There’s a chance work will result in a relocation move and yorkshire would be high on the list. Most likely would be Leeds, but Sheffield or perhaps even York are there too (that’s in order of perceived likelihood of landing a job).

I’m interested to hear where you would choose to live for easy access to the hills, that’s ideally within 30-40 mins commute?

Cheers guys.

Harrogate.

somewhere on the north of leeds, cos the south is terrible.

Live in Mirfield. Good links to Leeds/Manchester.

Nice bit of riding from your door, bonus!

Skipton/Settle – easy commute in to the centre by train and the whole of the Dales on your doorstep!

i would love to live in settle myself.

Northallerton

Kirkburton / Denby Dale / Skelmanthorpe / Shelley area. All close to M1 for Leeds & Sheffield, can ride, run + walk in hills on your doorstep, relatively close to Holmfirth and Peak District.

SW Sheffield – takes me 20mins to cycle (downhill) to the city centre one way, and 20mins to cycle (uphill) to the Peak District the other way.

Either Penistone area I.e. S36/S75 bits roubd there or Sheffield if you need to be in town.

West Sheffield best of all worlds

Settle is too far from Leeds, IMO. Train service starts to get patchy after Skipton.

If it’s Leeds, and you can afford it, Harrogate, Ilkley, Skipton are all pretty good for access to the Dales.

You might consider nicer bits along the Huddersfield corridor, but I know nothing of these…

Huddersfield. Home of the Sweary Northerners and the CVMBC.

Really depends where you will end up working. Leeds/Bradford has really, really bad traffic. Depending on where the job is in Leeds will determine where to live as traffic is that bad.

Riding from your door, i don’t think you can beat the Aire Valley for riding from the door.

Harrogate has a bit, but certainly not in the same league. Northallerton was completely flat last time I was there…

Manchester.

😉

Why would he want to live in the 3rd World Terrahawk? 😉

As has been mentioned, if you’re commuting into Leeds centre, you really, really, really, really want to be doing it on public transport. The roads around the whole of West Yorkshire are a nightmare at rush hour. That said, I did Leeds centre to Halifax last night at 5pm along the M62 in ~40 minutes which isn’t bad going. North Leeds outside the ring road is good – Pool, Otley, Ilkley etc. All nice little places but not sure what transport links are like?

I’ll add my totally biased opinion and say that if you were looking at working in Leeds centre, Calderdale should feature high on your list. ~40 minutes sat on a train from Halifax/Sowerby Bridge/Mytholmroyd/Hebden and reasonable house prices, beautiful scenery and obviously the riding on your doorstep (which for me is priceless!). I’ll never fail to reccommend Skircoat Green/Savile Park in Halifax as nice places to live. 15 minute walk to the station (trains every 15 mins to Leeds), nice mix of houses, good schools etc, nice ‘local’ shops and awesome riding. Good road links too (5 minutes to the M62).

York… Hmmm, I’m from York originally and I’ve got to say, it’d take something special for me to go back. Its a lovely place, no doubt about it but more expensive to live vs where I am now and the (off road) biking from your door is almost non-existant. 30/40 minute drive to Dalby/Helmsley is about as good as it gets. York Council seem to be doing a pretty good job of self destructing as well by closing off Lendal Bridge at peak times so driving anywhere within the outer ring road is soemthing akin to hell on earth. If a dream job came up in York I’d take it…….. and live somewhere else.

Don’t know much about Sheffield. By all accounts its a good place to live for bike’ey types – very much like Leeds with two crap football teams 😉

Keep it in the West Riding, the true home of Yorkshire.

Thanks for the suggestions… and nice try terrahawk! I’m not a fan of commuting by car and hate the prospect of sitting in large traffic jams. I’d heard that the traffic around York was awful but hadn’t appreciated what it was like around Leeds so I would much rather commute by train. The suggestions about sensibly priced housing are much appreciated as I would like to have some cash at the end of the month.

Good schools – I hadn’t even broached that one…

Are there nice wee parts of Leeds in the city itself?

I live in York. Great place to live, except Fri/Sat night during hen night season. Fantastic place for a young family. Good road riding, very cycle friendly city (police, ambulance and posties still on bikes) with loads if cycle paths, but you have to drive a bit (30-45 minutes) for much decent MTB.

And given its touristy nature a lot of the restaurants aren’t as good as they should be – too easy to take someone’s money once, and don’t worry about repeat trade ‘cos they’re gone at the end of the week. There are good ones but they need hunting out.

Edit: just read DBW’s post. We live in York and commute out (Castleford and Grimsby as it happens). On the south side of York that’s very easy. If your job takes you to London much, York is faster than Leeds. Commuting into York is what hack bikes are for – you won’t be the only one and a lot of the time you don’t have to go on road until you get very close in to the centre.

the true home of Yorkshire

Eh?

Ok. 🙄

We moved to Huby, about 10 miles north of York, and I loved it there.

Like DBW Said, I too would move back in an instant if work came up there.

Bingley is commutable to Leeds centre by bike/train 1hr/train 20mins. Housing to suit all pockets.

Bear in mind too that the trains are hell at rush hour too.

Are there nice wee parts of Leeds in the city itself

That will depend entirely on what you’re after. If you’re single or have no kids, and socialising is high on your list of requirements, then there are plenty of apartments in close proximity to Leeds centre that will fit the bill. Pricey though, you’d get better value elsewhere. Roundhay/Chapel Allerton/Headingley etc probably a better bet if you were wanting more traditional housing, but again they’re pricey!

What do you do by the way?

if working in Leeds – look somewhere to the north.
if working in Sheffield – look somewhere to the west/south west.

don’t go to Mirfield! i grew up there and it’s ok, but the riding from the door is much better in other places, as above.

We lived in Chapel Allerton in Leeds which was a nice area. Would have stayed if we could have afforded to buy a house.

pretty much what’s been said above…

If Leeds and you have to live in Leeds City Council areas then stick to the north of town, outside the ring road. Bear in mind that the further east you get the more claggy the soil. Further west into the Bradford district & the underlying stuff becomes more gritty, drains better than N Leeds clay. If Bradford, try stick to Bingley/Baildon/Saltaire & outlying villages such as Harden, Wilsden, Cullingworth. Keighley doesn’t have much to recommend it other than the steam railway and Haworth/Oxenhope

Train lines into Leeds from the north & west (best hills!):

Airedale line – Skipton – Keighley – Bingley – Shipley (best avoid the centre of Shipley but Saltaire & Baildon are good) – Leeds;

Wharfedale line – Ilkley – Menston – Guiseley – Leeds; all good, and hilly too. Baildon & Shipley are just down the hill from Menston & Guiseley, rides in one area generally tend to flow in & out of the other
Otley is not on a railway line but Menston isn’t far. The A660 into Leeds gets really bad once you cross the outer ring road at Weetwood and will get worse for a while if the trolleybus ever gets started

Harrogate line: York – Knaresborough – Harrogate – Horsforth (Horsforth is nice too)

don’t know too much about the southwest (cleckuddersfax) or East (York/Selby)

south of Leeds, no-mans land until you get to Morley 😉
East Ardsley is semi-rural but no railway station even though the east coast main line spur to Leeds goes past the edge of the village; getting into Wakefield area, Wrenthorpe, Outwood, Stanley all ok to good; south of Wakefield I’d only recommend Sandal or Newmillerdam. East of Wakefield is flat & empty. Apart from classy Cas.

Getting from north of Leeds / Bradford to anywhere south of them during rush hour, and vice versa, is a nightmare.
When the M62 is flowing well, it’s good. but when it’s bad it’s a disaster.
if work ends up in Sheffield, don’t go any further north than Barnsley – but if you end up in Barnsley you’ll need an interpreter 😉

. Northallerton was completely flat last time I was there…

It still is but the North York Moors are only 8-10 miles away 8)

Mirfield? I’ve driven through there so many times and went to the Hardtimes club there. Its one of those places thats ‘grey’ IMO. Not a bad thing.

I would not commute from Jct23 to Leeds way on the M62 for any money.

Ooo, forgot about Bingley/Harden/Wilsden etc. Real nice area and top notch riding!

Some good riding from Mirfield. Not ridden from there in a couple of years now but up through Hopton Woods, around the golf course, Bluebell/Lady Woods and over towards Coxley Woods/Middlestown etc – all good little rides and almost totally off anyones ‘where shall I ride’ radar.

Mirfield – having grown up there the riding is ok for an hour or two.
Not a patch on west Sheffield where I also lived, or out towards Bingley, or Halifax.

I live 7 miles out of York to the south.
Wonderful place and excellent for kids if that’s a consideration. Schools are all of a high standard, and there are no real bad areas (compared to Salford/Manchester where we lived for 10 years).

Plenty of road riding to be had over towards the Wolds.
MTB 40 mins away on the Moors or Dalby.

Transport routes are not too bad, but I commute into York by bike, so pass any stationary traffic. Can do the 7 miles as fast as any car.

People seem to have a real sense of community too.

Train from York to Leeds is reasonable, and link to London is less that 2 hours.

Would like a few more hills though. I make do with finding new non-road routes.

[Edit] Lived in and around Sheffield too and loved it. It was very student orientated, but felt like it had a large town, rather than a city feel. From Hunter’s Bar we used to pick our way through the parks to the peaks most weekends. Have very happy memories of our time there.

I know a nice B&B in Northallerton that I could recommend should you need to do a reccy. They accommodate bikes too.

I live in Chapel Allerton and like it a lot, singletrack within a mile of my doorstep.

As per FunkyDuncs comments commuting into and out of Leeds by car can be a bitch, it frequently takes me 45 mins to do 3 miles to get out of the city in a morning during which I pass the queue of folk trying to get into Leeds which often backs up onto the M621, they often queue all the way from Huddersfield to Leeds on a morning, in an evening this pattern reverses.

If your working in Leeds and can also live in the city I would for the sake if avoiding all the time you’ll lose commuting.

chriswilk is right, just ignore DBW and sandwicheater, there’s nothing worth riding from the Mirfield area, move along – nothing to see here…. 😉

Is that you G? Hows the little ‘un doing? We need to ride!

ooh, I forgot to mention Batley. Avoid.

ooh, I forgot to mention Batley. Avoid.

If there’s one comment on this thread that I’m confident will achieve a unanimous consensus (of agreement), it’s that one!

DBW – I think you’d struggle to get a visa to move back as you’ve been in the West Riding too long and have become naturalised to their ways 😉

York is ok. Good for road biking (in the triangle between the A19 and A64). It’s crap for mtb though. The Howardian Hills are just a mudfest most of the time so you need to travel to the North York Moors (Dalby/Sutton Bank/Ruddland Rigg). The best NYM riding is on the other side though (Danby/Lealholme) imho. Traffic is crap (best to cycle/walk/run if you can). Transport links are good but of you’re heading into West Yorks it’s not cheap as it’s outside the WY Public Transport thingy. House prices are quite high.

I live in Skipton and love it. House prices are good, schools are good, lots of hills near by and Leeds 40 mins on the train. Trains to Leeds are every half an hour through the day and are quite modern.

If you want sensibly priced houses avoid Harrogate/Ilkley.

Forgot to say, got mates in York and really like it there but the riding is a bit pants without a journey. It’d be high on my list if I had to move from Skipton.

Sod off, were full. 😯