears a'straining for reindeer bells.
Downstairs mother fills the stockings,
Father ties them round the hearth.

Snow hangs from ancient pine trees,
Like Santa's northern grotto.
Welly clad children pulling sledges,
Happy voices ring through the lanes.

Old folk sit by hot log fires,
Talking of winters of long ago.
Of roasted chestnuts and wassail cups,
Of freezing winters of long, long ago.

Written specially for the
Christmas Housecall Programe
BBC Radio Cleveland 1983
by
Frazer Irwin

Yorkshire gunslinger was 'King' of the West

2009-12-09T12:46:00.003Z

Wild West Riding

He was a master killer, without fear and with nerves of steel. It was said that in the lawless days of the American West he would shoot an adversary with the same precision and deliberation that he shot at a target. His name was Ben Thompson, a gunman, gambler...and Yorkshireman. He was born in Knottingley on November 11, 1842 and together with his family moved to Austin, Texas some nine years later. When the American Civil War broke out Ben was keen to be involved and joined the Confederate Army.

He was by this time a known killer, having seen off with a Bowie knife a Frenchman during a fracas in New Orleans. In uniform it did not take him long to add to his score. He quit the army rapidly having killed a sergeant and lieutenant in the barrack room and headed for Mexico where he teamed up with the French who at the time were attempting to keep Archduke Maximillian on the throne. But the lure of the West was strong and Thompson returned to Texas only to end up in jail for shooting a man in San Antonio.

On his release from prison Thompson vowed that no other jail would ever hold him, but appeared to settle down, opening a saloon in Abilene, an ill-fated venture which ended when his partner was shot dead in a dispute with Wild Bill Hickock. Thompson decided it was time to move on, but ran into trouble yet again in 1873 when he helped a man who had killed a sheriff escape from the clutches of the law. His punishment - a fine of just $25. Insecure and always on the edge of the law, Thompson moved wearily around the West for years, knowing that his life of gambling and violence would probably end just as swiftly as it had for his victims.

A hardened gunfighter, Thompson was as good with his six-gun as any of the more famous hardmen of the old West. On Christmas Eve in 1880 he was drinking in a bar when. A man called Mark Wilson blasted both barrels of a shotgun at Thompson. The bullets missed, but the fast shooting Yorkshireman did not, putting four bullets into Wilson within seconds. The drama did not end there, though. A barman shot at Thompson, the bullet passing through his coat.

Thompson wheeled around as the barman ducked low behind the bar and shot low. The bullet went straight through the wood and hit the man in the mouth. Miraculously, Thompson was acquitted of murder and later decided to make a serious attempt to go straight, actually standing for the office of – and being appointed - chief of police. It brought a change of lifestyle. He stopped drinking so heavily and made a genuine attempt to put his life in order – and bring justice to the lawless streets of Austin. But not for long.

The year was 1882 and Thompson was on a trip to San Antonio. While approaching the town’s Vaudeville Theatre he saw a former friend from his confederate days, Jack Harris, supposedly hiding behind a blind, a drawn gun in his hand. It was enough to put Thompson on his guard. He drew his own gun and shot Harris dead. Tried, he escaped being found guilty of murder but resigned as chief of police, soon falling into his bad old ways and drinking heavily. It was then that he formed a new friendship, with an ex-outlaw called John King Fisher.

Together they travelled to San Antonio, finishing up in a theatre which specialised in acts featuring semi-nude girls. From a comfortable box the two watched the show while at the same time chatting to a man called Billy Sims, a partner in the theatre along with Joe Foster. A third partner – Jack Harris – was fresh in Thompson’s memory, the gunman having just escaped a murder indictment for killing him.

Foster refused to be friendly towards Thompson and while spurning his attempts to make peace suddenly jumped back as guns blazed, both Thompson and Fisher going down without having time to draw their weapons. Both were dead, Thompson with eight bullets in him. The following day Ben Thompson’s body was taken back to Austin by his brother Billy. The day of the Yorkshire gunslinger was over.

Thanks must go to Alan of Hullwebs for use of the above article.

Ilkley Moor Golf Links

2009-12-07T13:41:00.000Z

Deaconess College - Ilkley

2009-12-07T13:37:00.000Z

Willy How Waterfall

2009-12-04T12:26:00.000Z

Putting Green - West View Park

2009-12-04T12:25:00.001Z

Houses on Leeds Road, Ilkley, 1867.

2009-12-04T12:24:00.000Z

Nell Bank House

2009-12-04T12:20:00.000Z

This should not happen to a Protected Species

2009-12-03T12:37:00.001Z

2009-12-03T12:36:00.000Z

2009-12-03T12:34:00.000Z

Vandalism under another name!

2009-12-03T12:33:00.000Z

Blue Bells and Oaks in Middleton Woods, Wharfedale

2009-12-03T12:31:00.001Z

2009-12-03T12:29:00.000Z

In Search of the Wild Parstie

2009-12-02T13:32:00.000Z

The true, Wild Parstie is found only within the Ancient bounds of Cornwall. It shares the countryside with an even rarer beast, the Oggy. The Parstie is a communal creature, found in burrows on cliff tops, usually near old or dis-used tin workings. It is possible it came to these shores with visiting Phoenicians looking for something in which to put their sardines.

The animal can become something of a pest because of it’s pleasure in digging up carrots. These are mostly eaten or, like the squirrel, re-buried elsewhere to be forgotten. It is said only the Carrot Fly can equal the Parstie when it comes to sniffing out hidden roots. Unlike the fly this nocturnal animal is a great delicacy and in the open season great numbers are trapped. Usually with the aid of juicy carrots.

Methods of cooking are closely guarded secrets, though some would say they have the knack! it is upto a true born Cornishman to give the cook the all clear. As mentioned earlier there is also the Oggy. This is a solitary beast. So rare in fact very few have seen it let alone tasted it. Whereas the Parstie could be called carnivorous, the Oggy has more of an omnivorous nature.

In fact there is a dispute as to where it came from. Some say Marco Polo brought it to Italy from Cathay along with edible bootlaces! Whether we owe it to Marco or not I will leave it to you, but the aroma of a lightly roasted Oggy eaten at the bottom of a Cornish Tin Mine shaft, is something few will fail to forget. Always assuming one can find both an Oggy and a safe mineshaft!

It must be pointed out the strange war cry- oggie, oggie, oggie - heard in Welsh Valleys and around pit villages of Northern climes has nothing to do with Cornwall. Neither has the sub species often found in Dumnonia and other parts of Albion. Though a very distant cousin of these two delicacies, Haggii rotunda, is worth seeking out.

The marauding Picts and other non descript tribes hail the Haggii as their National dish. This is a load of palony as the animal was first known to nomadic shepherds of Ancient Persia. It came to these shores by way of William and his mates when they paddled over to play conquers with our lot. After a deal of trouble they herded it into Hadrian’s back yard. A few semi - wild specimens are seen in the Shambles now and again but be wary of imitations.

Those foolish enough to risk life and limb travelling North of so-called civilisation, should lookout for the more lively members of the Haggii family, ‘The Balmoral Burper and Grampian Griper’. The condition of local peasantry is a good guide as to which species are found in the locality. Travellers are advised to carry a large stock of kaolin and morphine to ward off unwanted side effects.

An even rarer sub-specie is said to inhabit the banks of Ness. When disturbed it exudes an hallucinogenic liquid which makes it look larger and longer. This keeps would be predators at bay. The ‘strange spectacle on Loch Ness’ reported in the Inverness Courier by Alex Campbell on May 2nd 1933, is thought to have been such a sighting of Haggii rotunda ‘aquatica’.

Fortunately, those living in the South have only to contend with an annual loss of carrots and strange noises emanating from old mine shafts. Some say these are the ghostly voices of long lost miners. Locals however will recognise them as the calls of a love sick Oggy!

Joking aside, I understand the Cornish Oggy or Oggie was/is a great delicacy of tin miners. Do any of my readers have the recipe for this succulent and historic dish?

The Goblin of Old Cuck Ghyll

2009-12-02T13:10:00.000Z

Tradition has it the reason Job Senior’s ferret became so fickle was because he loaned it to Old Cuck on All Hallows Eve. Before the Norman Conquest Scalebor Ghyll was known as Old Cuck Ghyll after the Goblin who lived in it’s dark depths. It was the same Dark Fairy who stole the hart of Sir Richard de Skalbor’s betrothed, long before Lady Ann Clifford lost her heart in The Strid. It was often said the Legend of the White Horse of Wharfedale actually referred to Sir Richard’s betrothed’s hart and not in fact a White Horse. However if one looks carefully one can still find remnants of the White Horse Legend in other parts of Wharfedale.

Sir Richard was a Knight Templar and had built a Templar Hall somewhere near the site of the former Scalebor Farm. It is very possible there were other Templar Halls thoughout the area. A common misnomer was to associate Sir Richard with the Maconochie-Wellwoods. Doubtless mistaking a dolphin for a herring. Something the Cluny Macphersons would never do, or rather would never do in the company of those, well let’s just say it wasn’t done. Old Cuck Ghyll became Scalebor Ghyll in memory of Sir Richard’s betrothed losing her beloved hart. A matter which led to him forbidding the hunting of Deer on land bordering the ghyll.

Centuries later the same ghyll was to see refinements unheard of in Sir Richard’s time. Concrete culverts took Moorland water to the Wharfe, garden gnomes dabbled their feet in it’s murky depths and trees died through lack of care. A new village covered the land Sir Richard’s betrothed’s hart cavorted upon and Old Cuck took his place amongst dabbling garden gnomes. It wasn’t a Heron which took your prized Oaf last night, but Old Cuck upto his Dark Fairy fantasies once again.

OPERATION OVERLOAD - 2

2009-12-02T13:07:00.000Z

Did no-one training to be Planning Officers read ancient history? Even middle history or geography in tropical climes. Have none of them seen pictures of houses on stilts or visited them while on holiday? There lies the answer to England’s flooding problems if flood plains are to be developed. Put the damn things on stilts or something very similar. This is what comes of relying on computers and modular teaching.

Too many planners, architects and developers have spent little or no time on the end of a shovel. Learning about the land they are to re-work, looking for tell tale signs of too much or too little water. In truth learning their chosen trades and professions as in days of yore. You can’t beat hands on, upto the knees in mud, in the field, experience. The stuff you don’t get in modules and computers.

There are buildings around Ilkley and Wharfedale that have stood for three centuries and more. Buildings erected without modern equipment and embellishments. Works of art all of them and still giving useful service. How many new ticky-tacky boxes will be here in fifty years, let alone a century?

Heat Exchanger v Hot Air

2009-12-02T13:03:00.001Z

Full marks for Morrisons using heat exchangers in their stores. However they are a little behind the times. In my volume on Household Management from the late fifties – early sixties we find the English Rose Heat Pump. Capable of providing hot water for the bathroom and kitchen and cool air during the summer. All this with 5.4 cubic feet of refrigeration thrown in.

I wrote to a Minister in Westminster outlining what the English Rose Heat Pump did and asked if there were similar units on the market today. In reply was sent instructions on Patents, Health & Safety, Finance for small business, supermarket freezers, and a host more literature which had nothing to do with my former question.

Is there any wonder we are in such a mess with this Government if they can’t answer a simple question? It’s one thing New Labour spouting about green initiatives, but quite another it would seem putting it into practice. Perhaps one of your readers can offer the information the Minister and their Department failed to do.

Where are the Verbia Stones

2009-11-28T11:15:00.004Z

Letter to Ilkley Parish Council
December 8 2008

Note, the letter below was sent to Ilkley Gazette and later printed following requests to have the Verbia Stone or it’s facsimile returned to Ilkley. We were told it was being followed up etc. Nothing has happened since. The Stones now appear to have disappeared.

WHAT IS STOPPING YOU THIS TIME?

YOUR COMMENT
December 8 2000

Ilkley Gazette
Wharfedale Newspapers
8 Wells Road
Ilkley
LS29 9JD

Dear Editor

ROMAN ALTER STONES

Sarcasm doth not befit persons of the cloth. Here are the facts given me regarding the Roman altar stones. A friend of many years, also an historian contacted Ilkley Gazette requesting my phone number to warn of the disappearance of the Verbeia stones. The gentleman now of senior years began visiting Myddleton Lodge over seventy years ago as an altar boy and the stones featured in these visits.

Unbeknown others had noted their disappearance in July/August and started their own enquiries. The reverend gentleman suggests polite enquiries would lead them to being pleasantly surprised. They were, very surprised, especially when told to mind their own business.

John Speed’s map of Yorkshire - 1500 shows nought of Myddleton.

Edward Bains - 1822 tells of Ilkley’s Roman fort and the original altar to Verbeia being still in existence at Myddleton Lodge.

Edmund Bogg - 1891 in his book ‘A Thousand Miles in Wharfedale’ quotes, ‘the private grounds of the hall -(Myddleton Lodge) - contain many relics of Danish, Saxon, Roman and Celtic origin, also a Saxon tombstone.’

Apart from the Verbeia stones, what has become of the rest?

So far as quoting the scriptures, might I point out one of the stones started life in Olicana long before the Myddletons came to the locality. So who is coveting who’s goods? While history may not be everyone’s cup of tea, we owe it to future generations to preserve what little of the town’s past is left, in their rightful place, at Olicana. Finally, I can assure the reverend gentleman nocturnal visitations are not my scene.

It took IMOR only two months from being first alerted to having an historic milestone replaced at Middleton following it’s removal by Leeds Diocese. Ilkley Parish Council, Ilkley Civic Society, amongst others failed after trying for over two years.

2008 and still nothing.

Certain Ilkley residents believe the alter and it’s facsimile may not be in the valley anymore. If this is so what have Leeds Diocese done with them? Also why are they so coy about telling us what they have done with them? Lack of information is fueling rumours they no longer exist. Do you know better? If so please contact Ilkley Parish Council. Email address on their website,

LIGHT POLLUTION

2009-11-28T11:11:00.001Z

I am at a loss to understand why giant lamp posts have been allowed to wreck Ilkley’s Conservation Area. Why do we need so many? One would assume, they being near twice as high as the old posts would require less, not more. Is this a case of over ordering, or not knowing the area well enough, or plainly wasting resident’s hard earned brass. Obviously some-one has found a pot of money to pay for future tree surgery, a post being planted close to the Birch tree outside MacKays.

Vertical Scrap Iron

2009-11-28T11:01:00.002Z

Another Yorkshire Website for Yorkshire Folk....

2009-11-06T15:00:00.003Z

The Yorkshire Journal

It looks good, very good, in fact to quote
an old Yorkshire saying,"It's allright."

Pass the word among your friends and let
the rest of the world enjoy God's Acres too.

Farmers Market for Ilkley

2009-07-23T15:26:00.004+01:00

It appears the majority of Ilkley folk are being told by a few they can't have a Farmers Market. Yet our traders have to put up with an annual intrusion of a so-called Continental Market, in would you belive, the name of theatre. According to one we could well do without.

Welcome to Darwin Gardens

2009-06-16T13:48:00.006+01:00

Dear Friends

As it appears some are unaware of the Darwin Gardens Millennium Project, even fewer will know where it all started. One might say the first seeds were sown in the late fifties while living in Kent. A favourite cycle ride would take in Down House, the Darwin abode. Little thinking in years to come I would work (and live and work) at the three buildings Darwin used while staying in Ilkley during 1859. Wells House, White Wells and Wells Terrace - North View House, known today as Hillside Annex.

While trying to have a footpath re-opened, fallen trees cleared and rails on footbridges renewed it struck me how overgrown West View Park was. I got a little carried away (understatement) and ‘Seeds of an Idea’ came into fruition. Later Ilkley Parish Council asked for Millennium Projects for the town and Darwin Gardens was put forward. It soon became clear the Project needed more expert attention and was passed over to Dr Peter Harnett. The rest is history.

Frazer Irwin

August 1995

Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by man, no-one can stand in these solitude’s unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath in his body.

Charles Darwin
( 1809 - 1882 )

Darwin Gardens will be a celebration of the Millennium.

They will become a place to educate our children, while remembering one of the world’s greatest botanists. Darwin Gardens will be a living part of the twenty first century.

The concept of Darwin Gardens first came about during 1995, when closure of Ilkley College became more of an issue. Having worked at Wells House, Hillside Annex and lived and worked at White Wells in the past, also done an amount of research into Ilkley’s Hydropathic past, it wasn’t long before Project Darwin saw light.

Initially, my idea was for a University either at home or abroad, to buy Wells House, similar to Harlaxton Manor in Lincolnshire. Possibly investing in Hillside Annex, too. Thirdly, to find a way of refurbishing West View Park and re-naming it, Darwin Gardens.

Few people, new people, in Ilkley realise the connection between the Town and, Charles Darwin. Nor that he stayed here during the first publication of his book - On the Origin of the Species by Natural Selection, in 1859. He chose Ilkley against Malvern, his normal watering place, even though Wells House Hydro had only opened three years previously. Onreaching Ilkley, he stayed at the Ilkley Wells House Hydropathic Establishment and, took the waters at White Wells. Later, when his family joined him, they all moved to North View House now a part of Hillside Annex. Darwin would have taken one of Donkey Jackson’s steeds to White Wells,to bathe.

Darwin Gardens (West View Park) are in an ideal position for a park/garden to commemorate, Ilkley’s rise from a small hamlet to what became known as ‘The Heather Spa’, the Millennium and Darwin. Being on the edge of Ilkley Moor, it is within sight of White Wells, Wells House and Hillside Annex, all part of Darwin’s stay in this town. It is also in a unique position to receive visitors to one of Yorkshire’s leading tourist areas. Not only from this country, but the world at large.

In PROJECT DARWIN, I proposed the work in West View park, to be done by those out of work.Or, the British Trust for Countryside Volunteers. Perhaps both. At the time, I could not see Bradford Council putting up the money for such a scheme. Thinking perhaps, Parish Councillors would have more of an insight into this aspect of the project. It now appears we must forge ahead and do the work ourselves. So be it!

Note.

Neither Bradford Council or Ilkley Parish Council have put up money for the scheme.

Darwin Gardens will become a Charitable Trust. A clock tower had been put forward as an one idea. This is 2000-2001 AD, not 1897! We already have enough clocks in the town and none appear able to keep correct time, if at all. It would not be long before a clock tower became taken for granted, apart for those checking their watches. One only has to ask people of Otley what their clock tower in Kirkgate was erected for and by whom, to get the idea.

DARWIN GARDENS on the other hand, will provide a living memorial to all those who contributed towards the scheme, the Town’s past and present for 2000-2001 AD and beyond.

Drawing on experience gained while on the Grounds Staff at Askham Bryan Agricultural College, during a National tree planting scheme, in the late sixties, I feel a similar project would fulfil the wishes for Millennium Ilkley. The Askham Bryan/ National Tree planting involved not just the College but local people and organisations, schools, colleges, Universities and other training bodies.

Churches and religious groups, farmers and Landowners, businesses large and small. Menston Church Association being one. In fact just about every walk of life. I envisaged something of the order of an Arboretum, for Darwin Gardens. To follow the early wishes of Mr Middleton, for Mill Ghyll in the nineteenth Century.

We must not forget ROMBALDS HOTEL, one of the Town’s prestigious hotels, lies just across the road from West View Park/Darwin Gardens. Another reason for re-generating the area and bringing about that ‘good image’ we so often hear talked about in tourism circles. Already, there are residents showing more than passing interest in Darwin Gardens. Perhaps helped by publicity during and after 1995 in Local and National Press of PROJECT DARWIN. One of our local tree suppliers had shown interest earlier, as had other outlets, members of the clergy, teachers, a Landowner, Senior citizens and, school children.

As pointed out earlier, Darwin Gardens will become a living part of Ilkley. A place where families can go and enjoy the Moorland air, while visiting their tree or trees. They will be able to tend them for years to come. those children whose school, family, youth club, even themselves, donated a tree, will bring their own children even grandchildren, to see their FAMILY TREE!

There is another reason for choosing this site. Those who have lived in Ilkley for some time, will be aware of the spa status which the town formerly enjoyed. But how many are aware where the fashion started in Britain? The same may be said for our thousands of visitors. Darwin Gardens are within sight of White Wells.

Ilkley’s ‘Foundation Stone’.

Again a reason for celebrating the Millennium near the Moor, which helped to make the town World famous.

I also proposed something to go hand in hand with the trees. The Moor is widely known for it’s rock carvings. We could place large boulders for artists and sculptors to carve, as did our ancient forebears. Whether this be in the style of times gone by or, something modern, will be upto the carvers. Once again, this too is something which has fired enthusiasm with certain archæological members of the community.

We must not forget other areas of the Town’s history. With careful planning, this too could be a part of Darwin Gardens. One might say the "ORIGIN of ILKLEY" alongside the "ORIGIN of SPECIES". There will be those who say, ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Nothing could be further from the truth, Darwin Gardens are passed by people many times a day, also overlooked by habitation. Against those in the central area of Town, which are devoid of habitation after shops and offices close.

Darwin Gardens will be small enough to be personal to the people of Ilkley, yet large enough for those who visit our Town to appreciate them as being something different from the rest of our Moors and Countryside. They will see our celebration of the Millennium grow into something beautiful, instead of a stone effigy which steadily becomes covered in grime. Only to disappear under some future development.

The collection in Darwin Gardens will be added to over the next hundred or so years, whenever there is something of Local, National or Family importance to celebrate. A little difficult to do with a clock tower. Charles Darwin wrote, what many call the most significant book since the Bible. He started the second phase while staying at North View House (part of Hillside Annex) in 1859, just across the road from Darwin Gardens. I hope residents of Ilkley, Ilkley Parish Council, Bradford Metropolitan District Council and Ilkley Tourist Management Committee plus all who eventually become involved with the PROJECT DARWIN, will realise the potential Darwin Gardens, has to offer the town.

We have a duty to our children, future generations and the world at large, to remember the part Ilkley played in the life of one of our greatest botanists, scientists and writers. Also, his part in the rise of Ilkley, from a small Yorkshire hamlet to a Spa Town of world re-known.

Here Ladies and Gentlemen I give you
A Project for Millennium Ilkley.
Darwin Gardens - A Vision for the Future.

First Ideas 1995
Reviewed 1996/7
Revised 1998/9

Frazer Irwin.

ILKLEY’S ROYAL CHARTERS

2009-04-11T14:50:00.001+01:00

Ilkley -
4116 4476.
334 Subsidy £11.25

MARKET CHARTER

(Charter)
Wed; gr 1 Feb 1253, by K Hen III to Peter de Percy.
To be held at the manor (CChR, 1226-57, p. 418).
In 1293, Robert de Percy, son of the grantee, claimed the market (QW, p. 225).

FAIR CHARTER

(Charter)
vfm+5, Luke (18 Oct); gr 1 Feb 1253, by K Hen III to Peter de Percy.
To be held at the manor (CChR, 1226-57, p. 418).
In 1293, Robert de Percy, son of the grantee, claimed the fair (QW, p. 225).

Should you require further information please contact the Bradford Metropolitan District Council law library.

Galileo or Bust

2009-04-08T15:36:00.000+01:00

Relax folks the Westminster bullyboys have done it again. Overlooking what should have been logically obvious. What are their researchers researching? Green cheese on the moon. According to a letter in Friday 16th February 2007 Daily Telegraph COMMENTS page, GPS cannot be used to enforce anything in this country, or any other country apart from the USA. Look it up. The system is all American and they, for very obvious reasons, have refused foreign interference. Which means if this doesn’t change, and I hardly think it will, any thoughts of making laws round it in Britain, are impossible. According to the writer, inability to use the American system led to the European Galileo system. However as this system may not come until after 2020 or later, if at all, road charging using sat-nav is out. Back to the drawing boards lads! Has anyone seen the abacus?

Do You Remember When?

2009-03-03T14:00:00.005Z

Rationing Days

The young of today are lucky they don’t have to go through their early life as did my generation. We just missed the War (WW 2) but still had to contend with the aftermath. Rationing and Identity Cards. My ID card was issued on 3rd September 1947 and valid (should the hostilities have continued) until 23rd August 1963.

Make do and mend was the word! Clothes rationing did not end until 1949. Though looking at some of today’s fashions one could be forgiven for thinking you're in a time warp.

Other things we take for granted were, in some places, luxuries. Electric light for one! A BATH! I remember visiting pit villages, where the nearest they came to en-suite, was a tin bath in front of the kitchen range.There were others even worse off. No bath at all. As for toilets, you had to be a good runner and eat plenty of carrots! Things were somewhat better in the new estates and houses of the better off. But for a large part of the population little had changed since before the hostilities started. In some cases become worse. Prefab houses; these are listed buildings now.

No television! at least not until the mid fifties for greater part of the population north of Sutton Coldfield. Then only one channel in black and white. Colour in this country was unheard of. It was the in thing in America. Workers Playtime, Mrs Dale’s Diary, Listen With Mother, Uncle Mac. I wonder how many could sit comfortably these days? Large classes at school. We averaged about forty kids per class. the nearest it came to central heating, was a large coal fire in the middle of the school.

We did have BBC Educational Broadcasts. once a year a chap came round with a 16mm projector and films for the whole school. We practised our writing on slates (with scribers), later there were obnoxious pens with ink, which seemed to go everywhere but on the paper. Going to a country school made a great deal of difference in those days. Though free school milk would, I believe, smell the same town or country and of course waxed paper straws. You never forget the smell!

I will not go into what happened in the privy’s, except to say, winter was quite an education in many ways.music lessons were a combination of what was left in the head teacher’s own collection of records. One of the local farm lads being on the handle to wind the gramophone. Our teacher would stuff old socks down the trumpets as a form of volume control. Sometimes using thorns from the hedgerow instead of gramophone needles.We had Music and Movement. The fore-runner of aerobics, or whatever you call it these days, broadcast from a huge wireless in the Head’s office. Everyone had to do it because extension speakers were non-existent.

Being in the country meant Country Dancing. Good practice for Morris Men. Dancing round the May Pole and trying to tie teacher up in the ribbons.In celebration of the Queen’s Coronation, saw hundreds of Leeds school children dancing around similar May Poles in Roundhay Park. Years go by and a different sound of music (?) is often heard in the same field.Nature Walks. Out in the fresh air, not watching it on some television screen.

We were doubly lucky in some respects, because our walks took us through the grounds of Temple newsham estate. You kept off the grass otherwise Parky would clip your ear! Shire horses were used for all the hauling. Thirty odd years later found myself taking lessons on a horse of the same breed.There was always the sound of agriculture not very far away. Like the day a bullock ran loose in the play ground. Milk churns being collected from the farm across the road.

Cows brought in from the field and the sound of milking machines. Huge steam traction engines and belt driven threshing machines. Hay stacked in the round, not in bales.Romanies lived not far away and sometimes their kids would come to school. The old school was sold by one of our local Estate Agents and fields we used to play in are a huge estate of little red brick boxes. Just like the sixty’s song. All ticky and tacky!

We had two hundred and forty pence in the pound . Twelve pennies in a shilling and twenty shillings in a pound. Ten bob notes, half crowns, florins, thre’penny bits and tanners. Even one called a farthing, the same size as a penny piece today. There were strange (to you) measurements, yards, feet and inches. To say nothing of rods, poles, perchs, chains and furlongs. Left over from Britain’s agricultural age. Ice cream delivered by pony and trap, dustbins carried by the dustbin man, not used a receptacle for poly-bags and the like.

People walked in those days. They walked nearly everywhere. Our family often walked to Otley for a days shopping from Adel. Not only was owning a motor car rare in this country so was the stuff to power it with. Only those who needed one most (to begin with) Doctors, police and business people. All fuel was hard to come by in those days.There were pea-soupers (fog and smog) that thick you really couldn’t see the end of your arm. A bus conductor (the chap who took your money and gave you a ticket), stepped off to give a lady a hand then lost sight of the bus in the smog.

They found him five hours later walking in the opposite direction.On the occasions we travelled into the countryside, we saw field upon field of hundreds and hundreds of military vehicles, aircraft and equipment. As far as the eye could see in all directions. A rare trip to the seaside being much the same, with ‘pill boxes’, another name for gun emplacements, dotted along the cliffs and near the harbour.

Some of us found un-exploded bombs and were lucky enough to see the bomb disposal team blow them up. Others were not so lucky and the explosive blew without warning.Trippers were ferried to pleasure craft in DUKW’s. Amphibious lorries used by the troops during beach landings. Farmers, councils, haulage firms all made use of ex-WD equipment for years to come. now much of what is left have become prized collector’s items. Ahh, those were the days when life was young and care a passing fancy.

Automatic Grass Cutters

2009-01-06T12:06:00.002Z

Environment Friendly
Turf Management System

The modern scientific age often neglects ancient methods. The Environment Friendly Turf Management System is practically noiseless, running costs negligible, complements the surroundings and most importantly, has a relatively long working life. Provides a near constant supply of liquid and semi-soluble fertilizer which no keen gardener or council department can overlook.

Unfortunately some find this source of fertilization disagreeable and go to great lengths to rid it from the countryside. Traffic islands, waste ground and grass verges in town and city are ideal situations for use of the EFTM System. Equally areas in rural districts similar to the above would also benefit. Costs can be kept to a minimum as the system is self propelled, while operators have mobile living accommodation. For more information contact your local Gypsy Liaison Officer.

Christmas Letter 2008

2008-12-16T15:09:00.000Z

Another year nearly gone folks

Tis that time once again.

As we approach another season of thick heads, stomach cramps and grown children smiling sweetly at respective Wrinklies, crinklies even, a word of warning to all. If the kids are over twenty-one, ask them first about those socks or handkerchiefs, you’re going to buy? The male contingent may prefer ‘boxer’ shorts to briefs, as to ‘Liberty’ bodices they went out years ago! A return to the old ways of giving should be promoted in this materialistic world. Give the little perishers a bag of nuts, apples, oranges and a cardboard box. Dig out those storm lanterns and serenade your neighbours with joyful voices. Only don’t stand too close to the bathroom window.

If you still have open fires haul in a Yule or two. dress the house with cloaks, green or otherwise, and leave Spruce trees in their natural habitat. Besides, Christmas trees were of foreign introduction at times when everyone had housemaids and flunkies! certain folk turn into large Elves, and cavort around our streets in strange attire, while trying to stuff large parcels down central heating flues. A case of SDS. ‘Seasonal Derangement Syndrome’. Little green men dive for cover, at sight of large buffoons in red and white, staggering across moorland followed by a red nosed reindeer, and uttering cries of, “Ho, ho, ho”! Any fool knows this is no time for gardening.

Turkeys wish they had never been invented. While modern cooks find a ‘kitchen dog’ would be more suitable than a microwave. The Season of ‘Good will to all Men’ ( strange how they never mention women ), has given way to SoTT - ‘Season of Television tantrums’. If that wasn’t enough on Boxing day a strange madness overcomes the populace. They haul themselves up steep moorland tracks to submerge half-naked in wells of freezing cold water. A throwback, perhaps, of Viking days!

But misery apart may I thank Local and National Media for their help and perseverance over the last year. To their readers, viewers and listeners goodwill for 2009, to them ‘over t’ill’ rest easy for a wee while and to any I have left out, may your Gods look favourably upon you.

Here’s Health to your Enemy’s Enemy and Seasonal Good Wishes
from Ilkley’s Most Outspoken Resident

COMMON SENSE ON BIO AND CHEMICAL HAZARDS

2008-12-15T14:21:00.001Z

This was sent to me by a very reliable source. It is a bit long but very interesting. Probably one of the most useful bits of info I've seen in the past few months. It is basically An Idiot's Guide to The Possible Effects of all this War Palaver. Tells what the real possibilities are and what to do in case of any of them happen (and no none of it involves sticky back plastic and a roll of masking tape - just the brain that you carry around in your head). You might want to consider printing it out and sticking it in the kitchen the drawer, I know I am. And boy do I feel a hell of a lot better now.

Abby.
xxxx

To all,

Here is an interesting piece from a SFC Red Thomas (Ret) in Meza, AZ. It makes a good, unclas, common sense approach to a lot of the "fear factor" being generated about a potential terrorist attack using chemical, bological or nuclear weapons. A bit oversimplistic if you are a NBC specialist, but some common sense for the "person on the street".

Ted

COMMON SENSE ON BIO AND CHEMICAL HAZARDS

Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf, I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert.

Lesson number one:

In the mid 1990s, there were a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack, less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better in a few hours), and only one percent of the injured died. "60 Minutes" once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a thousand people; well, he didn't tell you the thousand dead people per drop was theoretical. Drill sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff is to keep the recruits awake in class (I know this because I was a drill sergeant, too). Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie (read this sentence again out loud)!

These weapons are about terror; if you remain calm, you will probably not die. This is far less scary than the media and their "experts" make it sound. Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister, and Incapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters and politicians, they are not weapons of mass destruction; they are "area denial," and terror weapons that don't destroy anything. When you leave the area you almost always leave the risk. That's the difference; you can leave the area and the risk; soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it, and that's why they need all that spiffy gear.

These are not gasses, they are vapors and/or airborne particles. The agent must be delivered in sufficient quantity to kill/injure, and that defines when/how it's used. Every day we have a morning and evening inversion where "stuff" suspended in the air gets pushed down. This inversion is why allergies (pollen) and air pollution are worst at these times of the day. So, a chemical attack will have its best effect an hour or so either side of sunrise/sunset. Also, being vapors and airborne particles, they are heavier than air so they will seek low places like ditches, basements and underground garages.

This stuff won't work when it's freezing, it doesn't last when it's hot, and wind spreads it too thin too fast. They've got to get this stuff on you, or get you to inhale it for it to work. They also have to get the concentration of chemicals high enough to kill or wound you. Too little and it's nothing, too much and it's wasted. What I hope you've gathered by this point is that a chemical weapons attack that kills a lot of people is incredibly hard to do with military grade agents and equipment, so you can imagine how hard it will be for terrorists. The more you know about this stuff, the more you realize how hard it is to use.

NERVE AGENTS

We'll start by talking about nerve agents. You have these in your house: plain old bug killer (like Raid) is nerve agent. All nerve agents work the same way; they are cholinesterase inhibitors that mess up the signals your nervous system uses to make your body function. It can harm you if you get it on your skin, but it works best if they can get you to inhale it. If you don't die in the first minute and you can leave the area, you're probably going to live.

The military's antidote for all nerve agents is atropine and pralidoxime chloride. Neither one of these does anything to cure the nerve agent; they send your body into overdrive to keep you alive for five minutes. After that, the agent is used up. Your best protection is fresh air and staying calm. Listed below are the symptoms for nerve agent poisoning: Sudden headache. Dimness of vision (someone you're looking at will have pinpointed pupils). Runny nose. Excessive saliva or drooling. Difficulty breathing. Tightness in chest. Nausea. Stomach cramps. Twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just got on you.

If you are in public and you start experiencing these symptoms, first ask yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop? Did someone spray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick, too? Is there an odor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it shouldn't be? If the answer is yes, then calmly (if you panic, you breathe faster and inhale more air/poison) leave the area and head upwind, or outside. Fresh air is the best "right now antidote." If you have a blob of liquid that looks like molasses or Karo syrup on you, blot it or scrape it off and away from yourself with anything disposable. This stuff works based on your body weight.

What a crop duster uses to kill bugs won't hurt you, unless you stand there and breathe it in real deep, then lick the residue off the ground for while. Remember, they have to do all the work, they have to get the concentration up and keep it up for several minutes, while all you have to do is quit getting it on you/quit breathing it by putting space between you and the attack.

BLOOD AGENTS

Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which affect your blood's ability to provide oxygen to your tissue. The scenario for attack would be the same as nerve agent. Look for a pop or someone splashing/spraying something and folks around there getting woozy/falling down. The telltale smells are bitter almonds or garlic where it shouldn't be. The symptoms are blue lips, blue under the fingernails, rapid breathing. The military's antidote is amyl nitride and, just like nerve agent antidote, it just keeps your body working for five minutes till the toxins are used up. Fresh air is the your best individual chance.

BLISTER AGENTS

Blister agents (distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to even handle it, let alone use it. It's almost impossible to handle safely and may have delayed effect of up to 12 hours. The attack scenario is also limited to the things you'd see from other chemicals. If you do get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don't pop them; if you must, don't let the liquid from the blister get on any other area, the stuff just keeps on spreading. It's just as likely to harm the user as the target. Soap, water, sunshine, and fresh air are this stuff's enemy.

Bottom line on chemical weapons (it's the same if they use industrial chemical spills) - they are intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to herd you like sheep to the wolves. If there is an attack, leave the area and go upwind, or to the sides of the wind stream. They have to get the stuff to you, and on you. You're more likely to be hurt by a drunk driver on any given day than be hurt by one of these attacks. Your odds get better if you leave the area. Soap, water, time, and fresh air really deal this stuff a knockout punch. Don't let fear of an isolated attack rule your life. The odds are really on your side.

NUCLEAR BOMBS

Nuclear bombs. These are the only true weapons of mass destruction on earth. The effects of a nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP, and radiation. If you see a bright flash of light like the sun, where the sun isn't, fall to the ground! The heat will be over in a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one out going, and one on the way back. Don't stand up to see what happened after the first wave; anything that's going to happen will have happened in two full minutes. These will be low yield devices and will not level whole cities. If you live through the heat, blast, and initial burst of radiation, you'll probably live for a very, very long time.

Radiation will not create 50-foot tall women, or giant ants and grasshoppers the size of tanks.

These will be, at the most, one kiloton bombs; that's the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT. Here's the real deal: flying debris and radiation will kill a lot of exposed (not all!) people within a half mile of the blast. Under perfect conditions, this is about a half mile circle of death and destruction, but when it's done, it's done. EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse and it will fry every electronic device for a good distance; it's impossible to say what and how far, but probably not over a couple of miles from ground zero is a good guess. Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out of order.

There are lots of kinds of radiation. You only need to worry about three; the others you have lived with for years. You need to worry about "ionizing radiation," little subatomic particles that go whizzing along at the speed of light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the nucleus and keep on going. That's how you get radiation poisoning - you have so many dead cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you. It's the same as people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger area gets radiated.

The good news is you don't have to just sit there and take it, and there's lots you can do rather than panic. First; your skin will stop alpha particles, a page of a newspaper or your clothing will stop beta particles. You just got to try and avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated with atoms that are emitting these things and you'll be generally safe from them. Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes my brain hurt), and they create the same damage as alpha and beta particles, only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they go all the way through your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of dense material. On the other hand, it takes a lot of this to kill you. Your defense is, as always, to not panic.

Basic hygiene and normal preparation are your friends. All canned or frozen foods are safe to eat. The radiation poisoning will not affect plants, so fruits and vegetables are OK if there's no dust on them (rinse them off if there is). If you don't have running water and you need to collect rain water or use water from wherever, just let it sit for 30 minutes and skim off the water gently from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will settle and the remaining water can be used for the toilet, which will still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in the tank.

BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to cover here. Basic personal hygiene and sanitation will take you farther than a million doctors. Wash your hands often, don't share drinks, food, etc., with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on it, don't have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or kiddie pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding room.

This stuff is carried by vectors, that is, bugs, rodents, and contaminated material. If biological warfare is so easy as the TV makes it sound, why has Saddam Hussein spent 20 years, millions and millions of dollars trying to get it right? If you're clean of person and home, you eat well and are active, you're going to live.

Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take for a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this stuff and I'm not getting one and I told my Mom not to bother with one, either (how's that for confidence?). We have a week's worth of cash, several days' worth of canned goods and plenty of soap and water. We don't leave stuff out to attract bugs or rodents, so we don't have them.

These people can't conceive a nation this big with this many resources. These weapons are made to cause panic, terror, and to demoralize. If we don't run around like sheep, they won't use this stuff after they find out it's no fun. The government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to protect every inch of America. You've only got to protect yourself, and by doing that, you help the country.

Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote here, and you can think up specific scenarios where my advice isn't the best. This letter is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the greatest number of situations. If you don't like my work, don't nit-pick, just sit down and explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a document around three pages long, yourself. This is how we, the people of the United States, can rob these people of their most desired goal, your terror.

SFC Red Thomas (Ret.), Armor Master Gunner, Mesa, AZ.

Unlimited reproduction and distribution is authorized. Just give me credit for my work, and, keep in context. I feel better already

* * * * * * * * *

VetJobs.com, Inc
P. O. Box 71445
Marietta, GA 30007-1445
o 877.Vet.Jobs (877.838.5627)
o 770.993.5117
f 770.993.2875

http://www.vetjobs.com Veterans make the best employees! http://www.vfw.org

Freedom Is Never Free - Support Our Armed Forces and Veterans!

*

Cup and Ring Stone Enigma Cracked

2008-12-11T16:32:00.000Z

Close your eyes and imagine Ilkley Moor five thousand years ago. Then as now rain poured down and wind howled. Breakfast, such as it was, may have been the odd egg or two from some native bird and maybe their equivalent of our toast soldiers. With one exception, hard boiled eggs have a tendency to roll off wind blown rocks. Fed up with the latter some enterprising individual began carving a hollow in a nearby rock and when fellow tribes folk saw how useful they were, did the same. Thus the first purpose built egg cups came into being. Depending on how large the family unit dictated the number of hollows. Alternatively those rocks with a great number of ‘cups’ could have been their equivalent of our B&B or communal table. All well and good you say but what about the rings? Simple. Where do you think they put the toast?

Ghosts in the Library

2008-12-10T15:58:00.000Z

Let the experts tell the story -

http://www.goodlibraryguide.com/blog/

Purple Haze over Ilkley

2008-11-14T10:05:00.002Z

From one of Seb's earliest blogs.

Purple Haze over Ilkley

Jimi Hendrix died 25 years ago this week at the age of 25. His early death helped him become one of the world’s most venerated pop stars alongside the likes of Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Jim Morrison.

Unknown to most people, the man who headlined Woodstock in 1969 had two years earlier played a single date in a town called Ilkley. With the help of an exclusive interview with Noel Redding, former bass player of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Matthew Catling describes how the legendary band threatened to take the roof down.

Today it is hard to equate Ilkley with Jimi Hendrix. The former is a quiet and deeply conservative Dales town, and the latter a figure of fabulous flamboyance and excess. This is the man whose explosive virtuosity made contemporaries like Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Pete Townsend feel pathetic. He was simply better, louder, more original and outrageous than anything they had seen.

On stage Hendrix could play his guitar effortlessly with his teeth or behind his back and might then smash up the instrument before setting fire to it. This was after blitzing an audience by peppering his songs with flashy improvisations and bursts of feedback, from which was able to suddenly snatch haunting but beautiful refrains.

If his talent and act were otherworldly, so were his striking looks. He was born in America of black, white and Cherokee blood. With his frizzed up hair and taste for flowery shirts and brightly coloured clothing he was an icon for the psychedelic sixties.

His charisma and sexual allure were considerable and Hendrix soon developed a reputation as the British music scene’s stud. And his appetite for drugs, particularly hallucinogens like LSD, became equally famous. Much of this legend had not yet been established in early 1967 when the Jimi Hendrix Experience set out on a tour of small venues in the north of England.

The itinerary included a night at the International Club in Leeds on Saturday March 11 followed the next evening by a gig at the Giro Club in the Troutbeck Hotel, Crossbeck Road, Ilkley, now the Troutbeck Nursing Home. At this point the trio - completed by Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass - had just started their meteoric rise to fame.

Few Venues

Their first single, Hey Joe, was slipping out of the charts having peaked at number three some weeks earlier. The next single, the ground breaking Purple Haze, was set to be released a few days later and the band were rehearsing and laying down tracks for their first album, Are You Experienced? Despite the fact these were the early days it is still hard to see how, from the perspective of 1995, Ilkley could attract somebody like Hendrix.

The answer is that in the 1960s' venues for rock gigs were few and far between. Yet there was an explosion of interest in the music and an emphasis on playing live created by financial necessity and audience expectation. Against this background places like the Troutbeck Hotel and Stoney Lea Hotel in Cowpasture Road found a place on the circuit for bands which had not yet made the big time.

Although Hendrix had not yet shot to superstardom the buzz created by Hey Joe and the rave reviews of his first London gigs preceded him. Those in the know flocked to Ilkley in the hope of witnessing a legend in the making - some travelled from as far away as Newcastle.

The Troutbeck was consequently packed when the Experience stepped on stage in its ballroom. Sketchy and conflicting reports of what happened next were carried in the Ilkley Gazette and other local newspapers.

The Yorkshire Post trumpeted ’700 in uproar at beat club after police stop show’. The Gazette quoted a ‘national paper’ whose ‘Pop Fans Ran Amok in Hotel’ story had 800 teenagers running riot after police halted a pop concert ‘in mid verse’. The report continues: “They ripped off doors, pulled out electrical fittings and smashed furniture after a police sergeant stepped on stage and stopped pop singer Jimmy Hendrix half-way through a number.”

All of the newspapers agreed that the police had pulled the plug on the gig halfway through the second song, because of the number of people in the ballroom flouted fire regulations. But the Gazette questioned the truth off the riot by quoting a spokesman of the Troutbeck. He was surprised at how ‘quiet and orderly’ the fans were and said limited damage had been caused simply because there were so many of them.

A police officer confirmed this by telling the Gazette that no official complaints of vandalism had been received. He explained the officers were initially called to the hotel by residents because nearby roads were blocked by cars belonging to Hendrix fans. It was then discovered the ballroom was seriously overcrowded and the decision taken to stop the concert in an attempt to reduce the audience to its legal limit of about 250. Chaos ensued and the concert did not resume.

Until today this was the extent of all documented accounts of the incident. So what really happened? Vince Philpotts of Steeton and Peter Dobson of Ilkley were in the Troutbeck Hotel on the night. At the time both were members of local soul band Moldy Warp. Mr Philpotts, then 20, played saxaphone and Mr Dobson, then 21, played bass.

Wild

“It was one of the high points of my youth. It was a night I wouldn’t have missed, short as it was,” said Mr Philpotts. “The ballroom was designed for about 200 people but by my estimation there were about 450 inside - even standing on the windowsills and tables. As soon as Hendrix made his appearance the place went wild. There was shouting and jumping - it was a thrill to watch this fellow walking on stage.”

According to their combined recollections Hendrix was wearing a brown suede waistcoat, a purple scarf, boots, black pants (trousers) and possibly a black hat. He also did not appear to be ‘under the influence’ of anything illegal. “It wasn’t my impression that he was drugged up. He was just so laid back and a charismatic character just by his demeanour,” said Mr Dobson.

Mr Philpotts continued: “He came on that stage and he was as lucid as you or me. He started off with one hell of an instrumental. Noel Redding started with a bass line then Mitchell came in on the drums. It was just a huge bang straight into the set. It was loud and excellent.

The next thing this suicidal plain-clothed cop in a gabardine gets up on stage and tells Hendrix to shut up and says the place was in breach of fire regulations, everyone had to go home. He just got everybody’s back up. It was the way he did it.”

Mr Dobson added: “There was trouble. It was a case of having your dinner put in front of you and then taken away.” The policeman’s lack of diplomacy is backed up by the Gazette report which quotes Stuart Frais, a disc jockey at the Giro Club. “When he began ‘Listen boys and girls’ there was bound to be trouble. After all everyone in the audience was over 18,” he said.

In Mr Philpotts recollection the audience started booing and shouting. Meanwhile Hendrix’s reaction was to repeatedly back into his amps, thus drowning the policeman’s words with feedback. The officer then started ‘rushing around’ to find the switch which would turn the amplifiers off, but initially only succeeded in fuelling chaos by turning the lights in the ballroom on and off.

Eventually the band agreed to leave the stage and retreated to their dressing room. But members of the audience decided to express their unhappiness, by dumping items of furniture in a pile in the bar as they filed out. The allocation of refunds at the front entrance was thrown into disarray when a fire door at the back of the building was opened. As a result some fans doubled their money by simply walking around the building and re-entering the queue.

“It wasn’t vandalism or the rioting that we know today. Things were just thrown there to show their objection,” said Mr Philpotts. “We actually saw Hendrix as we walked past, he was sitting in the kitchen. We asked him ‘Hey Jimi, what’s up?’ and his answer was something like ’The pigs won’t let us play.’ I think it would have gone straight through and there would have been no hassle at all. People weren’t interested in drinking, they were there to see Hendrix,” he added.

Mr Dobson reached the same conclusion, but threw a slightly more sinister light on what followed the appearance of the police. He remembers that some tables were wantonly smashed and that some fans had arrived at the hotel drunk. He recalls talk that the use of ‘illegal substances’ among the audience had spurred the police into action.

In an exclusive interview from his New York home Noel Redding, former bass player with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, told the Gazette he could still remember the night in Ilkley. His version of events adds weight to that given by Mr Dobson and Mr Philpotts. He explained that at the time the band did much of it’s travelling in a van and would have probably arrived in Ilkley during the afternoon with their road manager, Jerry Stickles.

Mr Redding continued: "A lot of the time we would just pile into the van. I used to go and lie on top of the equipment in the back. Jimi sat in the front. He loved England, especially the travelling about and going to different parts. I knew the country so I used to be the tour bus guide. We didn't have any women with us in those days - we didn't have enough room. There were only about twelve people at the Leeds gig the night before - I don't think everybody up north had heard of us yet.

It was also a bit of a rough area. We still played our 45 minute set to them. They enjoyed it. As far as I can recall there were just too many people at the Ilkley gig. I probably started off with a bass riff and then Mitch would join and then Hendrix would start and then we would go into Killing Floor. We never had a list. We would just follow Jimi. The second track would have been Stone Free."

Mr Redding couldn't specifically remember Hendrix drowning out the policeman with feedback. But he commented: "That would be Hendrix. None of us were very fond of the police really because those were the days of reefers.” After the curtailed gig Mr Redding remembered going down the road to a pub with Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell.

Jimi loved the country pubs. In between things he and I would without fail go and find a nice little pub and then have a couple pints of bitter - he liked bitter. that was about it at the time, reefers and bitters. The harder stuff didn't come until about 1969," he said.

The band spent the night at the Crescent Hotel in Brook Street, then owned by Crest Hotels, part of the Bass Brewery's empire. According to the owner of the time they arrived late at night. Upon finding the front door locked, Hendrix, no doubt feeling the effects of three or four pints of bitter, walked to the back and urinated against the wall. Mr Redding could not confirm this had occurred but said it did 'ring bells'.

Early next morning the most famous pop star to visit Ilkley hit the road, probably for London where photo shoots and studio sessions had been booked prior to a tour of Germany which began four days later.

Jimi Hendrix tragically died in 1970 on the morning of September 18th.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience were paid £60 for their Ilkley gig. Two years later they were paid $18,000 to headline Woodstock. The band's manager at the time of the Ilkley visit was Chas Chandler, a former member of The Animals.

If you or any of your friends, family, acquaintances can remember the above, or attended the gigs at the Troutbeck or International Club in Leeds, I would like to here from you/them. Can you remember other rising stars who played at the two venues. Who were they and when?