Otley, West Yorkshire

Friday 26th to Sunday 28th April 2024

This weekend, Fufu has taken us to the pleasant market town of Otley on the River Wharf, near to Leeds. We are staying on the practice ground of the Old Otliensians Rugby Union Football Club, which is being used as a temporary holiday site by the Yorkshire Region of the Camping and Caravanning Club. Our thanks goes to the stewards for the warm welcome and efficient organisation.

The town saddles the river, but the older and more interesting part, is to the south where there is town centre shopping, much of which consists of small arcades and courtyards with many small independent shops.

There is evidence of settlement here since the bronze age, but the main early development of Otley as a township began in Saxon times, the mid fifth to early 7th centuries. The Norman invasion laid waste to the area, but growth resumed in the 13th century and more recently became a centre for textile production and the manufacture of printing machines.

Markets have been held in the town since 1227, but the current site of the buttercross and jubilee clock are both 19th century structures.

There are many listed buildings, including the seven-span, medieval Otley Bridge, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument dating from 1228. It was rebuilt in 1673 after a flood and later widened. The bridge still carries road traffic, though a cantilevered walkway has been added for pedestrians.

There is parkland on both sides of the river near the bridge. To the north of the river there is Wharfmeadows Park which runs for two miles to the east, and to the south there is the much smaller, “Tittybottle Park”, so named as a result of its popularity with nannies and mothers with their infant charges.

There is a real sense of community in the town. An example of this is provided by the Otley Courthouse which has been repurposed as a thriving arts venue with the courtroom used for meetings, concerts and exhibitions. We were allowed to explore the building, which still has holding cells upstairs. These were apparently used in the filming of the TV series “Heartbeat”.

Otley has the, perhaps dubious, distinction of having the highest resident to pub ratio in the land, with 30 pubs; ” a pub on every corner”. There are a few less now, but there are still 20, some of them being old coaching inns. The Black Bull has a claim to fame which is written large on the pub wall: