| Ilkley History Scrapbook of the Month Each month we will be adding a different scrapbook of Ilkley from the Archiving group |
The Archiving Group was formed in late 2018 at the request of the Ilkley Local History Hub (a joint enterprise between the Civic Society and the Friends of the Manor House) to assist them in future projects with the first being the cataloguing of the rump of the library and documents of the Olicana Historical Society. Originally formed in 1890 as the Ilkley Antiquarian Society, the Society was closely associated with the first museum in Ilkley which opened in 1892 and has evolved through many name changes over the years, adopting its present one in 1972.
Through the kind assistance of Mary Hamilton and the Community Action Bradford & District team at Christchurch on The Grove, some of these items were scanned and a sample of these archive examples can be viewed here.
One of the most fascinating records of the Society was a series of scrapbooks collated from local newspapers on aspects of Ilkley life and local history and these were maintained religiously for a period of 50 years between 1948 and 2000.
The Addingham historian Kate Mason is thought to have been involved in the enterprise but unfortunately the names of the compilers are lost to history. However, they have left a fascinating view into half a century of Ilkley life.
The run of half a century is not quite complete; there are a couple of missing scrapbooks which we hope, given this publicity, may reappear from some forgotten corner of Ilkley to allow us to scan them also.
Our aim now is to share a new scrapbook once a month, starting in 1948 and working chronologically through the years to the last edition. We hope you find them of interest.
The majority of the cuttings in the scrapbooks are taken from The Ilkley Gazette and we are grateful to them for giving their kind permission to share them.
Click on a picture below to open the corresponding pdf file in a new tab.
Want to read the scrapbooks in their original format?
Select this link and pick a volume from the virtual bookshelf. On many devices you will then be able to open the scrap book on your screen and flip over the pages just as if reading the original book. Zoom in to make the print larger.
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