The following meetings have been held in 2008/9

9th October - "Reflections on the stained glass of York Minster", Mr Peter Gibson, (Head Glazier).
Bernard Wilkinson reported in the Craven Herald (17/10/08)
He is a world-renowned stained glass expert and has lived in the same house all his life near the Minster. There are 800 years of glazing in the Minster, from the 12th century to the present day, and Mr Gibson showed examples from each century. Each window has to be dismantled every 100-150 years as the lead deteriorates. Mr Gibson also described the great fire of 1984 and his efforts to save the Rose Window. There were 40000 cracks in the glass, which he repaired with a special adhesive and each bit is now sandwiched between 2 pieces of plain glass.
One window he reglazed looked like an example of modern art. But the glaziers some time in the past had done a sloppy job. He sorted the pieces out and revealed a fine medieval scene.
We should be reminded that the Minster contains more medieval stained glass than any other building in the world, while the east window is the largest stained glass window in the world.
A truly fascinating talk.

23rd October - "John Henry's walk", Alan Plowright (a walk in the late 19th century through Wensleydale).
The Craven Herald reported that this was a trek from Clapham to Scarborough taken in 1875 and recorded in a diary which Mr Plowright obtained from Mr Henry's grand-daughter together with some photographs. Mr Plowright took the same journey and noted the differences then and now.
John Henry was about 25 at the time of the walk and came from a well-to-do Leeds family. Mr Plowright has published a book with the same title. 

13th November -  "The Early Days of Weaving", Mrs Kath Fishwick, Rawtenstall, founder member of the Rawtenstall CivicTrust and secretary of the Lancashire Federation of Civic Trusts.
This was a fascinating talk giving a history of weaving woolen cloth from early times up to the full industrialisation of the process by 1850. Production of clothing started as a family activity extension of farming. By the middle ages specialisation had come in with spinnimg and weaving often done by different families. The loom was an early invention 000s of years ago and its basic form changed little over time. Weaving was done by men as a heavy occupation because of the need to throw the shuttle. Some 3-4 yards of cloth could be woven in a day before the invention of the flying shuttle. This brought production up to 14-16 yards per day. Prior to mechanisation of spinning it took many people to keep one weaver busy, hence people went about spinning as they walked etc.
The talk concentrated on the weavers' houses, workrooms and lofts in east Lancashire. Often houses had lean-to extensions built on to house the work rooms. Often these had external upstairs doorways to haul cloth and machinery etc in and out; or open stairs so materials could be carried up without catching on walls or railings.
Sadly many of the former weavers houses have been demolished, but some remain, though it is often difficult to spot their original purpose because of building modifications. 
By 1850 the hand loom industry was at an end because of factory mechanisation though a few hand loom weavers continued until the early 1900s.  

27th November - "By Rail to Bolton Abbey", Professor Mike Dixon.

This was a well illustrated talk showing the history of the line from Ilkley to Bolton Abbey Station. The line was created in the 1870s from the existing Ilkley station taking the line over Brook Street via a bridge then running through Ilkley on a 30+ arch viaduct. It also entered Addingham well above the village street. It continued on to Bolton Abbey over another short but impressive viaduct at Lob Wood. The total distance was 6 miles. The line continued on to Skipton, a further 6 miles.
The line was closed under Beeching in 1965 and was quickly torn up and in a matter of years the bridges and viaducts in Ilkley and Addingham were removed. That at Lob Wood remains. In fairness removal of the railway from the centre of Ilkley must have increased the attractiveness of the town.
Bolton Abbey station became derelict for 20 years, but was then restored by the Embsay Railway Preservation Society which reopened the track between Embsay and Bolton Abbey. 

11th December -   "Postal History from 1840 ", Mrs Sarah Greenwood.

The talk was illustrated with a wide variety of postage stamps and the franking stamps used when towns became post towns for collection and sorting of mail.

22nd January - Social Evening - short talks, quizzes etc given by members, accompanied by drinks and nibbles.
Brian Ormondroyd provided another of the tough local quizzes, Bernard Wilkinson provided a talk on weather through the ages, Susan Broadhead provided a fascinating summary of a book about Heinz (of 57 varieties fame) and I provided a slide quiz on local views. David Langham set up a continuously running slide show of Society slides (some of which are included on this website). Members present were unable to do justice to the food and drink provided.

12th February - "History of Medicine", Ian Appleyard.
His talk concentrated on the period from 1800 to 1920 when he said the foundations of modern medicine were laid. The population growth of the 1900th century was largely the result of the increase in life expectancy. The introduction of anaesthetics in the mid 1800s led to more successful surgery, vaccination and immunisation programmes led to the decline in a number of life threatening diseases and the increasing availability of drugs in the 20th century meant that many serious conditions could now be treated.

26th February - "The building of the Sheffield Board Schools" - Miss Susan Broadbent (Chairman of the Society)
Susan explained how the 1870 Education Act empowered local authorities to provide schools for children receiving little or no education. Authorities first had to establish the extent of the problem. In Sheffield 12,500 children were found to be in need. Sheffield decided that 16 schools would be required, but went ahead with 12 in the first wave of building. These schools were most impressive Victorian Gothic structures with decorative features, turrets, bell towers and large windows. Attention was paid to ventilation and ensuring that all children's desk had adequate natural lighting. Most of these buildings still exist, often affected by later extensions, though few of them remain as schools. A second wave of school buildings followed, but by then financial restrictions led to plainer structures.

12th March - "Ex Terra Lucem" - some light on the origins of the Gas Industry, Barry Wilkinson.
The first experiments with heating coal and the pioneering work of William Murdock who used gas lighting in his house in Cornwall in the 1790s were described. By the early decades of the 19th century gas lighting was being introduced in factories and houses and for street lighting. Fish tail burners were used. The for-runners of the the municipal authorities set up gas works from 1817 onwards with towns ike Manchester, Leeds and Huddersfield being early suppliers. Keighley followed in 1826 and Skipton by 1830.
Developments included the introduction of mantles later in the 19th century which increased light output and reduced consumption, gas heating, fires and central heating, washing machines and even fridges.
Natural gas replaced "town gas " in the 1970s. Appliances had to be converted as the natural gas was not as pure and refined a supply.

26th March - "Neighbours and Neighbourhoods 1900-1940", Dr Elizabeth Roberts.
Dr Roberts provided further recordings of the recollections of old people in the 1970s of life early in the 20th century. Communities were then much more self supporting in the days before increasing state intervention.

9th April - "Herbert Smith - Aircraft Designer", Robin Platt
Herbert Smith was born at Bradley and educated at Keighley Boys Grammer School. He was a keen sportsman particularly successful at rugby and cricket where he impressed as a fast bowler. He joined the British Aircraft Company as a draughtsman before World War1, but then moved to join Tommy Sopwith and became his chief draughtsman in 1916. One of his early contributions was to design biplane upper wings as a continuous construction which could be cut up to form the individual aircraft wings. Improvements in aircraft design gave first the British then the Germans the upper hand, but by 1918 his triplanes were respected and feared by the Germans.
With the end of the war aircraft production was scaled down and Herbert went out to Japan to join Mitshubishi who were developing aircraft production. he continued developing the triplanes he had been producing at the end of the war for them, but left in 1923. His planes continued in use there until the early 1930s and without question he helped to found the successful Japanese aircraft industry.
Back in this country he was not offered work in the industry. He married in 1930 and took on the running of a north London Hotel. He retired to Barnoldswick and became known to Robin Platt there before his death in the 1970s.
Herbert Smith was controversially blamed for Pearl Harbour. But history is complex and many factors need to be considered. Japan was our ally at the time he worked for them and of course their aircraft had moved on with the extremely successful Zeroes by the time of Pearl Harbour. Indeed the Japanese are said to have studied official British strategy documents carefully. These recommended the attacking of enemy fleets in harbour as the most effective and least costly method of destruction.

23rd April - AGM followed by "Town Criers through the Ages", Kevin Griffiths (Skipton's Town Crier). 
Kevin gave a most interesting account of the history of town criers going back 3000-4000 years and provided amusing anecdotes of his own involvement. The Greek "runners", Biblical "heralds" and Roman "tribunes" were the forerunners.
In England 1066 is the relevant date. William 1st noted that Harold had not had an effective system for mustering his army and decreed that each town and village should have a spokesperson through whom messages could be got quickly to the whole population.
The post was important because few people could read in medieval times. Once the town crier had hollowed his message he would attach it to the post at which he stood - the village whipping post, pub or moot hall doorway etc, for those who could read. It is suggested that when the Royal Mail was founded it looked for the ideal local site to collect and distribute mail - what better than the town crier's stance - hence "post office".
The town crier, often as the bearer of bad news, had to be able to defend himself and as the Queen's representative had free rein. He might use a stout stave of even a heavy bell delivered to the face of an attacker - hence the expression "his face rings a bell"!
Town Criers are members of the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers and historically have had 3 methods of appointment - by the Lord of the Manor, as bellmen for the parish church, or by the town mayor. Some recent appointments have been made by Town Centre Managers, but the Guild is refusing to recognise these. The Town Crier at York is one such appointment whom they refuse to recognise although he is world renowned and has been in post for 40 years.
Town Criers are unpaid appointments and have a first duty to their town, but can take on remunerative commercial work at other times. They have local, national and international competitions giving them opportunities for travel, meeting fellow professionals and other interesting people. 
Kevin started in Barnoldswick in 1998. He came to Skipton in 2005 where there had been a gap since at least the 1950s. He has been ranked 3rd in the world and unoffically has the world champion voice rated at 118 Db. His successor at Barnoldswick is a lady who is now the ladies European Champion. He reminded that historically there have been many lady town criers - often when all available men were drafted into armies.

Changes (eg committee membership) as a result of the AGM are provided eleswhere on this site.