Ilkley Historical Multi #3: Ben Rhydding
Note: the given coordinates are for a suitable parking area
The cache involves an easy pleasant walk of approx. 2km and should take you around 50 minutes to complete. It takes you around some of the key features of the Ben Rhydding Conservation Area with its leafy aspects, some fine old buildings and great views up to the moors to the south - sufficient to give you a good feel for the area.
It may be easily combined with 3 existing nearby caches, GC7X50E The Fibonacci Sequence, GC1KX4R Sidetracked - The Wharfedale Line, Ben Rhydding and GC7978 Church Micro - 11006 Ben Rhydding.
Park in the large car park at the rear of the pub @ N 53 55.388 W 1 47.854
Step 1 - Wheatley public house: walk just around the side of the building to N 53 55.407 W 1 47.876 where you will see a wooden signpost which gives the distances to two other places of refreshment and socialising. The difference between these is A miles
Note (24/10/24): building work at the pub is obscuring this sign, so use A=3
Step 2 - Wheatley Cottage: cross over Wheatley Lane to Longcroft Road where @ N 53 55.395 W 1 47.918 on the right (south) side you will be standing outside the old Wheatley Cottage. Above the lovely old studded door you will see picked out in white the date of construction and B letters
Step 3 - Stone Terrace: return to and descend Wheatley Lane to N 53 55.438 W 1 47.871 where you will be standing outside Moor House in a terrace of notable stone houses. If you look up above the large mullioned 1st floor window you will see an ornate shield with the number 1C inscribed on it
Step 4 - Gate Piers: carry on down the lane to N 53 55.474 W 1 47.824 the location of a set of six impressive square ashlarstone gate piers which mark the start of Ben Rhydding Drive, which used to lead up to a famous hydrotherapy establishment - the Ben Rhydding Hydropathy Establishment. You will note that each side of the top of each pillar has 1D rectangular shapes between the corner shapes.
Step 5 - Shops Terrace: cross over the road to another fine terrace (of shops) at the end of Bolling Road where @ N 53 55.489 W 1 47.866 you can look up and note the date inscribed high up on the wall is 19E6
Step 6 - Edwardian Terrace: head a little left (west) and head down a short alley to N 53 55.508 W 1 47.877 where you will be standing at the rear corner of a fine long Edwardian terrace. These houses have interesting and attractive design features and lovely long gardens separated from the houses on the north side of the rear road. At this location you can see on each of the adjacent garages a small plate with the name of a Bradford company and a telephone number, the last three numbers of which are all the same and when added together give you F
Step 7 - Wheatley (Old) Hall: return to the main Bolling Rd and head down Wheatley Lane to N 53 55.509 W 1 47.826 at the front gate of the Wheatley Old Hall, one of the oldest buildings in the Area. This also has some notable architectural features and a lovely garden. If you look above the white front door, you will note a row of G small mullioned windows.
Step 8 - Railway Station Snicket: continue a little way down the lane and (after admiring the view up Wheatley Lane to the Cow & Calf rocks) head around the corner of the station access road and into a snicket (or ginnel)which will take you past N 53 55.535 W 1 47.874 the location of a lamp post which has the number HF written vertically on it (where H is the figure required).
Note of 20/8/23: as it seems that the post and/or number is missing, please use H=1 in your calculations.
The cache, a camo-taped film canister in a camo-bag, is hidden some 400m from here at:
N 53 55.(B+D)(A-H)(E+1) W 1 48.(C-F)(G-H)(A+B+D)
Some QI Notes on Ben Rhydding History & Some of the Key Locations Visited (for more information see here)
History: Wheatley village, as it was known before 19th century, started as a hamlet of the ancient Parish of Ilkley in the Skyrack Wapentake of West Yorkshire. Until the mid-19th century it was one of several such communities around the edge of Ilkley village and consisted of around a dozen buildings, mainly farmsteads and workers' cottages.
Early maps such as the 1775 Jeffries Map of Yorkshire show only one building 'Wheatley' on the west side of Wheatley Lane - probably Wheatley (Old) Hall (Step 7 and see also below). The first OS map of 1852 shows 2 small groups of cottages and other buildings - one near the Wheatley public house (Steps 1-2) and the other further south down Wheatley Lane near the railway. Some of these still exist - such as Wheatley Old Hall and the two cottages on Longcroft Road (Step 2).
It also notably shows a huge addition - the Ben Rhydding Hydropathic Hotel (Step 4). This had a major impact on the village (after which it was subsequently renamed - see also here) which grew dramatically in the late 19th and early 20th century. The various Victorian and Edwardian buildings (Steps 3, 5 and 6) remain as evidence of the major economic and social changes of that period.
Step 1: Wheatley public house: this prominent stone inn was built in 1863, originally as a coaching inn for the former Ben Rhydding Hydropathic Establishment, the success of which led to the establishment of the local Leeds-Ilkley railway with a stop at Ben Rhydding to enable people to travel more easily to the spa town. It has carved mullioned windows, gabled walls, a double-pitched roof and a gothic-style tower above. A lintel set into the south wall inscribed ‘IB 1669’ is probably from an earlier cottage that was once here.
Step 2: Wheatley Cottage: this Grade 2 listed long low cottage built was in 1671 with recessed chamfered mullions, a central corniced chimneystack and large quoined angles. It has an inscribed lintel above the doorway. Next door is a short terrace of late-19th century houses with characteristic black and white 1st floor and attic detailing. These replaced a long row of barns and outhouses that once adjoined the cottage, as seen on old village maps, which gave rise to the local field name ‘Long Croft’ and also the modern road name.
Step 4 - Ben Rhydding Hydropathic Establishment (BRHE): the country’s 3rd hydropathy (hydrotherapy) hotel, 
'perhaps the most deeply respected and certainly the longest-lived', was constructed in 1844 as Ilkley had become well-known for the curative powers of the local spring water after the discovery of White Wells spring in the 17th century. Also known as the Wharfedale Hydropathic Establishment and Ben Rhydding Hotel, this colossal Scottish Baronial style hotel was constructed at a cost of £30,000 (equivalent to tens of millions of pounds today!) at the south end of extensive grounds and the end of a long driveway off Wheatley Lane near the present Methodist church marked by the still-standing large stone gate piers. It was a place where guests could receive cold water hydrotherapy which was believed to have remarkable healing properties and to cure ailments ranging from depression to arthritis. Unfortunately, its popularity was short-lived and began to decline. By 1880 many of these establishments were struggling and eventually either converted into flats, convalescent retreats, old peoples' homes - or demolished.
The owners of the BRHE, therefore, built a golf club between 1885-1890 as an alternative attraction and its name was changed to Ben Rhydding Golf Hotel which prospered until WW2 when it was requisitioned by the Wool Control Board. After then the hotel never reopened and after standing empty for several years was demolished in 1955. The golf club remained and in the 1960s new houses were built below it - many with stones from the old hotel.
Step 5 - Terrace of shops: this is set back from the north side of Bolling Road, was built in the early 1900s and replaced a row of shops in wooden huts attached to the orchard wall of Wheatley Hall. These 2-storey stone buildings have attractive dormer and mullioned windows and a gabled frontage.
Step 6 - Edwardian terrace: further west on the north side of Bolling Road is a long terrace of unlisted Edwardian house built in the late 19th/early 20th century. These elegant houses are constructed in local stone with the popular black and white 1st floor detailing. They have other attractive original features like small-pitched roof dormer and mullioned windows, timber frames and doors, and red pantile roofs.
Step 7 - Wheatley (Old) Hall: this Grade 2 listed building is probably the oldest in the area and a fine example of a 17th-century manor hall. The 2-storey house is built with coursed gritstone and has a stone slate roof, studded timber door and transomed windows with chamfered mullions. The rear, partially obscured by a high stone wall, has timber-framed sash windows.
Step 8 - Railway station snicket: the rail line from Leeds/Bradford-Ilkley, which passed just north of Ben Rhydding village, was opened in August 1865. Initially, there was no village station but later that year the North-Eastern Railway Board ordered that 'a small wooden station, with a booking office, waiting room and retiring room for ladies' be constructed as a temporary measure. This opened in April 1866. However, Dr McLeod, who owned the popular Ben Rhydding Hydrotherapy Establishment (see above) thought this was unsuitable for the arrival and departure of his guests and patients. In May 1871 he reached agreement with the board whereby he would fund and build his own stone station building with suitable ornamentation. This he did and owned it until 1885 when it was sold back to the railway company for £240. The stone buildings were demolished sometime after 1968 and replaced by bus-stop type shelters. See here for more info on the station.