Читать книгу The Dales Way. From Ilkley to the Lake District through the Yorkshire Dales онлайн

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Under the Anglo-Saxons Ilkley became a manor, held for a while by the Archbishop of York and later passed through various ownerships, including serving time as a seat of justice for the great hunting forests of Yorkshire. The manor rolls from the 12th to the 17th centuries still survive and provide interesting reading. One record states that: ‘No tenant shall receive or harbour vaccabund or arrogant lyers but which are known to be borne within this wapentake…’ Nor, the record goes on, are you permitted to house ‘evell condicioned women…’!

By the early 18th century, Ilkley had degenerated into ‘a very mean place…dirty and insignificant…chiefly famous for a cold well, which has done very remarkable cures in scrofulous cases by bathing, and in drinking of it.’ Even so, Ilkley’s fame as a ‘modest’ inland spa brought with it wealth that allowed medieval streets and cottages to be replaced with more spacious houses and thoroughfares. Today, it is a source of much interest for the historian and rambler alike, and a springboard for a host of fine walks, of which the Dales Way is but one.