RECENT articles about planned improvements to the Otley Street area of Skipton, inspired me to look at a scrapbook in which my mother inserted cuttings of local interest cleaned from the Craven Herald.
An article from 1988 refers to the new Craven Court shopping development and recalls the memories of a Mr and Mrs Fred Atkinson who had lived in the adjacent Bank Yard - 'now part of the new development in Otley Street'.
The Atkinsons had lived at number 31 and said the Herald at the time: "And remember Mr William Harrison who owned the piece of land outside the new development'. - Presumably, the land now under discussion.
The article has a photograph showing Mr Harrison and a former mayor of Skipton, Mr Edward Moorhouse. It says: "It was taken in the early 1950s, when Mr Harrison gave the land to the town."
An article in the Craven Herald on December 9, 2021, tells us that the owner of Craven Court is a company called Praxis. It is not very long ago that plans were afoot to build two shops with flats above, outside Craven Court. The plans came to nothing. The new proposals, in partnership with Historic England seem a promising venture.
Nevertheless, I would like to see public acknowledgement of Mr Harrison's gift to the town, which means it belongs to us all.
Sheila Coe
Otley Street
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