William Billows
William was born in 1858 in Skipton. His father was the manager of High Mill and they lived in the nearby Primrose Cottage on the edge of Skipton Woods. His grandfather, also called William, fought under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular campaign against Napoleon (1810-1812).
William joined the Skipton Volunteers, then known as the 12th West Yorkshire Regiment, in 1874, being a boy member of the drum and fife band. After two years playing a fife he took up musketry, and retired in 1906 with the rank of colour sergeant. During the first world war, he was an instructor at Colne of the Home Defence Volunteers, and in recognition of his work he was presented with a rose bowl.
He married Emily Fanny Crossland from Newark, Nottingham, on 24th July 1884 and they had 4 children, three of them boys, who all went to war, one of whom is shown on another of these panels as he was a ringer who did not return.
From 1872 to 1936 he was employed in the printing department of the Craven Herald, in Skipton. For over 60 years he was a member of the Travellers’ Friend Lodge, Skipton, of the Independent Order of Oddfellows. He was also a member of the Skipton Conservative Club.
William was a ringer at Skipton from 1876, when there were only 6 bells to October 1937 and was the secretary for 50 years. He still rang occasionally, such as on Christmas Day, just before his 81st birthday. He had a grandson called Frank who was ringing then as well. William died in 1945 in Skipton, aged 87.
William Downham Hillary
William Downham Hillary was born in Kettlewell in March 1860. His father was under gardener to Lady Ramsden at Buckden. He left school at 12 years old and went to live with an Aunt in Manchester to become an apprentice cabinet maker but he did not enjoy it so returned two years later and went to work at Belle Vue Mills as a bobbin weigher, working long hours (6 am to 6pm on weekdays and 6am to 2pm on Saturdays). Eventually he passed into the paint shop where he served his time as a painter, a trade he then followed for 47 years working for G.H. Mason and sons as a house painter. He retired in 1928 after injuring himself in a fall.
He started bell ringing in 1878 at Skipton serving under three rectors and rang in honour of great events in the reigns of three monarchs – the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, the coronation of King Edward and King George and the Jubilee of King George. He took part in no less than 37 peals of 5,000 changes and one of 6,048 which at that time won for the Skipton belfry the record for the longest peal of Oxford Treble Bob Major rung in Yorkshire. William Billows was also ringing that day. He was also a member of the first band of handbell ringers.
In 1879 he joined the old Skipton Volunteers, where he learned to shoot and served until 1901, during which time he was in a team in shooting competitions. For 19 years he was a member of the Skipton Fire Brigade, rising to the rank of Superintendent, in the days when the engines were hand operated, before a steam fire engine was acquired in 1899.
As a young man, he was a prominent competitor at sporting events, and was at one time regarded as the best long jumper in the district, he was also a good sprinter and long distance runner.
After marrying Elizabeth Billows, on 31st July 1880, they lived with her parents and her brother and fellow bellringer, William. In the 1891 census the family was living at 5 Prospect Place, Skipton, when they have five children including a son William (then aged 8). By the 1901 census William was a house painter and the family had moved to 1 Prospect Place in Skipton, where they remained for the rest of his life. In total they had ten children, the last was daughter Ada. He died aged 76 in 1936.
James George Bowler Garlick
James was born in Bedford on 17th December 1881 and was living at 19 Back Water Street in Skipton at the time of the 1901 census, aged 19, with this mother Elizabeth and stepfather George Bruce, both also from Bedford. James had 2 half brothers and sisters who were all born in Skipton.
He was living at 14 Lambert Street at the time of the 1911 census, when he was a lead pipe maker.
His wife Margaret Ann was two years older, they married in Skipton at Holy Trinity on 18th February 1903 then had a daughter Kathleen on 2nd September 1903.
He served in the first world war, from 10 December 1915 when he was 33, as a gunner in the 216th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (regimental number 84052), deployed to France on 21st December 1916. Siege batteries were equipped with heavy howitzers, sending large calibre high explosive shells in high trajectory, plunging fire. The usual armaments were 6 inch, 8 inch and 9.2 inch howitzers, although some had huge railway-mounted or road-mounted 12 inch howitzers. As British artillery tactics developed, the Siege Batteries were most often employed in destroying or neutralising the enemy artillery, as well as putting destructive fire down on strongpoints, dumps, stores, roads and railways behind enemy lines.
He was discharged on 30th January 1919, with a Silver War Badge which means he was honourably discharged due to illness or injury. The cause of discharge on his record is Para 392 (xvi) King’s Regulation. Para 2 (a) (1). This means he was considered to be no longer physically fit for service after being in hospital.
By the time of the 1939 register, James and Margaret had moved to 15 Lambert Street when he was listed as being a motor mechanic. He was still living there when he died in The Victoria Hospital in Keighley on 17th November 1959.
Arthur Lawson
Arthur was born on 8th August 1899 in Skipton, to his father Arthur William, a cabinet maker and upholsterer and his mother Sarah. In the 1901 and 1911 they were living at 4, Water Street, Skipton.
On 7th September 1917, Arthur joined the RAF aged 18, when his occupation is a cabinet maker, and his rank is A. Mech 3, and he is listed as being a rigger (Aero).
In 1926, he married Rose Evelyn Hutt, who was from Hemsworth, in South Kirkby and they had a son James in 1931 but he died aged 18 months old. In the 1939 register, they were shown as living at 26 Rectory Lane and he was a master cabinet maker.
Rose died in Weaverham, Cheshire in 1961 at the age of 65, and Arthur died on 18th May 1980 in Airedale Hospital aged 80.
Henry Horner
Henry was born in 1868 and he joined the 3rd Battalion of the West Riding Regiment of the Territorial Force on
12th January 1885. This was a volunteer force. After 23 years, in April 1908, he was promoted to sergeant and joined the same regiment as Robert Barker was later to join, the 6th Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment. He was awarded a volunteer long service medal and discharged on 31st March 1909.
Henry rang in the first peal on the new bells, on 18th February 1922 and that is the last record of him ringing.
He died in 1923, aged 55.
Ada Hillary
Ada was born on 6th December 1898 and baptised at Holy Trinity on January 8th 1899.
She married George Bottomley at Holy Trinity in 1922, when she stopped ringing. They had two children, George in 1922 and Ronald in 1925. As well as being a bellringer, she also was part of the Skipton amateur dramatic group. In the 1939 census, she and George were living at 7 Prospect Place, Skipton. George died aged 48 in August 1950.
Ada died in 1994 and one of our current ringers recalls ringing the bells at her funeral service at Holy Trinity on 16th March 1994.
Walter Bailey
Walter was born on 22nd July 1874 in Glusburn. In 1881, he lived with his parents Thomas and Mary and five siblings on Main Road, Glusburn and he was the second youngest, aged 6 so was at school. By the time of the 1891 census, he was living at 7, Cavendish Street with his mother, now a widow and three adult siblings. He was the youngest at 16 years old and a locomotive engine cleaner.
In March 1900 he joined the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants in Skipton, as a railway worker (fireman). He remained in the union until July 1929. In the 1901 census, he was a railway engine stoker, living at 32 Aire View Terrace, with his mother and three siblings. He was a member of Christ Church, Skipton and there is a record of his marriage banns being read out there for his forthcoming marriage to Annie Cutler, whom he married at Holy Trinity on 1st July 1902.
In the 1911 census, he was still a railway engine stoker and he and his wife Annie were living at 50 Clitheroe Street with a baby son, Joseph Harold, who was born in December 1910 and baptised at Holy Trinity on New Year’s Day, 1911 but Joseph died aged 9, in 1920.
In the 1939 register, he was living with his wife Annie at 4 Brooklands Terrace, Skipton, listed as a retired locomotive foreman. Annie died in 1953, aged 78. Walter died in St Johns Hospital in Keighley on 18th May 1956, aged 81. His death was announced in the Yorkshire Observer on 21st May 1956 as shown here.
Evelyn Moorby
Evelyn was born in Skipton on 2nd February 1901, baptised on 27th February 1901 at Holy Trinity, and in the census that year she and her family lived at 14 Fairfax Street. By the time of the 1911 census she was living at 20 Devonshire Street with her parents, William (a cotton weaver) and Martha, sister Nora and her brothers William and John.
Evelyn was elected as a member of the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers in 1919 when she was just 18, being one of four women ringers who learned to ring when four Skipton ringers joined the fighting forces in the first world war.
She married Arthur W Pryke (born 28th February 1894) in 1923, at Holy Trinity. In the 1939 register, they were living at 20 Devonshire Street. Evelyn died in November 1989, aged 88.