THE WATERING
PLACE OF ILKLEY
As a popular watering
place the origin of Ilkley, in Skyrack wapentake, is of recent date.
Its development as such covers little more than a quarter of a
century, and within, at most, a single generation it has passed from
the condition of a small village of thatched houses to that of a town
laid out with regularity, and possessing many handsome streets and
buildings.
This was the site of
the Olicana of the Roman Itinerary, and inscribed stones and other
remains attest the presence in former times of the once dominant
race. On the heather-covered hills above the town, which, under the
name of Rumbalds Moor, skirt the southern bank of the river Wharfe
for many miles, there are traces of still earlier occupationin the
shape of cairns, hut circles, and other relics of pre-historic life.
From the time when the
Roman Itinerary was written until the latter half of the eleventh
century, there is no mention in history of this secluded village in
Wharfedale. In the Domesday Survey Illicleia is described as waste,
and as belonging to William de Percy, as the successor of the
dispossessed Saxon, Gamel. From the family of Percy the manor passed
to that of Kyme, and thence to that of Middleton, a member of which
is now the owner; his residence being Middleton Lodge, a Tudoresque
building on the northern acclivity of the valley.
With the exception of
the church, the ancient building on Castle Hill, and about a dozen
thatched or grey-slated humble tenements, the Ilkley of today is
modern. It owes its development in a great measure to the delicious
coldness of its springs, to hydropathy, and to the railway facilities
which placed it within.............................
Source
of above unknown!
