Market days, Otley Bridge and forty minutes of A-road

Stalls take Market Place and Kirkgate on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and on Friday and Saturday they run right up to the parish church. That removes town-centre loading for the day, which is survivable on a local job and expensive on a national one. The old core around Kirkgate, Bondgate and Boroughgate is narrow and parked both sides anyway, and anything north of the Wharfe comes over Otley Bridge, a narrow medieval crossing and a scheduled ancient monument.

East Chevin Road climbs roughly 167 metres in a little over two kilometres with no turning space, so Chevin-side addresses are approached from the top and never driven up with a full load. Add the A-road run to the first motorway and a long-distance day out of here wants a non-market weekday, first thing. Once it is loaded, though, it is one van and one driver the whole way, nothing transferred, with a delivery time agreed to the hour.

What Otley long distance & nationwide usually involves

Tuesday, Friday and Saturday are market days and the Market Place and lower Kirkgate are unavailable, so a national run out of the centre is booked mid-week
Town-centre council car parks are pay-and-display and short-stay, so the van works in planned trips rather than standing outside all morning
East Chevin Road has no turning space for a loaded long wheelbase van, so Chevin-side collections are approached from the top rather than driven up
Otley Bridge is the link to Newall and everything north of the Wharfe, narrow and ancient, and worth timing away from the school run
The van holds 3.4m by 1.3m by 1.7m, so a flat, a cottage or a small house is one load and anything larger is quoted from photos and a written list beforehand

Where in Otley we work

Weston and Cambridge estatesinterwar and post-war semis with somewhere to stand the van, the easiest long-run starts in town
Kirkgate and Boroughgategritstone yards and folds with narrow frontages and no rear access, loaded by carry
Garnett Wharfenewer riverside housing on former mill and printing-works land, simple to get a van alongside
West Chevinbig stone detached houses, the jobs most likely to need two loads and an honest conversation first
Newalleverything from there crosses Otley Bridge, so the start time is planned around it
Wharfebank Business Parkriverside business units sending stock or equipment to another part of the country

If your street isn't listed it's almost certainly still covered, Otley and the surrounding LS21 postcodes are all inside our normal working area.

Common Otley runs

Otley to LondonA660 into Leeds and onto the ring road, then south, loaded early to make it a single day
Otley to ManchesterA658 and A6038 across to Bradford, then the M606 and the M62 west
Bradford to Otley, then Bristoltwelve miles over Hollins Hill to load, then back down and south

What it costs

Distance, the volume going on the van and whether the day ends at the destination or back in Yorkshire set the price, and there is no extra for the A-road miles at the Otley end. There's no travel surcharge for coming to Otley from Bradford, and you get the price before we set off, not after. See how we quote for the full breakdown.

Frequently asked questions: long distance & nationwide in Otley

Can you load in the town centre on a market day?

Not easily. On Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays the stalls take Market Place and lower Kirkgate, and on Friday and Saturday they run up to the parish church. For a national run that costs you the best part of the morning, so we would push for a mid-week start if the date can move.

There is no motorway near Otley. Does that add to the cost?

There is no travel surcharge, so the A-road miles at this end are not billed separately. What they do is eat daylight, which is why we book the van early. On a run to the South Coast or the West Country that early start is the difference between one day and an overnight.

We are moving off the Chevin to the south. Is that one van?

The larger stone houses up there usually are not, and it is better to know now. Send photos room by room, including the garage and the loft, and we will give you a straight answer on one load or two before you commit to a completion date.