Ilkley Parish main page

ILKLEY:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1834.

"ILKLEY, is a village and township, in the parish of its name, which is partly in the wapentake of Claro, and partly in the wapentake of Skyrack, West Riding ; 202 miles from London, 9 from Skipton, and 6 from Otley. This village is supposed to have been the Olicana of the Romans ; here is a fortress of that nation, with three sides entire ; and at Middleton lodge is an altar to Verbeia, the Nymph of the Wharf : there are also in the neighbourhood, three summer camps and out-posts, called Castleburgh, Counterhill, and Woofa Bank. Ilkley is much frequented in the summer for the benefit of its cold bath, which issues from the sides of a high hill overlooking the village ; and the bath is deemed highly salutary in relaxed and scorbutic cases. The parish contained, in 1831, 1,063 inhabitants, and the township 691 of that number."

[Transcribed by Steve Garton ©2000 from
Pigot's directory (Yorkshire section) 1834]