Archived local history

The Rowley Ellwood Collection is an online gallery of over 500 historic old photos of Skipton, fully indexed and searchable. This site is a tribute to Dr Geoffrey Rowley and Mr Ken Ellwood who gathered together these fascinating prints. These photos are available for viewing on CD or DVD at Skipton Reference Library.
 

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New!!! - Local History Posts

In response to the increased popularity of this website during ‘lockdown’, it was decided to highlight extracts from Dr Rowley’s Notebooks as local history posts on the Library Facebook page. Over time the scope of these posts has been broadened to include any interesting facets of local history even though they are outside the scope of the Notebooks.

To provide an archive for these posts and to make them available on a permanent basis, they are now being uploaded and stored on this website. To access them click on ‘Notebooks’, then ‘Notebook 4’, then ‘Downloads and Transcripts’ where the posts will be listed under ‘Transcripts’. We hope you find this a useful and enjoyable resource.

 

Latest Comments

Most recently added comments. Click to see more details.

This is my Great Grandfather , Robert Hurst , Married Mary Mattock. Lived in Gladstone street
Martin Hurst 03/06/2026
 
The newspaper shop, (nearest immediate left of the frame) belonged to my family through the 1960s and 1970s - run by my grandparents Mr &...
Jonathan Briggs 30/05/2026
 
This seems a dangerous place to put parking spaces, adjacent to a busy junction. The decision to grant planning permission to turn...
Jim Lambourn 23/05/2026
 
Sad rumour in Craven Herald that North Yorkshire may sell this lovely little site for holiday home car parking. It has been greenspace...
Claire Nash 18/05/2026
 
I had an ancestor Richard Walker[could be Dick Walker on the photo who was a stonemason in Skipton and would therefore work with the...
Linda Sherwood 22/04/2026
 
Hello, I have recently bought a painting of this view, Painted by an Artist called Geoff Lancaster. The painting which has an archway...
Philip Devonport 19/04/2026
 
Hi Ann , just seen your post whilst trying to track down Hellen Miller, a day girl and local to Skipton. Yes of course I remember you also...
Monica Jane Kirk 16/02/2026
 
This was never a Toll House. On Short Bank Road# near its junction with Greatwood Avenue, is that the single story building now called,"...
John Whiteaok 10/02/2026
 

 

Latest Updates

Latest gallery admin updates and notes:

Latest notebook transcript files uploaded. These cover up to Notebook 2, page 286.
02/03/2021 Admin
 
Have uploaded the latest notebook transcript files. These now cover up to Notebook 2, page 174.
25/01/2021 Admin
 
We've started to add scans of Dr Rowley's notebooks. These are real treasure troves of information about Skipton's history. The new pages aren't perfect yet - please be patient as we sort out the glitches.
12/05/2018 Admin
 
We've tweaked the "Browse all photos" function so that it now shows the most recently added photos first.
14/03/2018 Admin
 
I've added 21 new photos today! All from Ken Ellwood's collection. I think my favourite is this one of "Berry & Matt" at the Roller Skating Rink. Does anyone know where that was located?
13/03/2018 Admin
 
When scanning the photos, we often find hand-written notes on the reverse, especially pictures from Ken Ellwood's collection. Where we're certain the information is accurate, we'll include it in the photo description. If it's more vague, I will add it as an Admin comment below the picture, as "KE note" for Ken Ellwood, "GR note" for Geoffrey Rowley, etc.
21/01/2018 Admin
 
Added two new photos today: Photo 753 and Photo 754. This is the first new content in many years! Ken Ellwood's family have very kindly shared their father's collection of old Skipton photographs with us. Some of the pictures are already on this site, donated by Dr Rowley's widow when the Rowley Collection was first built. But there are lots of previously unseen images too, and we'll be adding these to the Rowley-Ellwood collection in the coming weeks.
14/01/2018 Admin
 
Fixed bug in pagination at foot of search results page.
09/01/2018 Admin