Three storeys, a cellar, and a lifetime of real glassware

The villas along Wells Road and up the Middleton side were built three storeys tall with cellars underneath and no lift, and a house like that generates roughly double the boxes people budget for. The cellar and the top floor are the rooms that get left, because they are the ones nobody has opened in years. We start at the top and in the cellar, and work down and out towards the rooms you still use.

Downsizing out of one of those houses into a town-centre apartment is the move we see most here, and it comes with a lifetime of genuine fragiles: dinner services that have never been boxed, cut glass, framed pictures and heavy mirrors. Those get individually wrapped and boxed rather than blanket-wrapped, because many of the villas sit behind long gravel or setted drives and everything is carried the length of them to wherever the van can safely stand.

What Ilkley packing service usually involves

Station Road and the town-centre car parks are pay-and-display seven days with a three-hour maximum and no return, so a finished house is what keeps a load inside that window
Wells Road and the lanes climbing towards the moor are parked on both sides, so boxes are sized to be carried one-handed past parked cars rather than shuffled
The conservation area core around Brook Street and Church Street has narrow pavements and restricted kerb space, which makes the carry longer than the drive looks
It is fifteen miles each way from Bradford by the sensible van route, A6038 over Hollins Hill then the A65, so we pack the day before and load first thing rather than doing both in one run
Pictures, mirrors and glazed cabinet doors are wrapped, boxed flat and marked to ride on top of the load rather than under a wardrobe

Where in Ilkley we work

Wells Roadthree-storey villas with cellars underneath, the biggest full-house packs in the town
Middletonlarge houses up steep, blind-bended lanes where the van stops short and the boxes come to it
Ben Rhyddingsubstantial detached houses in generous plots, so a long carry from door to tailgate
The Grove and Brook Streettown-centre apartments people downsize into, where unpacking is often booked too
Ashlandsstone through-terraces near the station, smaller packs with a straight kerbside carry
Addinghamvalley-side houses on the A65 run, packed the day before an early load

If your street isn't listed it's almost certainly still covered, Ilkley and the surrounding LS29 postcodes are all inside our normal working area.

Common Ilkley runs

Ilkley → Bradfordfifteen miles by the realistic van route, the A6038 over Hollins Hill then the A65, so packing and loading are separate days
Wells Road → The Grovethe downsizing move, a full villa pack into a town-centre flat
Ilkley → Menston or Burley in Wharfedalea short hop down the valley, usually one full pack and two loads

What it costs

What sets the price on an Ilkley pack is the number of rooms, how much genuine glass and china is in them, and how far the carry is from the door to where the van can stand. There's no travel surcharge for coming to Ilkley from Bradford, and you get the price before we set off, not after. See how we quote for the full breakdown.

Frequently asked questions: packing service in Ilkley

How many boxes does a three-storey Ilkley villa need?

More than most people guess — a big Wells Road villa with a cellar will often take twice what the owner has budgeted. We estimate it when we quote and bring more than we expect to need, and anything unused goes back on the van. Materials are included, so an extra ten boxes costs you nothing.

Will you pack the china and glass and leave the rest to me?

Yes, and that is the most common booking on the downsizing moves. Plenty of people handle their own books, clothes and paperwork and hand over the dinner service, the cut glass, the pictures and the mirrors. Those are the things that take longest and break easiest, and they get wrapped individually.

Can you pack and move on the same day in Ilkley?

For a flat or a small terrace near the station, yes. For a three-storey villa, no — packing that properly is most of a day on its own, and it is fifteen miles each way back to Bradford. We pack the day before and load first thing the next morning.