LAND sales which helped transform the character of Ilkley are the focus of a new exhibition at the Manor House.

Ilkley Land Sales has been put together by Alex Cockshott and her fellow Manor House trustees to help show how the town changed from a gentry-owned estate to the community it is today.

The display opened on February 1 and can be viewed each Saturday, between 11am and 4pm, up until March 29.

An Ilkley Manor House spokesperson said: "The development of Ilkley from an estate owned by gentry to the town it is today began in earnest in the 1860s.

"When Peter Middelton - the spelling at the time - died in 1866 his son, William, inherited mainly debts. The railway had arrived in 1865, opening Ilkley up to access from Leeds and Bradford, so William lost no time in auctioning off parts of his land in lots.

"It is these land sales which form the basis of the display in the Housebody.

"The first sale took place on June 5, 1867, in the Crescent Hotel. Surveyor Joseph Smith designed a new road layout to include villas for the wealthy, hotels for visitors to the burgeoning hydropathic establishments, terraced housing for the workers coming to populate the town’s workshops, and shops to feed and clothe everyone.

"The area covered Church Street, Green Lane/The Grove and Cowpasture Road and the planned Craiglands, Riddings and Wells Roads.

"Several subsequent sales took place in hotels in the town and the shape of the town was radically altered.

"It is fascinating to discover this process, for example with the demolition of cottages on what was then Green Lane, at right-angles to the top of Brook Street, in order to widen and open up the approach to the Moor.

"The maps of the areas covered by the various sales are relatively small-scale and diagrammatical and repay close study, but the exhibition is enhanced by displays of photographic enlargements, old postcards and documents."

The exhibition also features some poignant images of the human cost of the transformation - including one of a woman standing outside her cottage which is clearly marked for demolition with 'LOT 6' painted on the wall.

A companion show upstairs at the Manor House, meanwhile, shows views of Ilkley from the air.

For more details visit www.ilkleymanorhouse.org.