Since then there has been less serious flooding in many parts of the Bradford area including Ilkley, Addingham and Bingley.

BBC: Bradford residents asked about flood risk

But he's giving it all up, the Palace, the chauffeur, the influence, to become a local vicar in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

BBC: NEWS | Programmes | Breakfast with Frost | Hope on faith

The contrast between Ripon and Ilkley post-Beeching could not be clearer.

BBC: The Beeching report: How railway cuts divided Yorkshire

Like many others in the region, the neighbouring spa town of Ilkley is highly dependent on tourism following a general decline in West Yorkshire s textile industry.

BBC: NEWS | VOTE 2001 | RESULTS & CONSTITUENCIES | Keighley

The title of the race was the subject of a last-minute name change, having originally been called the less glamorous sounding Ilkley Handicap Chase, after the West Yorkshire town.

BBC: Racing pundit John McCririck

In the booking hall at Ilkley station, young mother Ruth Kitcher, with lively three-year-old Evangeline and nine-month-old Phoenix in tow, supported Mr Johnson's view of the station's positive contribution to Ilkley life.

BBC: The Beeching report: How railway cuts divided Yorkshire

And had Ilkley fallen foul of the Beeching axe in 1963, pensioner David Smithson, from Ryhill near Wakefield, said the lack of a station in the spa town would affect his lifestyle today.

BBC: The Beeching report: How railway cuts divided Yorkshire

Two of the three new wards, Craven and Ilkley, are mighty Conservative strongholds, and the third, the picturesque and tourist-dependent Worth Valley, (which boasts the Bronte's Haworth), is usually staunchly Tory in local elections.

BBC: NEWS | VOTE 2001 | RESULTS & CONSTITUENCIES | Keighley