When I heard the news that Ilkley placed first in the The Sunday Times Best Places to Live in the UK, I felt a certain amount of pride, but mostly gratitude that this has been my home since my mum and dad brought me home from hospital as a newborn.
A view of Ilkley from the Moor / Image credit: Holly Mosley
Frankly, I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else. It holds wonderful childhood memories for me; family picnics up on the Moor, Christmas dinner at the Cow & Calf pub, chasing dragonflies and nicking frogspawn at the Tarns and feeding the ducks by the River Wharfe (actually, I was afraid of the ducks - Ilkley ducks are basically muggers). That's not to mention watching beautiful bluebells bloom as far as the eye can see in Middleton Woods in late Spring.
There are summer traditions like the annual Ilkley Carnival for which it is a rite of passage to appear in the parade at least once, and at which teenagers full of candyfloss and candy dummies can be seen throwing up after some pretty questionable fairground rides. An afternoon at the Pool made for an exciting Sunday as a tot, and braving the freezing waters of the Lido was the only way to spend your summers as a teen. Although, I think me and my friends may have once shared a bottle of WKD at the skate park too. Yeah… As you can tell, my teenage years were WILD.
With transport links so good, you don't even need a car to get by in (or out) of Ilkley. Which is good because, while there are some lovely independent shops and restaurants on the high street, not all of them are particularly useful or affordable (except the Greggs which, by all accounts, makes life worth living). Affordability aside, what Ilkley is home to is one of the finest butchers in Yorkshire (Lishman’s) and Yorkshire’s most legendary tearoom (Betty’s) - jewels in our crown and must-visits for anybody coming to Ilkley. And we have a bunch of quirky little stores too like Games Crusade, The Grove Bookshop and The Art Shop. The kinds of places you have to pop into every time you're in town. So while it's not necessarily the most functional of towns, shopping is, at least, always fun.
Now I'm an adult, I’ve an even bigger appreciation for the landscapes of Ilkley and I make sure to do my bit to keep those beauty spots clean; Ilkley is nothing without its volunteers. The Moor is a historic (and prehistoric) setting with ancient cup and ring marked rocks and even a druidic site called the Twelve Apostles Stone Circle. In midsummer, when the heather is in full bloom, it’s a glorious sight to behold. The River Wharfe is an incredible mistress who draws in visitors in their droves every year, but she is not one to be messed with. Only this year during Storm Eunice did the Wharfe rise to shocking heights and fully destroy the Cricket Club, I believe for the second time.
You might find that Ilkley residents are fiercely protective of their town, but as long as you tidy up after yourself, don't have a BBQ on the Moor and avoid risking your limbs by jumping off the bridge into the river, you'll never be met with hostility. After all, it's this kind of antisocial behaviour that forces volunteers to break their backs collecting litter, fire fighters to tackle flames that two years ago devasted 25,000 square metres of Moorland, and the council to erect ugly barriers to keep people from leaping off our bridge. So, please, if you’re tempted to visit, please remember to do your bit to preserve the beauty of our town.
There are other downsides to living in Ilkley too, of course. It’s basically unaffordable, and it seems whenever new houses and apartments are being built they are retirement homes - despite the fact that there are more full-time employees living here than retirees. Rents are sky high, which means we are constantly seeing shops opening and closing down, and available homes to rent are few and far between. But when the sun comes out and the Ilkley landscape is looking its very best, it’s easy to put the negatives aside.
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Now, as a mother, I hope to raise my daughter here for as long as I can afford to. With myriad baby and toddler groups, a soft play centre, a pool, a newly refurbished park, a climbing centre and so many areas of natural beauty to have adventures, it’s hard to think of moving my family anywhere else. So, yes; Ilkley is the very best place to live in the UK. It's home. And that counts for everything.