White Wells needs touch of magic...
One of the attendants in the old
days at the White Wells bath-house on Ilkley Moor swore that he
once saw fairies cavorting there, but they disappeared as he
opened the door. The white-walled landmark, which was erected by
Squire Middleton in 1760 to provide tingling spring-water baths
for Yorkshire's cold-water-cure fanatics, needs a dash of magic
now to ensure its future.
Ilkley people, or at least a large number of them, are furious
about what they see as the latest attack on their town: the
proposal which is being discussed at Bradford's Leisure Services
Sub-Committee today to sell off White Wells and to close the
Manor House art gallery and museum to the public while retaining
the office space there. The argument of Ilkley people opposed to
the scheme is that other museums and galleries ought to shoulder
an equal burden of the cuts. It is clear that the Bradford Art
Galleries and Museums take no joy in their closure proposals. But
they have to meet targets which are part of the £19m. of cuts
forced on the council by the Government's financial straitjacket.
What they are failing to take into account is the fact that
Wharfedale would be denuded of municipal art galleries and
museums, and the affection in which local people hold both
buildings.
Looked at in one way, White Wells is one of the most important
items in the museum collection. It contains the original
cold-water bath which led to Ilkley's fame as a fashionable
hydropathic centre and its development as a Spa town. Although
White Wells is only open on weekends and Bank Holidays half the
year, it attracts between 15,000 and 20,000 people a year,
according to wardens George and Jean Stockham. If White Wells
were sold on the open market, the money would go to the council's
general fund, and wouldn't help in the least to solve the art
galleries and museums particular financial problems. All they
would save would be the maintenance costs estimated to run at
around £1,000 a year.
But the sale of teas and money thrown into the well amounts to
£300-£400 a year. Is Bradford prepared to lose White Wells for
a piffling £600 or £700 a year? The suggested solution is that
it should be taken over by the Ilkley Parish Council. They have
no funds but could levy a minuscule rate or organise fund-raising
events to keep White Wells going. Perhaps money could be raised
by selling the sharp, clear water in bottles as tourist
souvenirs.
In this case, however, sentiment is probably quite as important
as money. I remember Eric Busby showing me the then
newly-restored stone bath at White Wells and telling me:
"When I stand beside the water running over all these old
stones, I feel a special kind of peace. I hope other people will
feel it, too." Eric, who died last winter, rescued White
Wells from destruction. It had been empty for years, and weather
and vandals had done their worst. The Ilkley Urban District
Council were on the point of demolishing the building when Eric
Busby, who then ran Goosewell Gallery at Menston, offered to take
it over and restore it with his own money. As he grew older and
found that managing the place was beyond him, Eric donated it to
Bradford Metro Council.
"I am very sad about the proposal to sell White Wells,"
said Mr. Busby's artist son, John Busby, who lives in southern
Scotland. "My father always wanted it to be open to the
Public and it is incredible that it is proposed to sell it to
save so little. The trouble about selling it is that there can be
no guarantee about the purchaser - it may be someone who wants to
close it to the public."
He was also disturbed to learn of the proposal to put the
Jacobean Manor House into mothballs. "It is a beautiful
place," he said. "So many artists have had their work
shown there, that I am sure they would be willing to rally round,
perhaps to organise exhibitions there. There must be some way of
keeping it open." A petition against its closure is going
well says its organiser Mrs. Margaret Hill, of Bridge Lane,
Ilkley, who retired in 1974 after twelve years as caretaker at
the Manor House. "I worked six days a week - and looked
after hundreds of pot plants in the Manor House," she says.
"I used to take visitors round and chat to them. Whenever
no-one was in the lights would be off. It would be a great shame
and a loss to Ilkley if it closed. What it needs is someone to
run it who cares about the place."
The Friends of the Manor House, who have mounted a swift campaign
against the closure, accept that serious cuts must be made but
argue that they ought to be more evenly spread over the other
museums and art galleries. One suggestion is that money could be
saved if all Bradford's museums and art galleries were to close
two instead of one day a week or to open shorter hours each day.
Another is to institute modest entrance fees. Many members of the
museums staff are against this on principle but in any case the
peculiar arrangement is that any money collected at turnstiles
goes into the Council's Central fund and not into the art
galleries and museums budget.
From a Telegraph & Argus article of the early eighties.