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The Ilkley Literature Festival is a literature festival held annually in Ilkley, Yorkshire. Inaugurated in 1973 by the poet W. H. Auden and until 1988 held every two years, the festival is the oldest and largest of its type in the north of England. [1]
The Ilkley Literature Festival is an annual event in Ilkley. [2] Attracting many important international literary figures, its two-week programme, starting at the end of September, now features more than 250 events, which take place in a variety of venues in Ilkley and surrounding towns and villages. The festival includes events for children and young people and a festival fringe.
In 1971 Ilkley residents Michael Dawson (then-Director of the Yorkshire Arts Association) and Peter Harland (editor of the Telegraph & Argus and Chair of the Yorkshire Arts Literature Panel) began discussing the possibility of a festival for the town. Dawson had visited Cheltenham Literature Festival and Harland suggested trying something similar in Ilkley. A seven-week postal strike with no letters to answer gave Dawson the opportunity to draw up some concrete proposals. [3] The Yorkshire Arts Association literature panel approved the plans and promised a grant provided the urban district council made a similar commitment. On 10 February 1972, a small group met at Dawson's house in Ilkley. They included Leeds University lecturer Robin Alston and Manor House Museum curator Arthur Kitching. Donald Baverstock, Director of Programmes at YTV who lived locally, also offered to help. At a meeting at the Ilkley Town Hall in March 1972, the group organised a steering committee and local councillor, Molly Renton (the only woman) became the Chair.
The first festival, which took place in April 1973 and was opened by W. H. Auden during the last year of his life. [4] In 1988, the festival began to be held annually. [5] Since 2003, the festival has been directed by Rachel Feldberg. [6]
Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is sited on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The town had a population of 18,040 at the 2021 Census.
Otley is a market town and civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the population was 13,668 at the 2011 census. It is in two parts: south of the river is the historic town of Otley and to the north is Newall, which was formerly a separate township. The town is in lower Wharfedale on the A660 road which connects it to Leeds.
Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in Northern England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the City of Bradford. Approximately 12 miles (19 km) north of Bradford and 17 miles (27 km) north-west of Leeds, the town lies mainly on the south bank of the River Wharfe in Wharfedale, one of the Yorkshire Dales.
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Bradford, also known as the City of Bradford, is a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a larger area which includes the towns and villages of Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Haworth, Silsden, Queensbury, Thornton and Denholme. Bradford has a population of 528,155, making it the fourth-most populous metropolitan district and the ninth-most populous local authority district in England. It forms part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation which in 2011 had a population of 1,777,934, and the city is part of the Leeds-Bradford Larger Urban Zone (LUZ), which, with a population of 2,393,300, is the fourth largest in the United Kingdom after London, Birmingham and Manchester.
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Wharfedale Brewery is a brewery situated in Ilkley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire, England, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Two, now defunct, breweries in Yorkshire have previously used the Wharfedale name; first in Wetherby in the 1756 and again in Grassington in 2003. The name was resurrected for a third time, further down the River Wharfe, in 2012 by a group of 16 real ale enthusiasts, many of whom are former chairmen of Ilkley & District Round Table.
The Bishop of Bradford was, until 20 April 2014, the ordinary of the Diocese of Bradford, which covered the extreme west of Yorkshire and was centred in the city of Bradford where the bishop's seat (cathedra) is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter. The bishop's residence was "Bishopscroft" in Bradford. The office existed since the foundation of the see from part of the Diocese of Ripon in 1920 under George V. The last diocesan Bishop of Bradford was Nick Baines, from 21 May 2011 until 20 April 2014. Baines was on sabbatical from February 2014 until the dissolution of the diocese on Easter Day 2014, during which time retired bishop Tom Butler was acting diocesan Bishop of Bradford.
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