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.
Latest Comments
Most recently added comments. Click to see more details.
I remember Horner's Butchers. They ran a Ford van with only a seat for the driver, and the spare wheel/tyre slung from the side door...
Robert Ormerod 01/04/2020
Robert Ormerod 01/04/2020
The "small building" that W.E Brown refers to was, I think, taken over by Mr Hicks, a friend of my parents.
Robert Ormerod 31/03/2020
Robert Ormerod 31/03/2020
in the foreground would have been Norman Hodgson's taxis (Austin 16s) and close by some lock-up garages where my dad kept his Jowett van....
Robert Ormerod 31/03/2020
Robert Ormerod 31/03/2020
My memory's somewhat foggy, but seem to recall that we ran on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon# either White Hills or Bog Lane. In winter we...
Robert Ormerod 31/03/2020
Robert Ormerod 31/03/2020
... (back entry to Ermysteds) and the Girls' Convent where we used to go on to the Cricket top to watch the netball!
John Buckman 19/03/2020
John Buckman 19/03/2020
I don't remember another pub opposite The Commercial but my memory may fail me as I was too young to partake. I cycled up Commercial Street...
John Buckman 19/03/2020
John Buckman 19/03/2020
Why wasn't Dewhirst Mill's chimney preserved? It was an iconic landmark.
John Buckman 19/03/2020
John Buckman 19/03/2020
At the bottom on the street in the 1950s/60s right hand side was a barber shop - Mr Lancaster who told me he used to date my mother!
John Buckman 19/03/2020
John Buckman 19/03/2020
Latest Updates
Latest gallery admin updates and notes:
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
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
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
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
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
14/01/2018 Admin
Fixed bug in pagination at foot of search results page.
09/01/2018 Admin
09/01/2018 Admin
Changed placement of Navbar from fixed to default. This gives more space for page content on small and mobile screens.
09/01/2018 Admin
09/01/2018 Admin
Added square format thumbnails for all photos in the collection.
21/12/2017 Admin
21/12/2017 Admin