The History & Architecture of The Wheatley Hotel

A. J. MacPherson[i]

33 Wheatley Lane

Ben Rhydding

Ilkley

West Yorkshire

LS29 8BW

Tel. 01943-603135

The Wheatley Hotel

History and Architecture

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The SUP campaign committee thought it would be useful for anyone wanting to comment on the various planning applications to have a description of the building, its importance in adding character and appearance to the conservation area and as much of its history and contribution to the local area, community and tourist trade as we could find out.  We would be grateful for any additional information and will update this article as and when anything further comes to our notice.

Developers Antler homes of Pool have now applied for Conservation Area Consent (planning No. 03/04744/CAC[ii]) to demolish part of the building which they claim is of no great architectural merit - the usual Mandy Rice Davies defence.  This is a disingenuous claim at best. They use the “Ben Rhydding Conservation Area literature produced by the Council” to point up strong architectural features of the building such as it being a “prominent stone building and local landmark with its strong gabled wall features and double pitched roof. It makes a strong contribution to the character and appearance of the CA”. However it needs to be pointed out that in the actual assessment made by the conservation area team, and produced in their report, there is no distinction made between different parts of the building and indeed the quote used is applicable to the whole building and is given particular force by pointing up the stone lintel set into the north wall and inscribed IB1669

The part of the building they want to demolish has stood for over a hundred years. As far as we can ascertain it was built around 1896. It is a local landmark and adds character and interest to the Conservation Area. This is important in the context of what is proposed in its place. This will be an indifferent, off the peg block of flats which has probably been cobbled together from an architectural computer programme and is much like any of the other Antler homes developments in the area. Its design has clearly been subordinated to the need to cram in as many units as possible.

Anglo-Saxon and Norman Wheatley - the original hamlet.

The word Wheatley is of ancient derivation and most probably a coupled Anglo-Saxon word. Wheat is self explanatory and the ley suffix relates to the leah in the sense of a woodland clearing. It would not be too fanciful to think that the land in the valley bottom was first cleared and cultivated some fifteen hundred years ago. Perhaps even centring round the present Wheatley Grange Farm. This farmland is after all classified as the highest grade agricultural land in the district according to MAFF, now DEFRA, classifications.

Wheatley is mentioned a number of times in the Domesday Book for Yorkshire although the references are most likely only for Doncaster and Halifax..[iii] (111 The Land of Earl Hugh) In Wheatley.[iv] Wulfige and Regnald had two manors, each[having] 102  bovates[v] to the geld[vi], where there could be 2 ploughs.

In the Same Wheatley, a Berewicke, Regnald had 102 bovates to the geld. [There is ] land for 1 plough. (It should be noted in this context that Berewick ([ Old English berewic, literally “barley wick”].  An outlying estate, or an estate devoted to some specialised function, has a similiar  meaning as the later Grange.)

And again “In Wheatley[vii], Doncaster, Aldwick le Street, “Skynythorp [in Spotbrough], “Langthwaite” in [Aldwick le Street], Bentley [near Doncaster] and Kirk Sandal, the Count of Mortain15 carucates.[viii]”

17^th  Century

The Hamlet of Wheatley is by now well established as we know that in addition the high status building of Wheatley Hall, probably built by the Bolling family, there was a small cluster of buildings around the present building. Longcroft Cottage in Longcroft Rd is dated 1671. And we know that Laburnum Cottage, directly opposite the Wheatley in Wheatley Lane, probably dates from before 1670. It was sold to a Mr John Harrison on 2^nd December 1670 and it is possible that the datestone set into the south wall of the Wheatley is from what was originally Wheatley Farm (more below)

18^th Century

There is a series of Maps of Yorkshire known as The Jeffries maps but that of 1775, which takes in the Upper Wharfe valley, is only of limited use as the only building it shows in the area is Wheatley Hall and we know that there were already other buildings in the area.  It is unlikely there was widespread ownership of such maps the military and landowners being the most likely customers for what was probably only a limited print run.

Mid 19^th Century and later buildings

It was not until the opening of the Hydropathic establishment in 1844, and later in 1866 the Railway station, that the name Ben Rhydding became established in the area. However even up to the end of the nineteenth Century it was still known as “the Township of Wheatley, in the Parish of Ilkley in the County of York” in legal documents[ix]. There are still therefore a number of connections with the more ancient name of Wheatley of which the pub is an important, and very visible reminder.

David Carpenter’s book notes that the building originally known as the Cow and Calf, which is reflected in the stained glass windows, was built around 1860 for John Umpleby[x] and renamed the Wheatley Commercial and Family Hotel in the 1870’s. Maps of  1847/8 and 1888/91[xi] both appear to show a fairly extensive footprint and of a different shape for the building. This appears larger than what is considered the original part of the building.

And Shutleworth’s Guide c 1867 shows that  the Proprietor of the Cow and Calf Inn is John Umpleby and the brief information that: t R & b, 5/6, d from2/-.[xii]

However Ilkley Civic Society has drawings which show the present style of the building in an architects drawing submitted, apparently to the District Council, and approved July 4^th 1876 carrying the signature of the Chairman and architect [February 1876].

The maps and guidebooks may not necessarily tell a conflicting tale. It is possible that Umpleby adapted part of the original building shown on the earlier map, which is possibly Wheatley farm, for hotel purposes, and as he prospered was able to afford to build the New Hotel shown in the drawing. The Building’s architect Atkinson was responsible for a considerable number of buildings in Ilkley at the time and the Gothic tower was a common feature of the time. This is the reason for the change of name in that decade to the Wheatley Commercial and Family Hotel. By the 1890’s the building had apparently come under the aegis of the Bradford Old Brewery Co. There is another series of architect’s drawings for additions (the present extension) submitted to the Ilkley Urban District Council on 7^th August 1896 and signed [off?] by the Chairman 0n 2^nd September 1896. This appears to have been a significant addition to the building as the brewery commissioned the noted Bradford architects Samuel Jackson & Son, Architects, Valuers & Engineers. Jackson was a well respected Architect in his day and apparently responsible for a number of prominent public buildings around the District. He was responsible for many of the Brewery’s buildings and in this sense he was a more prominent architect than Atkinson whose work seems confined to the Ilkley area.

 20^th Century

The 1902 “Official Guide to Ilkley “ [xiii]shows the Wheatley as we know it today and the advertisement carries the proud boast that it is a “First Class Family Hotel” which has been “Recently Enlarged and Refurbished and Under New Management”. It also states  “Sanitary Arrangements Perfect” and that there is “Good stabling, and only two minutes from the Station”.

It should be mentioned in this context that the Wheatley is treated as very much one of the minor hotel establishments in Ilkley and its cursory treatment in the guide books, such as Shuttleworth’s, contrasts markedly with those afforded to, not just the major attraction of the Ben Rhydding Hydro, but to other larger establishments such as the Craiglands, Troutbeck or Middleton hotels which enjoy much more extensive descriptions.

In another publication in Ilkley library, Ilkley  - the Malvern of the North[xiv] there is a short item which carries the same picture and gives the information that the Proprietress is a Mrs A. Bolland. This  appears devoid of any publication date but must have been published around the same time, as the article starts with the information that the Wheatley has “Just been Improved and extended” and includes among its charming  attractions “a new billiard room with the latest style of cushion by Orme! The bedroom  accommodation is excellent and the house is in every respect a home from home. The cuisine and wines are of the best and the domestic and sanitary arrangements excellent. There is a good tennis court and ample stabling with coach house etc. families are especially provided for and visitors invited. The comfort of the guests is provided for in every way. We should mention also that there is an ordinary daily and that the terms are in all respects moderate and reasonable”

However in the 1920 photograph in Mike Dixon’s book[xv] the stone of the “extension” looks darker that of the “original building”. Could it be that this part of the building was built from the stone of another adjacent older building?  Transporting such a load of heavy stone, even over the improved roads at the end of the nineteenth century would not have appealed to a cost conscious builder then, any more than now – especially a Yorkshire one!  

There is another guide book in Ilkley Library but this is again undated[xvi]. However it is certainly pre 1955 as the Hydro is pictured and advertised as the Ben Rhydding Golf Hotel and the railway bridge is intact over Brook St. in an aerial  photograph. It most likely dates from the 1930’s  judging by the style of clothes in some of the photographs and the lack of reference to the war. It carries a box advertisement for the Wheatley Hotel Ben Rhydding which says that  it is “Now the most up-to-date and modern Hotel in Wharfedale”. It is “Fully licensed”, there is “Golf and Fishing”, it is “Residential and Commercial” has a “Car Park and Garage”, “Catering is a Speciality” and “Quotations given for Parties”. “Telephone No. 273 Ilkley. Proprietor J.G.P. Herdman”.

Earlier local connections

Are there other local historical connections? On the south side of the part of the building proposed to be demolished there is what appears to be a lintel stone from a previous building on the site, bearing the legend IB 1669.  Directly across the road from the Wheatley is Laburnum Cottage, which, although apparently being occupied from an earlier date, has deeds dated from 1670.[xvii] This was sold by a John Harrison to Jeremy Blakey of Wheatley, husbandman. The cottage passed through a number of hands during the next two centuries and was possibly part of a larger landholding. In January 1840 a William Ramsden bequeathed to five children property which included the cottage and garden at Wheatley, but his son William died soon afterwards. There were two daughters among the remaining four children and when it was proposed that property including the Wheatley cottage should be sold  there was careful inquiry of them by legal representatives that they knew what they were doing. The next owner was John Booth, a Yeoman of Silsden in the parish of Kildwick, a well to do man who owned several properties at Wheatley as well as elsewhere. Sometime towards the middle of the nineteenth century John Umpleby, farmer, of Wheatley, bought this property as well as other property known as Wheatley’s Farm, which Umpleby also occupied. We may assume that Wheatley’s Farm was, in part, the land on which he built, or adapted to a Hotel, the Cow and Calf. It is not difficult to make educated guesses at the connections, as there would not be many people living around this area at the time when access by  road would have been much less adequate than today.

The latest publication we can find showing the Wheatley is a local commercial guidebook [xviii]with a full page colour advertisement on the back page, with picture and map, which boasts that it ”featured in the Good Food Guide for 1992 making it one of the best watering holes and restaurants throughout Great Britain... there are only around one thousand such businesses included in the guide out of an estimated 84,500, it is quite an honour”.  Thus the historical continuity with the excellent cuisine and wines of a century earlier is continued.

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There is another puzzle.  The sign in the garden shows a painter. Is this Francis Wheatley, who is a little known local artist?

Proprietors/Landlords

John Umbleby:  1860 - 1880?; Bradford Old Brewery; Mrs A Bolland: 1900’s - 1920’ish?

J G P Herdman: 1920’ish - 1940ish?; Eddie Blackstone:  1950’ish to 1976/7?

Chris and Irene Haw:  1977 - 1991?; Stephen Haw:  1991 - 1994?; Richard? :  1994 - 1997?

Chris and Irene Haw: 1997 – 2001; David Wooley: 2001 - July 2002!