THIS PHOTOGRAPH dating back to 1983 shows Mabel Harrison who was a well known figure in Aireborough.

Mabel, who was born in 1916, was a historian, radio and TV broadcaster and author.

She was a talented writer and produced several volumes of dialect poetry, including A Yorkshire Summer, When Buzzers Blew and Spring Cam' t Clattergate.

Mabel was a relative of Aireborough Historical Society archivist Carlo Harrison, who said: "Mabel was born in 1916, the daughter of Edward Marshman, the family lived on Miry Lane in a cottage which was rented from Eddie Denison of Westfield Mill. "

Mabel has a strong interest in local history and contributed articles which were published in a series of books edited by Martin Rigg: An Aireborough Selection and Round and About Aireborough Volume 111. In the picture she is seen standing by the Long Stoop in Yeadon.

Meanwhile an undated photograph from the Ilkley Gazette show a 'baptism' in the River Wharfe.

FIRST World War sentences by Richard Thackrah:

Bradford and District Tin Foil Collection raises £6-13s for the Ilkley Military Hospital.

A writer in one of the London newspapers has made a serious attack upon the patriotism and fighting spirit of Yorkshire Dalesmen and classes ‘those belonging to Wharfedale amongst the army of shirkers'.

Sir J. Oddy is to reside at Ilkley Hall after its renovation. He was concerned with both commercial and political life in Bradford and was MP for Pudsey 1908 to 1910.

Facsimile of Lord Kitchener’s letter published for his War Memorial Fund and the British Red Cross Fund appears in the Gazette. It is a memorable appeal instrumental in creating an army of five million men by voluntary enlistment “ an achievement unprecedented in the history of the world”.