Buying in West Yorkshire, please help?

[Porc3lain]

Hi! I'm a single person and I'm hoping to buy my first home in West Yorkshire this year. A couple of my friends live in the area and I've absolutely loved Tod and Hebden when I've visited. Having been a city mouse all my life (Brighton), I'm really excited about the prospect of living in beautiful Yorkshire :)

Hebden is definitely out of my price range, I've been looking at Sowerby Bridge and Tod, but I'm quite worried about the possibilty of flooding. I've been looking at maps and what roads are in floodzones, but from extensive googling and comparing news articles to the maps it doesn't always seem to ring true, and the thought of buying my first house alone and then being flooded is absolutely terrifying!!

Is there anyone that is able to tell me which roads are safe? Not necessarily specific ones as I appreciate that's a huge ask 😅 but "north of X street" would be so so helpful. Thank you x

There is an environment agency website which shows you patterns of flooding. Have a look at that & talk to locals. We also asked an EA we knew & trusted 100% (long term friend) before we chose which parts of a town to rule out.

I know someone from Sowerby Bridge, he lives up the hill in the Pye Nest area and as far as I’m aware has never had any flooding problems. It is a steep walk home from the town though.

Lots of nice villages in and around that area.

Good for you OP! I am in a flat in east london, my sister lives in Otley (think it's west yorkshire) and I love it so much. I would love to move to Yorkshire.

Have you considered Haworth? Not for from Hebden and lovely scenery with no flooding.

Lots of flood mitigation work being done there though. Not finished yet but recent high levels didn't breach in Mytholmroyd where works are finished.

As far as I can remember, the only parts of Sowerby Bridge that flood are areas close to the town centre so may be worth looking further out from there. The village of Sowerby is pleasant enough, Norland is lovely but possibly out of your price range. To be fair, all the nicer areas, you have to be prepared to go "uphill" for, but they are worth it. Have you considered Luddenden or Triangle?

Have a look at Oxenhope. Very nice, neat village just outside Haworth. A bit cheaper than Hebden (but not exactly cheap). There's also a very scenic bus route to Hebden via Cockhill moor.

Haworth had serious floods in the valley bottom a few years ago.

Given the choice I'd move to Heptonstall - but you'd have to er, be relaxed about weather conditions. And REALLY like walking up very steep hills.

The only area of Sowerby Bridge that has flooded is down in the basin by the main road through. Just go up hill a bit towards Norland, Sowerby or Pye Nest and you will be fine
Sowerby Bridge has been gentrified quite a lot in recent years, there are (or used to be) some very good restaurants there but there are still some ropey areas. Plus the main road is a through road from the M62 and can get very congested, there has been talk of a bypass for years
I agree to look out towards Triangle as well but prices will shoot up as you get closer to a Ripponden.
Tod is quite nice but a bit in the middle of nowhere and that valley has major flood issues
And congratulations on moving to Yorkshire!

You basically need to be up and out of the valley basin, so central Sowerby is a no. Lots of nice surrounding areas though. Look at Ripponden, Copley, Pye Nest, Heptonstall, Norland. Depends on your budget really. Very cheap property in West Vale and Greetland but nice areas. I'm local so feel free to PM if you want advice on a specific village.

i live in halifax in the norton tower area which overlooks the valley nice part of halifax, ten minutes from town, and with tod hebden ,mythomroyd , luddenden foot,and sowerby bridge its the parts at the bottom of the valley that flood as that is where the rivers and canal run any house up the hill will be fine, hebden is pretty but during rush hour style times the main road gets very busy but good train services to leeds and manchester , from halifax sowerby, mythomroyd and hebden

Yes, definitely look at Greetland and West Vale.
West Vale has definitely gone a bit upmarket recently, some good restaurants there now

Use the OS maps on Bing to focus on higher up areas, you can see that from the contour lines.

Loving @chipsarnie post about Heptonstall though. You really would have to be relaxed about weather up there! It's one of the most atmospheric places in the UK though I think, and seriously worth a wander OP. To live in you'd either love it or hate it. Sylvia Plath and David Hartley are buried in the graveyard, there is a ruined church with it's replacement built right next door and the oldest octagonal Methodist chapel in the world. John Weasley laid the foundation stone too I think.

David Hartley was the leader of the Craft Vale Coiners who basically destabilised the local economy due to the levels of their coin counterfeiting. They would shave off small amounts of metal from real coins, and cast into new. The Gallows Pole is a good novel about the area.

@chipsarnie I find Heptonstall to have a strange creepy vibe to it. Used to go walking round there, when I was a girl I remember that there was someone going around killing cats in the village using poison. There was a notice in a cottage window telling cat owners to keep them inside.

Hep'nstall is certainly unique. There's a lot of history in such a small place. Ted Hughes wrote one of his greatest poems about that ruined church.

Love heptonstall. Lived fairly locally so visited quite a bit.
Think it's estimated there are something like 20,000 bodies buried in the old graveyard. And I'm sure there was a really old house called the 'charnel house'
which was built using stone from old gravestones and wood from decayed coffins. It really appealed to my teenage goth ghoulishness
I worked with a guy who lived there and he reckoned that many newcomers left after a few years because they couldn't cope with the weather in winter !

Crikey @NancyDrew1966 I didn’t even know about the gravestone house and the 20,000 corpses. No wonder my woo radar was twitching when I visited.

Haworth, Otley, Saltaire, Ilkley.