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.
 

Browse the Gallery
 

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.

As youngsters we slid down the chutes and into two abandoned barges which still held their last cargoes of stone. The building in the...
Peter Bernard SHEERAN 14/07/2022
 
My late mother[Josephine Crisp- nee Cork] told me that the chap on the right was her great grandfather, Joe Boyle. Prior to her death she...
Josephine R Crisp 02/07/2022
 
It is most probable that the lady in the picture was Margaret Cooper, widow of Reverend Henry Cooper of Embsay. Margaret was the niece of...
Jane Lunnon 31/05/2022
 
I can just remember the last few derelict houses, at the top of the bus station .Remember my dad taking us for a look around,I just...
Stephen Rouse 25/05/2022
 
A minor detail: It is Emsley Grocer's, not Elmsley.
Peter Bernard SHEERAN 03/05/2022
 
No library, so before 1910
E hatfield 15/04/2022
 
There is a photo of Cawder Ghyll Hospital showing it newly built. Put Skipton Fever Hospital into your search engine. I grew up in the...
Liz Penny 29/03/2022
 
Between the Red Lion and Emslay's is the Thanets Arms. One of the many lost pubs of Skipton.
Peter Sheeran 10/03/2022
 

 

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