Wharfemeadows Park

Wharfemeadows Park — Otley’s long green riverbank

Sixty acres of flat meadow and ornamental garden laid along the River Wharfe, and the river is not a backdrop here but the reason the park exists. Wharfemeadows runs the length of Otley’s waterfront: gardens and lawns on one side of the path, moving water on the other, with the wooded ridge of The Chevin standing over the whole thing. It was assembled in 1924 out of a council purchase and a landowner’s gift, and it has never stopped being the town’s shared front garden — a playground and a skatepark at one end, a riverside café, tennis courts and an outdoor gym, and since 2017 rowing boats and pedaloes back on the Wharfe after sixteen years without them. Otley is a market town, not a suburb, and the park behaves accordingly.

Highlights

• The riverfront itself — an uninterrupted green frontage on the Wharfe, with the town’s old stone bridge at one end and open meadow at the other, and swans, ducks and herons on the water throughout the year.
• Boats and pedaloes — returned to the Wharfe at Otley in 2017 for the first time in sixteen years, available for hire on certain days through the summer.
• The Archimedes screw hydro scheme — two screws beside the weir generate electricity from the river, the first hydroelectric scheme on the River Wharfe, and a working piece of engineering rather than an exhibit.
• The playground with its own Archimedes screw — a soft-floored play area split into sections for younger and older children, with a water-play screw that deliberately echoes the one at the weir.
• The skatepark — opened in 2012, with a range of ramps, and one of the few dedicated facilities of its kind in Wharfedale.
• The ornamental gardens — formal beds and planting kept up by local volunteer groups alongside council maintenance, and the reason the park photographs so well from the bridge.

What you’ll find

The park is essentially linear, which makes it unusually easy to use: everything is strung along one riverside route, and you can do the whole thing as a there-and-back walk without a map. The ground is flat, which matters in a town where the alternative walk is up a 282-metre ridge.

• Ornamental gardens and open meadow running the length of the riverbank.
• A large soft-floored playground with separate zones by age group.
• A concrete skatepark and outdoor gym equipment for older children and adults.
• Two hard tennis courts.
• A riverside café with ice cream, and accessible toilets on site.
• Access to the water for boat and pedalo hire in season, plus the weir and hydro screws to watch.

Things to do — and who it’s for

• Families — playground, café, flat paths and a river with boats on it; this is the default Otley afternoon for a reason.
• Walkers — the park anchors the Otley Riverside Trail and is a regular start and finish point for routes in the Otley Walking Festival; Otley has held Walkers are Welcome status since 2009.
• Long-distance hikers — the Six Dales Trail runs thirty-eight miles from Otley up into Wensleydale, and the twenty-eight-mile Welcome Way links the town with its neighbours.
• Teenagers — the skatepark and outdoor gym, with the town centre a few minutes away on foot.
• Wildlife watchers — the river holds waterfowl and herons, and the nearby Gallows Hill nature area, fourteen acres reclaimed from a former sewage treatment works, is good for kingfishers.
• Cyclists — Otley sits at the heart of Yorkshire cycling country, hosted the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ, and is home ground to world champion Lizzie Deignan; the park makes an obvious meeting point.

Getting there & practical

Otley is a market town in Wharfedale, roughly ten miles north-west of Leeds city centre, and the park lies immediately alongside the river on the town’s northern edge. Otley itself has no railway station: the nearest are Menston and Burley-in-Wharfedale on the Wharfedale line, both a short bus or taxi ride away. Buses are the practical option — the X84 links Leeds city centre with Bramhope, Otley, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Ilkley, arriving at Otley bus station a few minutes’ walk from the park. Free parking is available adjacent. Entry is free, the park is open year-round, and the café, boat hire and tennis courts keep seasonal hours; boat and pedalo hire runs on selected summer days only. There is wheelchair and pushchair access throughout, accessible toilets and dog waste bins. Allow an hour for a riverside stroll, two to three with the playground and café, and a full day if you combine the park with The Chevin.

When to visit

Spring brings the ornamental gardens back into colour and the river down from its winter levels, and the walking festival season begins to use the park as a start line. Summer is the park’s busiest and best: the boats and pedaloes run on selected days, the café works flat out, the playground and skatepark fill, and the long evenings on the riverbank are the single most pleasant thing Otley offers. Autumn is quieter and arguably prettier, with colour along the bank and on the wooded slopes of The Chevin behind, and firm ground for the longer trails. Winter is the season to respect the river: the Wharfe runs high and fast after rain and can spill onto the meadows, which is exactly what a floodplain park is for — the paths near the water are the first thing to go, and the gardens and playground stay usable.

Good to know

The park dates from 1924, when what was then Otley Urban District Council bought a plot of riverside land and joined it to a plot donated by Major F. H. Fawkes of nearby Farnley Hall. The original park was equipped in the idiom of its decade — swimming pools, putting greens and bowling — and almost none of that survives, replaced over a century by a playground, a skatepark opened in 2012, an outdoor gym and tennis courts. The most interesting modern addition is not in the park at all but beside it: the hydroelectric scheme at the weir, where two Archimedes screws generate electricity from the flow of the Wharfe, the first such scheme on this river. A second, smaller Archimedes screw sits in the playground as a water-play feature, which makes the engineering legible to children before they ever see the real one. In 2017 rowing boats and pedaloes returned to the river at Otley after a sixteen-year absence. Beyond the park, the town holds Walkers are Welcome status, awarded in 2009, and Wildlife Friendly status; The Chevin rises to 282 metres above the town as a 180-hectare forest park with its White House visitor centre; and Gallows Hill, fourteen acres of former sewage works, has been reclaimed as a riverside nature area.

Visitor tips

• Check ahead if boats are the point of your visit — hire operates on selected summer days rather than continuously, and turning up on the wrong day is a long way to come for an ice cream.
• Combine the flat riverside walk with a climb up The Chevin; the two together give you the whole shape of Otley in an afternoon, and the view back down puts the park in context.
• After heavy rain, expect the lower riverside paths to be wet or partly under water — the meadows here are floodplain, and the higher garden paths stay usable when the bank does not.

Questions & answers

How big is Wharfemeadows Park? Around sixty acres, laid out linearly along the River Wharfe on the edge of Otley.

When was the park created? In 1924, from land bought by the then Otley Urban District Council combined with a donation from Major F. H. Fawkes of Farnley Hall.

Can you go on the river? Yes, in season. Rowing boats and pedaloes returned to the Wharfe at Otley in 2017 after sixteen years and are available for hire on selected summer days.

What are the Archimedes screws? Two screws beside the weir that generate electricity from the river — the first hydroelectric scheme on the River Wharfe. A smaller one in the playground works as a water-play feature.

Is there a skatepark? Yes, opened in 2012, with a range of ramps; there is also outdoor gym equipment nearby.

Is the park accessible? Yes. It is flat throughout, with wheelchair and pushchair access, accessible toilets and a café on site.

How do I get to Otley from Leeds without a car? The X84 bus runs from Leeds city centre via Bramhope to Otley and on towards Ilkley. Otley has no station of its own; the nearest are Menston and Burley-in-Wharfedale.

What else is worth doing nearby? The Chevin forest park, which rises 282 metres above the town over 180 hectares; the Otley Riverside Trail; and the Gallows Hill nature area, fourteen acres good for kingfishers.