Otley, United Kingdom

The majority of the early development of the town dates from Saxon times and was part of an extensive manor granted by King Æthelstan to the see of York. The Archbishops of York had a residence and were lords of the manor. Their palace was located on the site occupied by the Manor House. Otley is close to Leeds and may have formed part of the kingdom of Elmet. Remains of the Archbishop's Palace were found during the construction of St Joseph's Primary School.

As in other areas of the north, the Norman Conquest largely laid waste this area. The Saxon church was replaced by a Norman one, but this contains much Saxon sculpture. Thus in the 11th and 12th century Otley would have been a loose congregation of buildings around the two focal points of the manor house by the bridge and the church. An important reason for the town's location was a water supply, the Calhead Beck (now covered over) which ran down from Otley Chevin over Whitley Croft, a little East of the church and then to the river near the bridge.

The town grew in the first half of the 13th century when the archbishops laid out burgage (freehold) plots to attract merchants and tradespeople. The burgage plots were on Boroughgate, Walkergate and Kirkgate. This began to create the layout of today, based on a triangle of these plots forming the streets. Bondgate was for the workers: bondsmen and tenants. A leper hospital was founded on the road to Harewood beyond Cross Green.

As well as farming and use of woodland, important local activities were quarrying stone, and the manufacture of potash from bracken, used to make a soap which therefore supported a community carrying out fulling, the cleansing and finishing of woollen cloth on Watergate. The Chevin provided stone for building (and millstones) as well as bracken, wood and common grazing, while the river provided reeds for thatching houses.

The woollen industry developed as a cottage industry but during the Industrial Revolution and the mechanisation of the textile industry, mills were built using water then steam power. A cotton mill and weaving shed for calicoes were built by the river in the late 18th century. Later woolcombing and worsted spinning were introduced. By the mid 19th century 500 inhabitants were employed in two worsted-mills, a paper-mill, and other mills. A tannery was established in the 19th century. At this time the opening of the new Leeds Road and Bradford Road greatly increased access for trade. Many houses were built from the middle of the 19th century onwards, including the first row of terraces by the newly formed Otley Building Society from 1847. Otley railway station opened in 1865 connecting goods and people to Leeds, with a connection to Bradford in 1875. At its peak it had 50 trains a day, but it was closed in 1965 under the Beeching cuts. Kirkgate was the first street to be paved in 1866, followed by sewers in 1869.

The Wharfedale Printing Machine was developed in Otley by William Dawson and David Payne. An early example can be seen in Otley Museum. By 1900 the printing machinery trade, with over 2,000 people employed in seven machine shops, was Otley's most important industry.

During the First World War, Farnley Camp at Otley housed the Northern Command Gas and Grenade School, which taught military personnel about explosives.

After the First World War there was a general shortage of housing in Britain, and much of it was crowded slums. Otley Council prepared one of the first subsidized housing schemes, commencing with relatively open land in Newall on the North of the river in 1920. The 1920s also saw the beginnings of the conversion of properties to a sewer drainage system, and electric lighting instead of gas on the streets.

Further estates followed and by 1955 there were more than 1,000 council houses. Private housing was also expanded during this time, but was greatly reduced in the Second World War. House building revived in the 1960s to 1980s, but industry declined, with many factories closing, including the printing machine works in 1981.

Wharfemeadows park provided leisure space for residents and the River Wharfe a place to swim with public open air swimming baths opening on the site in 1924. By the 1960s the outdoor pool was a popular leisure destination and was in use until 1993 when a fault with the pumping system precipitated its closure. In February 2016, in response to a Leeds City Council invitation for 'Expressions of Interest' for the site of 'the former Otley Lido', a group of local residents launched an ongoing campaign to regenerate the site as a modern open air swimming pool and community centre.