According to Wikipedia

The headline of yesterday's posting was a quote from Wikipedia, which has summarised all poor old Peter Snow's journalistic and literary achievements into being known for waving a large piece of wood about in the middle of the night once every few years. However, Wikipedia has also astonishingly been regarded as definitive evidence by the loser in the great daylight-at-the-equator debate. Now I neither wish to name the individual involved nor to flag up which theory was correct; as Joseph Joubert said "The aim of argument should not be victory, but progress". But nevertheless, readers may wish to know that I was right all along.

It's possible that people may only be familiar with Ilkley through that appalling song (1). It does, of course, have many other things going for it, such as being the epicentre of wargaming in Lower Wharfedale. On top of that it has many Bronze Age and possibly Druid related standing stones, having been continuously occupied as a site for at least the last four thousand years, with flints having been found that date back another five or so thousand years before that. Now, I hear you asking, what has any of this got to do with the price of fish? Or indeed wargaming?

Well, clearly it's got nothing to do with wargaming; that would just be ridiculous. No, I'm just asking you to imagine yourself back in those prehistoric times. Two men stand part way up on the slope from the river to what was then the Bull, Cow and Calf rocks (possibly where the Winter Gardens are now) arguing about the movement of the sun; the knowledge of which is necessary to erect the load of stones just about to be delivered by the wholesaler. I think that here we can see the real hardship of living in ye olden days. Forget having to paint yourself in woad and die at 35; how is the argument to be settled without Wikipedia?

So why does it make a blue dye? If only there was an online resource that could answer these puzzling questions.

(1) although if you have never heard Bill Oddie's version I urge you to listen here 

A man with a beard