Visitors to our fair town immediately assume that the central car park was once the site of an Ilkley market, and it's the great joy of historical pedants like myself to point out that Ilkley (apart from the granting of a couple of charters in the mid-thirteenth century) has never hosted a market. Indeed, up till the 1840s Ilkley was a completely insignificant place compared to its market-town neighbour Otley.

However, it does appear that there was an intention to host a market on the very site where the car park now sits. Looking closely at the Plan for the second Middleton Land sale (1868), the area around Hawksworth Road now occupied by hundreds of commuting cars is clearly marked as 'site of intended market'. Given the amount of time it usually takes for things to happen in this 'burg, perhaps its still on the plans somewhere in Ilkley Town Hall.