History of Ilkley

The earliest evidence of habitation in the Ilkley area is flint arrowheads or microliths, dating to the Mesolithic period, from about 11,000 BC onwards.^[2] A selection of arrowheads and information about prehistoric Ilkley can be seen in the Heritage Room at Ilkley Manor House. The area around Ilkley has been continuously settled since at least the early Bronze Age, around 1800 BC; more than 250 cup and ring marks, and a curved swastika carving dating to the period, have been found on rock outcrops,^[3] and archaeological remains of dwellings are found on Ilkley Moor. A druidical stone circle, the Twelve Apostles Stone Circle, was constructed 2,000 years ago.^[2] Serious interest in the rock art of Ilkley began after the publication in 1879, by John Romilly Allen, of "The Prehistoric Rock Sculptures of Ilkley" in The Journal of the British Archaeological Association.^[3]

Robert Collyer notes that Ilkley was at the centre of the territory of the Brigantes, and states that it was one of ten strongholds of the tribe. He notes that the town was on a pre-Roman trackway running from the north through Catterick to Chester and Holyhead.^[4]

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Ilkley had traditionally been identified with the Olicana of Ptolemy's Geography,^[5] but an inscription on the "Verbeia Stone" puts this into question (see below). The same inscription now lends Roman Ilkley the name by which it is generally referred: Verbeia.^[6][7] 'Olicana' is now generally identified with Olenacum (Elslack, near Skipton, North Yorkshire).^[7]

In the Roman period, Ilkley lay at a crossroads of Roman roads, connecting to Catterick and Adel; Skipton and Gisburn; Aldborough, Knaresborough and Blubberhouses; and Morton leading to Manchester.^[8][9]

The remains of a Roman fort exist on a site now near the centre of the town. The fort went through several stages of construction, destruction, and reconstruction, as attested by various dedication inscriptions.^[10][11] The first fort was timber-built in c. 80 AD, and then abandoned c. 100. It was reoccupied in 169, burnt down c. 196–7, and rebuilt in stone before the end of January 198. A final rebuilding and reorganisation of the fort occurred c. 300.^[7]

The fort is small, roughly 2.75 acres (1.11 ha), and occupies a steep bank above the River Wharfe, with the river on the north side. Its east and west sides are bounded by two brooks, which flow north to the Wharfe. The foundations of the fort on the bank are very conspicuous, and remains of Roman brick, glass, and earthenware have been found on the edges of the brow. The Medieval Ilkley Manor House and All Saints Parish Church stand within the precincts of the fort.^[12]

A number of Roman altars, inscriptions, and monuments have been discovered in Ilkley. Perhaps the most notable is the 'Verbeia Stone', a gritstone altar with an inscription, the translation of which reads: "Sacred to Verbeia: Clodius Fronto, prefect of the Second Cohort of Lingonians (set this up)".^[13] Verbeia was the Romano-British goddess of the River Wharfe;^[14] her name potentially being etymologically related to that of the river.^[15] A statue found near the altar may have represented her; the figure, with stylised features and an over-large head, wears a pleated robe and holds a snake in each hand.^[14] It is possible that Verbeia is the same deity as Boand, a pre-Christian Irish goddess of the Boyne River.^[16] A 1608 replica of the Verbeia Stone, commissioned by William Middleton of Myddelton Lodge,^[17] is kept alongside the original altar in the Heritage Room of Ilkley Manor House.^[18]

An early second or late first century sandstone tombstone is Ilkley's only known Roman epigraph to make reference to civilian life. The tombstone bears the relief of a woman wearing a tunic, sitting in a rounded chair. Her hair is in long plaits, which she holds in her hands. The fragmentary inscription reads: "To the spirits of the departed: Ved[.]ic[..], daughter of …, aged 30, a tribeswoman of the Cornovii, lies here".^[19] This tombstone is also kept in Ilkley Manor House.^[20]

Collyer notes that there is not one sure word about Ilkley in the 800 years after the improvement of the fort by Virius Lupus; but that by the Norman period the area had an Anglo-Saxon name, derived from the Roman and Old British names; was a parish with church and priest; and contained four centres of life and industry, namely Ilkley, Nessfield, Middleton and Stubham. He conjectures that Ilkley's place on the track and road system of the time would have meant that it was affected by the waves of invasions of Britain which took place throughout the Dark Ages, with Angles, Saxons and Danes settling and bequeathing names to the locality, whilst at the same time perhaps squeezing out the indigenous population and those of Roman descent.^[21]

Ilkley's Anglo-Saxon church is taken by Collyer to date to a consecration in 627, and most probably arising out of preaching by Paulinus^[22] Three Anglo-Saxon crosses formerly in the churchyard of All Saints, but now removed into the church to prevent erosion, date to the 8th century.

Ilkley formed part of the Wapentake of Skyrack; its lands to the north of the river fell into the wapentake of Claro.^[23] In Domesday Book, dating to 1086, Ilkley (Ilecliue/Illecliue/Illiclei/Illicleia) is listed as being in the possession of William de Percy, 1st Baron Percy.^[24] By 1242 the land had passed to the Kyme family, of whose number Philip de Kyme appointed the first rector of the parish church on 11 December.^[23] The land was acquired by the Middelton family of Myddelton Lodge, from about a century after the time of William the Conqueror. The family lost possession through a series of land sales and mortgage repossessions throughout a period of about a hundred years from the early 19th century.^[25] The agents of William Middelton (1815–1885) were responsible for the design of the new town of Ilkley to replace the village which had stood there before.^[26]