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Walk across the road to the path which goes down the embankment. If you look across Montgomery Street you will see the shops and the Hotel. The picture on the left is how it looked in the early days of settlement, about 1860. The picture on the right is the view now. Notice the difference the trees , planted under Thomas Cleveland's instructions make. On the left side of the old picture you can see E. A. Wise's Blacksmith Shop which no longer exists. In his recollections of life in Skipton in the 1880's, John Grist refers to Mr. Bert Wise's place as 'Bachelors Hall', a gathering place for the town lads.
Cross the road for a closer look and you will see the original Elder's Store (not to be confused with the Elders stores owned by John Elliot), which is now a Healthcare, Hairdressers and Grocery Store. In about 1857 when Andrew Mackenzie Elder and his brother Robert, late of Tain, Scotland , bought this store from David McKenzie and constructed the front part of the building. It was the first Post Office and also the Paper shop. The original store was set a little back from the present store, which had residential quarters behind it. Jean Sturgeon remembers the Chaff Mill on this area (Ch 5-" Out of the Past"), a bluestone circle where the horse walked to cut the chaff..
Floods in Skipton, Montgomery Street. 1909
