Apparently ‘it’s a right dump’ according to my mate who already works out of Leeds, and they’re forever trying to keep the place staffed. Nonetheless, it’s but 10-15 miles from where the Mrs and I dream of unloading the old ox cart (piled high with bicycles, dreams and crates of gear) and settling down. Heading up there next week to scope out the neighbourhood along the Keighly-Halifax-Huddersfield axis.

Firstly, what’s the STW word on actually working on Bradford’s streets (just winding down from four years’ service in hedonistic, if-you-can-think-it-someone’s-actually-doing-it Brighton), and, secondly, what’s the STW riding scene like out west of B-town? We’re starting out all over, not knowing a soul. It’d be nice if there’s a community of bike-types to play and sup pints with as and when the shifts allow.

My wife works for YAS based in Brighouse so gets to Bradford a lot, she said the staff are good, the station is large and very busy. I would not live in Keighley it’s a shithole but a gateway to Skipton and beyond. Have Edge in Brighouse is not a bad place to live and is 10 mins from Bradford

Bradford is indeed horrible, but look west(ish) and behold that which is the Calder Valley, home of Singletrack. It’s not far up and over the hill to Bradford from the Luddenden Valley, and Halifax has some nicer bits. Huddersfield isn’t much of a step up from Bradford in my opinion. Trails? Nah…none of those. Nothing. It’s all rubbish 😉

yourmywifenow, I’d heard that about Keighley, so guess I’d best count my blessings I’m not being coerced into being based there! What’s the backdoor riding like in Brighouse?

stwhannah, yeah, I enquired of the riding gods as to where the rubbishest riding north of Ditchling Beacon was, and they said Calderdale was a good place to start! ;0)

You’ve got all of the Peak District under an hour away, Hebden Bridge is a similar distance from Bradford.

Probably enough riding to keep you busy for a while…

I’d second Huddersfield as being quite iffy (lived around CleckHuddersFax for a while, moved) I’m just moving from Sheffield to Penistone.

From Brighouse you can get to several trails very easy, Judy Woods, Southowram, Elland and Huddersfield and it’s a short drive to Hebden Bridge where there are loads of options

Bits of Bingley/Saltaire and environs are nice – and handy for Bradford by train or car, with stacks of local riding.

The location choice depends on which bit of northern grim you fancy riding most often.

im lucky enough to live in bradford…… just below queensbury, don’t have to pedal far for good trails, ogden, shibden mill, elland all not too far! prepare to see drivings standards like you’ve never seen.

Moved up to village outside of Hudds 2 years ago from a super low crime rate area. As with everywhere there’s good and bad areas so I wouldn’t worry too much. Hudds is an alright place but we hardly go in to it as no need. I’d rather live here than Bradders way.

Not just because of the state of the place but Hudds is nearer to the Peaks than the Dales, which has better riding by far.

Some nice places in the Calder Valley as mentioned like Hebden.

Don’t live in Cleckheaton and nor is it anything to do with Hudds kthx.

Plenty of trails in Calderdale and Kirklees and a few groups about. Just go on Facebook that’s how I met my current riding buddies.

Bradford is a sad city. A lovely old powerhouse with some great buildings but crippled by under-investment and a general sense of being left behind. Saying that, if you are just working in the city it’s not the worst place in the world and there are some grand sites about. I’d work in Bradford for the right job no worries. We shop there as often as Leeds.

Living wise, come to Skipton. We’re a happy bunch here and there’s plenty of decent biking to be done.

Keighley isn’t somewhere I’d choose to live but other towns and villages in the Aire Valley are ok and within easy comuting distance from Bradford. I’m in Bingley and there’s plenty of decent mountain biking on my doorstep.

Another Skiptonite here. Just live outside on the train line and commute in. Plenty of lovely places within half an hour to 45 mins train ride, some have been mentioned above. I know a few people who work in Bradford and they have no grumbles.

I’ve been to Bradford twice for work. Holy sweet lord it’s the worst place I’ve been in the UK and I’ve been to a lot of places including New Cumnock, Merthyr Tydfil and Portsmouth.

That said, loads of nice places near by and both times I took the mtb and had great biking every evening. Some great towns and villages near by.

Edit: Bradford’s unique claim to fame for me was to combine horrendous deprivation with grinding traffic. It’s a bit of a feature of the geography and the sprawling crap victorian terraces.

Keighley has certainly suffered in a similar way to Bradford but having spent many years playing Rugby for the local teams I can say it’s full of great people. It’s a hard town but one with a great sense of humour and if you pick the right part and join in there’s much to enjoy. You wouldn’t know until you tried though and that’s a decent risk I accept.

No idea about YAS in Bradford, but a lot of Bradford is a bit grim and rough, I suppose it depends where you’re stationed and what area you cover.

Re living, Aire valley is nice from saltaire/Baildon to Skipton (with the exception of Keighley), route from Keighley to Halifax is mixed, Howarth nice, Denholme grim (but Wilsden/Harden are nice), some parts of Halifax are ok. My sister moved from Wilsden to Brighouse and really likes Brighouse. You might also want to scope out around Guiseley/Menston/Otley/Yeadon.

Biking, Great doorstep MTB Bingley/Baildon/saltaire/Harden/wilsden. Hebden Bridge not that far away and one of the best er…’urban’ riding areas in the country, probably (it’s not that urban tbh). Not sure about Brighouse, but Bro-in-Law seems happy with it and he was spoilt previously living in Wilsden with my sister. Skipton is ok-ish, but on the doorstep to the Dales which has loads of MTB, however Dales is mostly XC mincing rather than gnarr-core, great if you want to cover many miles off road with lots of big ups and downs. A lot of Chris Akrigg’s vids are filmed around Skipton, Harden, Shipley Glen, Baildon Moor, Keighley, Ilkley moor, he lives in Keighley.

15 years in YAS here, mostly Leeds and Bradford, then HQ etc.

Bradford is a far bigger dump than you can ever imagine. However, for ambulance work it is excellent as every job is either “there is nothing wrong with you, stop calling!” Or “How are you not dead yet”! You’ll see more trauma/ bizzare medical cases in Bradford than anywhere. Its also one of the most diverse areas outside of London, that brings its own challenges, but I always enjoyed working there as it is so different to everywhere else!

If you’d like more YAS-Tastic info feel free to message me.

Don’t move to Bradford though.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQzOkcELa5A[/video]
Neither am I but I miss it.

btw it’s pronounced Keith-lee not kee-lee or similar, whatever, you don’t want to live there. Although, many villages nearby are perfectly ok, just shop in Skipton/Ilkley/anywhere else rather than Keighley.

💡 Take a look at your front-line colleagues and figure out what percentage of them have been there for 5 years or more, that’s the % of your career expectancy right there. Then go figure out what you’ll be doing 6 years from now.

Had 7 months at BRI; I was told when I was there that the population of Bradford have the same age profile as Scarborough but with much higher markers of deprivation. Having said that, it was a good place to work (though I know that’s not necessarily relevant to what happens beyond the front doors).

Top tip is not to live anywhere that the commute will involve the M606.

If it helps, Ilkley has a Betty’s IIRC

it’s pronounced Keith-lee not kee-lee or similar, whatever, you don’t want to live there.

I’ll tell you now and I’ll tell you briefly…

What’s the backdoor riding like

😯

yourmywifenow, I’d heard that about Keighley, so guess I’d best count my blessings I’m not being coerced into being based there!

It’s not that bad, it’s only immediate Keighley itself that’s a bit rough, all the surrounding areas are nice, oakworth oxenhope howarth silsden crosshills, even riddlesden. Airedale hospital seems to be pretty decent as well.

Airedale hospital seems to be pretty decent as well.

Meant to be nice according to my colleagues who went there.

Huddersfield isn’t much of a step up from Bradford in my opinion.

😯

How on earth anyone can think that I’ll never know. Bradford is a genuine shithole but Huddersfield is fine. Plenty of nice places to live around Bradford, Keighley not being one of them, and the riding is all good.

munrobiker – Member

Huddersfield isn’t much of a step up from Bradford in my opinion.

How on earth anyone can think that I’ll never know. Bradford is a genuine shithole but Huddersfield is fine. Plenty of nice places to live around Bradford, Keighley not being one of them, and the riding is all good.

Yeaaaah, big up the Hudds.

I worked in central Bradford for 5 years until our office moved to Leeds a year ago. My god, its a hateful place. The town centre on a lunchtime is like being in a Star Wars set. Its the sort of place where if you see someone out for a run, your first thought is to look behind them to see where the police are that are chasing them. The driving is completely lawless – I’ve never been anywhere that you have to still check that theres nothing coming even if you’ve got a green man and the lights are on red. The only saving grace was that my office was a 2 minute walk from the Interchange and within 20 minutes of leaving my office I could be back in Calderdale.

An absolute shithole of a place. I cannot stress that enough. Its a place where a tiny percentage of its occupants have any pride in the place and the rest of them have the single aim in life to get a white Audi on lease and drive it around like a complete knob and it doesn’t matter how they get the money to do that.

For working there, its probably bearable but jesus christ, don’t even think about living there.

Ilkley is nice. I grew up there and the riding is good.

Bradford wasn’t so nice.

I visited Bradford the year before last for work and stopped in a hotel – beautiful faded grandeur type place. I’ m not sure what it was called, but I hope it’s managed to stay open. Even if the food was terrible…

I would suggest the best thing for you to do is what you plan, get up here and have a proper look round. (Budget? pointless settling on Ilkley if you can’t afford to live there)
You’ll find ALL the northern towns and many cities are down at heel (look up at the architecture to get a sense of what they all used to be like) but Bradford, as someone has alluded to, has simply been left behind the likes of Leeds and even Huddersfield. You’ll be fine working there for YAS but run off your feet 24 hours a day.
There’s out of the back door riding from most of the outskirts of the city but I’d suggest Oxenhope, Cullingworth or Wilsden/Harden as being the best of both worlds for you…pretty easy access to Bradford for work but decent villages with shop(s) schools etc

My sister was at uni there and lived directly opposite Mumtaz. Was good back then but I think it got posh but a bit less impressive in the intervening 20 odd years. Bradford itself was a bit dire and I still have no idea why she chose to go there when there was so many better places she could have gone. So close to nice places and lovely countryside though. I would happily work in a shithole if it meant living a reasonable distance away in a cracking place at a good price.

As other posters have said really. Bradford is not a wealthy city. I worked there for many years and I genuinely loved its diversity and I made friends with all manner of people from around the world. There’s a lively art and cultural scene and some lovely places to live on the moors surrounding the city.

One thing – traffic in and out of Bradford is an utter, utter nightmare.

I’d expect your ambulance call-outs would be the same as any other deprived city, with its share of drunks, addicts, DV, etc.

Well, forewarned is fore-armed and all that. Cheers guys! Got lots of place names circled on the map. Monday we hit the road!

Another Aire Valley resident here. Good points about Bradford – the curry houses, err, that’s it. We don’t go near the place if we can avoid doing so. Manningham (scene of the riots about fifteen years ago) used to be the richest suburb in Europe in the 19th century due to money from the wool trade.

Keighley, oh dear, we live close enough that it affects our car insurance even though we are actually in the next county and much closer to Skipton. There’s a strong BNP/EDL/NF presence. I work with some who live in Keighley and even they take the piss out of it.

Airedale hospital is fine – all the times we’ve had to visit we’ve had excellent service.

Where to live? Depends how close you have to be to your work. Moving up the Aire Valley and away from Bradford there’s Saltaire* and Baildon. Next is Bingley* and its satellite villages of Gilstead, Eldwick and Cottingley. Skipping Keighley* you then have Steeton* and Silsden. There’s the villages of Crosshills, Cononley* and Bradley before you get to Skipton*. (The asterisks indicate a rail station that has direct service to Bradford Forster Square, Skipton to BFS is 40mins.)

Just a thought, are you on the Feb 20th familiarisation course?

I’ve been to Bradford twice for work. Holy sweet lord it’s the worst place I’ve been in the UK and I’ve been to a lot of places including New Cumnock, Merthyr Tydfil and Portsmouth.

But clearly not Rotherham. Because really, that is the arae crease of the world.

That said, it’s Yorkshire so it’ll be better than Brighton 😀

Jimbobo, I’ve been pencilled in for Feb 20th, but I am yet to be officially signed off as good to start (apparently some admin hitch), and so cannot give my notice here with SECAmb yet

Lived in Leeds many years ago … bits of Huddersfield are okay …
Still with Brighton …. it’s much nicer.
But way more expensive …

Whitestone
Where to live? Depends how close you have to be to your work. Moving up the Aire Valley and away from Bradford there’s Saltaire* and Baildon. Next is Bingley* and its satellite villages of Gilstead, Eldwick and Cottingley. Skipping Keighley* you then have Steeton* and Silsden. There’s the villages of Crosshills, Cononley* and Bradley before you get to Skipton*. (The asterisks indicate a rail station that has direct service to Bradford Forster Square, Skipton to BFS is 40mins.)

Don’t forget the excellent train service of Oxenhope, Howarth, Oakworth, Keighley. State of the art service, I’ve heard.