Development and progression has changed the layout of many of our towns and cities.

Photographs are the only reminder of how they looked in bygone times, which is why Ken Ellwood’s fifth book – Skipton Through Time – is so enchanting.

Most of us are familiar with this pretty market town, famous for its castle and high street dotted with busy stalls on market days, but Ken’s photographic lookback at the town where he came to work as a school dental officer in the 1950s is a wonderful record of the changes it went through in the last century, with the older photographs alongside present-day ones on the same page.

Ken’s photograph of Caroline Square perfectly illustrates the dramatic changes.

Agriculture was the lifeblood of Skipton’s economy, as the image of man and beast mingling in the square demonstrates.

Ken’s book of more than 180 snapshots of the town past and present reveal shops and businesses have received a radical makeover through time too.

Hogg’s fruit and veg shop, a stone-fronted property, festooned with things to sell, is now a whitewashed bank. Other premises have disappeared, as Ken’s photograph of the ‘gap’ indicates where HR Brown chemist and pharmacist once stood.

Readers are beckoned to spot the difference on the snapshots of the high street taken in April 1897 and 1982. In the 1897 image, a young lime tree rests on the pavement waiting to be planted to commemorate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. In 1982, the fully-grown trees stand side-by-side, lining the main street.

The only notable external change to Holy Trinity Church are the tombstones which he recalls were removed from the front and stacked at the rear.

Snapshots of Skipton’s surrounding beauty spots show them largely unchanged.

Wooden shelves stacked with rows upon rows of bottles in Wright’s wine shop have replaced the Smithy where Ken captured blacksmith Jack Ward with tools in hand shaping a horseshoe.

Looking at the recent snap of the Cock And Bottle, it is hard to comprehend this stretch was once swimming in water during the flood of 1979. Ken recalls he was not quick enough to capture the landlord swimming across the street!

Interestingly though, for all the changes, Skipton has retained its character – and few places can boast that.