Blue Plaque Day

Met Di, and B at A’s house.
Had a coffee and a catch up then set out on our walk.
Ilkley has 23 Blue Plaques scattered around the town so we decided to go see them all.
There isn’t a specific trail to see them and because of how the town is set out it meant a lot of doubling back on ourselves.
Anyone  who has been here will know how hilly it is so we got a good workout.

Turned out to be even more enjoyable than we expected and we learned a lot.
1850 -1870 seemed to be peak time for some of the finest buildings to be erected. Of course this was as the Industrial Revolution gathered momentum and Ilkley grew as a Spa town as its natural resources encouraged the rich and genteel from the growing cities nearby to come and live here for the clean air or at least visit and sample the ‘waters’.
We located twelve plaques today and it was interesting to read them and even more interesting to discuss our own links and experiences of each building.
The saddest part was noting how many buildings were now far removed from their original purpose and are now apartments, expensive ones too.

We went to Pizza Express for an early supper and more catching up till next time when we intend to complete our self devised tour.