Journalistic
Licence
A
member of the local community brought me a copy of a publication,
Historic Wells around Bradford, of which they found certain facts on
ilkley
and it’s wells to be dubious. I was asked my opinion and the
answers are transcribed below. I have spent many years researching
of our waters hereabouts, and it is difficult to accept that which is
written without question. Also, being a Member of Ilkley’s Town
and Tourist Management Committee, I have to think of our residents
and visitors who may not be aware of the discrepancies, so shown. it
should be added I have lived at White Wells for a time, so am not
without knowledge of the buildings.
Let
us take the ‘Large
Bath’
for a start. The Author states, “....it
being placed in the Town Centre in the 18th Century.....”
Ilkley as a Town did not become so, until the mid to late 19th
Century. Formerly being a Dales hamlet of some two or three hundred
souls. Even today, older residents born here often refer to Ilkley
as ‘The Village’. The ‘bath’, it’s volume and rate of
fill, quite obviously the Author has mixed this up with the Plunge
bath
at White Wells, on Ilkley Moor. The one under the West Wing. That
open for Public inspection was the Douche and shower
Bath, which early photographs and memories of those who worked up
there reveal.
The
nearest to anything ‘bath shaped’ in Town apart from a horse
trough, would have been water collection tanks (
in Mill Ghyll ), to bring
water for steam engines at the Station. As the Railway did not find
it’s way to Ilkley until around 1865, I hardly think this will be
the ‘bath’ alluded to by the Author. Unless one knows Mill
Ghyll, intimately, these tanks are easily overlooked. Mill Ghyll was
not
given to the Town of Ilkley as many are apt to imagine. But is on a
999 year lease from the Middleton family or their descendants. You
may check this with Legal Services, Directorate of Corporate
Services, City Hall, Bradford, BD1 1HY.
Nor
was it supposedly given in 1852 as the Mill was still in operation.
finishing
flour production in 1868, it lay empty until 1870/2/4, when the Local
Board started negotiations for the said lease. (Just as a side piece
of information, the last miller at Mill Ghyll, became the first
Landlord of the Midland Hotel)
The Middleton family insisted Mill Ghyll become an ‘Arboretory
without any buildings and a clear rippling stream’. The only time
water gushes strongly down the Ghyll is after exceedingly heavy rain.
I
and a fellow historian are puzzled at mention of a ‘drinking
fountain’ atop Brook Street. There was a large ornamental fountain
of which only the defunct bowl is left and now used as a flower
border. However, there was a drinking fountain on the Moor below
White Wells and adjacent to a flag staff. I seem to remember it had
connections with Glasgow. But this and the flag staff are long since
buried or removed.
The
Canker Well did not lay in the gardens of Spa Hydro, but across the
Grove in it’s own gardens. There were three springs on the plot
prior to the gardens being landscaped. The Spa had their own outdoor
‘spring.’
a
former owner of the
Spa (now demolished) told me it’s supply was taken off the
Spa’s main conduit. This main flow still runs to waste at
approximately 2000 gallons an hour. There is a possibility Canker
Well Gardens may also be under the same 999 year lease as Mill Ghyll.
The ‘spring’ behind Spa Buildings was a way to use up surplus
building materials to make a feature of sorts. The tiles and iron
work etc., is all that is left of the Spa Hydro and it’s water
supply as just mentioned, a ‘little something’ to add flair!.
The Lions heads which grace the wall of this edifice were added in
the past twenty years.
The
Canker or Ocker Wata Well as some knew it may have been called the
‘Sore Eyes Well’. Another a spring bearing the name of
‘Eye-Bright’ runs behind the Castle or Manor House. Being now
diverted underground and running beneath the cellar of a nearby house
thence to the river. Once again valuable healing water running to
waste. The Canker Well lost it’s natural supply when houses were
constructed on the south side of the
Grove. That which runs today after heavy rain is nought but top
water run off. The Canker Well never having a piped source from
which it rose. Tests on the water when still running showed along
with certain minerals, it contained three virulent strains of
bacteria. E-coli, being the major one.
The
stone trough the Author alludes to is in fact a ‘stone’ bath from
Ben Rhydding Hydropathic Establishment. More than adequate
references are made to this in the Local History Department of Ilkley
Library, the Manor House and various other sources of Ilkley’s
history.
The
Great Spring was a very separate source of healing water to White
Wells. The ‘shepherd’ who is said to have found healing
properties from the former would appear to have left it somewhat
late. Especially if one follows the words of certain Romantic
Historians of the day. Also, why just one shepherd? What’s wrong
with the rest of the Community? They did, if we are to believe
Collyer, take their water from the same spring and had done for
hundreds of years previous. Irrespective of what modern historians
and the Council are want to say, I tend to look at the practical side
of Ilkley’s Great Spring. Perhaps living up there focuses the mind
in a more positive way than visiting authors and those in the valley.
Acquainting
the ‘shepherd’ in a similar light to one Alex Campbell of the
Northern Courier, Fort Augustas, Scotland. Campbell it was who, when
short of interesting stories, started the ball rolling about that
other great money spinner or waster, a Monster in a certain Scottish
Loch! If you don’t believe me, telephone the Inverness Courier’s
offices and ask about Campbell’s article in the May 2nd publication
of 1933? The answer to the Loch Ness mystery lies not at the bottom
of a Scottish Loch, but at the bottom of some aged filing cabinet at
the above paper, or it’s descendant.
I
digress!
It
is supposed after the shepherd’s miraculous find Mr Middleton, a
businessman of note had the baths built. Something of a coincidence
wouldn’t you say? Might it not have been, he heard of other such
springs and decided to try it in Ilkley. The water at White Wells
holds no healing properties apart from being one of the coldest and
purest in the Country. I often remark to visitors a Sauna in
reverse. A recent analysis of the water showed it to be as pure, if
not purer than a similar test in Victorian times.
The
water was brought from the Well Head in stone channels not stone
pipes. Until recently only one was thought to exist, that which I
dug from the Moor myself and had placed in the Well House, during the
early eighties. Excavations for a new water supply to the cottage
revealed more and a feature was made of them to the rear of White
Wells.
The
Author states white
Wells drew it’s water from more than one source. For once they are
right. The Great Spring around the 1870’s, was supplying approx.
39,000 gallons in Summer and 110,800 gallons in winter. Calculated
over a twenty four hour period. While the 1791 advertisement
mentions a Robert Dale of Ilkley, it doesn’t specifically note to
which baths he was referring!
Menston
having a similar bath to white
Wells at Goosewell and also, there was a farm nearby the latter. No
mention is made by the Author of the connections between these two
bath houses, nor the fact that the owner of Goosewell re-furbished
White Wells ( much at his
own expense ), in the mid
seventies. Eric Busby! The whitish look to the water makes me
wonder which spring we are talking about? White Wells are known for
the purity, coldness and clarity. One would hardly say that of a
supply being ‘milky white’! It’s strong diuretic nature is
something regulars to White Wells would not dispute.
I
take a great interest in my town’s history and wish Authors send
copies of their works for proof reading by local people, before
wasting time and money in printing. A prime example lately, the
so-called Ilkley Town Guide Book. More like Ilkley Town Cock Up!
You have a duty not only to the name of your Publisher, but to the
residents of areas which you write, to their many thousands of
visitors and lastly, yourself.
An
article of literature is worth nought if it has no safe, solid,
research to back at least ninety five per cent of it’s content. I
hope the enclosed will prompt the Author to take a closer look at
their work. I can only speak for this area. It does worry me though
how many other discrepancies are in the book, considering the price.
