Who's buried here?
The friends of Ilkley Cemetery not only do regular gardening work to remove brambles and saplings from overgrown graves, uncovering hidden graves, leaf clearing and litter picking. They also research the names of people buried here, A selection of some of those who have contributed in different ways to Ilkley and its community are shown here.
William Wycliffe Spooner
Daphne Steele
Thomas Harold Broadbent Maufe (Area A) - 6 May 1898 – 28 March 1942
Thomas Maufe was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 4 June 1917 in France whilst serving as a Second Lieutenant in the 124th Siege Battery. Sadly, he was killed in an accident in 1942 whilst serving in the Home Guard in Ilkley when a trench mortar misfired during training.
John Shuttleworth (Area C) – 1 December 1832 – 30 October 1909
John Shuttleworth and family established a gift selling business on Brook Street, Ilkley in 1851 selling fancy goods, guides and postcards of the local area. A collection of thirty volumes of John Shuttleworth’s photographs of Ilkley dating back to the late 1800s are kept at Ilkley Library. In 1861 John Shuttleworth became the founder and proprietor of the Ilkley Gazette newspaper which continues to be published weekly to this day.
William Wycliffe Spooner (Area C) – 29 March 1882 – 17 September 1967
William Spooner founded the Spooner Dryer and Engineering Company in 1932 and sought to revolutionise the techniques of industrial drying equipment by increasing its speed and efficiency and later expanding the application and techniques to other sectors including the textile, paper and food industries. As his business grew, he bought the old Brewery Company on Brewery Road in Ilkley in 1951 as the new site for his parent company and the adjoining old corn mill which was converted into a drawing office block. In 1959, the group became a public company under the name "Spooner Industries Ltd". Spooner retired as chairman in 1962, but remained as life president, actively involved until his death in 1967.
Daphne Adrianna Steele (Area D) - 16 October 1929 – 23 July 2004
Daphne Steele emigrated from Guyana to the UK in 1951 and trained as a nurse. In 1964 she was appointed as the head matron of St Winifred’s maternity home on Wells Road, Ilkley – becoming the first matron of African heritage in the National Health Service. When St Winifred’s closed in 1971, Daphne went on to train as a health visitor at Leeds University and continued to work in Ilkley and surrounding area until her retirement. A Blue Plaque was unveiled in honour of Daphne Steele at the former maternity home in February 2024. (read more about Daphne Steele here)
Memorial Avenue (Area E) - Some of the gravestones that were removed from the graveyard at All Saints Church in the centre of Ilkley back in 1968 were eventually laid out in a Memorial Avenue in 2011 in Area E of Ilkley Cemetery next to the Ashlands Road entrance. An information board close to the Memorial Avenue provides more information and details of the headstones and crosses included.
The Middelton Family (Area F) – the Middelton’s, who for centuries had been the Lords of the Manor of Ilkley, fell on hard times and in 1867 the first of a series of land sales took place and continued into the 1870s and 1880s. By 1898 Charles Marmaduke Middelton was forced to sell Myddelton Lodge and moved out of Ilkley soon afterwards. He died in 1904 and his body was returned to be interred in Ilkley Cemetery. An application was made to the Home Office for the bodies of his predecessors, who had been buried adjacent to the chapel at Myddelton Lodge, to be exhumed and reinterred at Ilkley Cemetery. In February 1906 the bodies, including those of Anna Middelton (died 1837), William Middelton (died 1847) and William Middelton (died 1885), were moved to Ilkley Cemetery. The gravestone for Helen Middelton, the wife of Charles Marmaduke Middelton, who died in 1888 can also be found in Ilkley Cemetery. She was originally buried in the graveyard of All Saints Church as she was not a Catholic. Her gravestone was removed from there in 1968 and can now be found in the Memorial Avenue (Area E).
Commonwealth War Graves (CWGC) - There are currently 46 CWGC graves in Ilkley Cemetery and further details can be found on the Commission’s website www.cwgc.org CWGC staff visit the Cemetery periodically to clean, maintain and repair these graves.
Locating Family Graves – The Cemeteries and Crematorium Registers for all the Bradford District, including Ilkley Cemetery, are held at Shay Grange Crematorium and can be viewed by appointment. An online version can be viewed at the Bradford Local Studies Library. Please note this is not currently available at the Keighley Local Studies Library.