Relocation to harrogate

[GER1610]

We are looking at relocation to harrogate and wondered where the best areas are or whether to look further afield towards Knaresborough or even Ilkley. We looked boroughbridge too. Main concerns for us are primary and secondary schools, not bothered about outstanding ofstead but also connectivity to town centre for teens.

Great places. For teens I’d say Harrogate itself would be best. Knaresborough is a v short train ride. I don’t know Ilkley so well but remember quite a lot of kids living there and getting bus into Leeds for school.

Where is work going to be?

Harrogate town centre can be utterly dreadful during rush hour, so I would be looking at locations that are on the same side of town.

Knareborough side is good for access to the A1. Ilkley is difficult to get to - single carriageway A roads and train lines terminate there from Leeds or Bradford. Boroughbridge again quite a long way from a city but close to A1.

But seriously, have a look at all the red on Google maps at rush hour...

Harrogate is the larger of the local towns (Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Ripon).
Harrogate has train access to Leeds and York.
Ripon has a regular bus service to Harrogate.

Boroughbridge is small but with a secondary school. Loads of new builds are expanding the small town.

Ripon has a grammar school and is selective through the 11+ ( as has Skipton, with single sex grammars).

Children who don't attend the grammar travel to Harrogate, Boroughbridge or Pateley Bridge ( sometimes Thirsk or Bedale) for school.

Ripon is a city too, with great things going on. Everything is walkable.

Happy to answer any specific questions.

What's your housing budget OP? Harrogate tends to be pricier than surrounding towns.

Yes, and Ilkley is insanely expensive! Full of ex-Londoners who have the the means to fuel the extortionate prices. It's a beautiful town (we are close by and I used to work there) but there are many other places that are just as nice and more affordable. Knaresborough, Skipton, Pateley Bridge, Ripon, Settle, Grassington. It depends on how close to Harrogate you need to be.

That's really helpful. I do like the look of Knaresborough. Budget up to 450k. Picked Harrogate as i know it and think there would be more going on for teens and easy access independently into the town. My job is between York and london but don't necessarily want to live in York bit haven't ruled it out. I get a nice vibe about Harrogate and Knaresborough

What about killinghall

Killinghall is a lovely village but it's very small and still a way out of Harrogate if you wanted it to be easily accessible to teens, although I'm sure there's probably a bus route that doesn't take too long (apart from in that famous Harrogate traffic!).

You should be able to get something really nice for 450k as long as you're not super close to the town centre. We live just outside Skipton and just sold our very large 5 bed Georgian cottage for 450k.

If you want a teen friendly town, good schools and trains to London, the you won't go far wrong with York. I work between York, Leeds and Barnsley. Most of my York colleagues with children live in Acomb, which looks manageable from a quick scroll of Right Move.

Born & raised in Harrogate and honestly, this town is bursting at the seams already as the council have not implemented changes to infrastructure to accommodate all these hundreds of extra homes they've built. It now takes almost an hour to cross town, all the schools are oversubscribed to the point where my DD who was born here, had to be homeschooled for 6 months as there was no space for her in ANY primary in Harrogate. There's queues to get into supermarket car parks, waiting lists for doctors appointments (along with waiting lists to join them!) and the only NHS dentist has their books closed with a 3 year waiting list. Honestly it's chaos here.

No room in York, sorry 😔

@Islasanktklara If that's aimed at me, I suggest you come to Harrogate and see what it's like for yourself! Nobody said "there's no room, sorry" 🙄 I'm just giving OP a heads up of what it's like here now! 😂 FFS!

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/overcrowded-harrogate-is-not-the-town-that-it-was-yorkshire-post-letters-3237532

Lots of lovely villages between York and Harrogate along the a59, easy to get the train to Harrogate & York too. No issues with doctors. Think Harrogate and York can be nightmare with traffic.
Love knaresborough.

Thanks everyone your help is so valuable. I'm going to take a good look at surrounding areas too. I did once live in Harrogate at valley Gardens but I was only young. Its over 20 years ago so will have changed massively

With that budget, look at Bilton. A friend relocated there last year and loves it. It's only 10 mins from town and right near the Greenway so good for getting out into the countryside and to Knaresborough. You'll be able to get to York and London easily from there.

The main issue we found (also relocating to Harrogate) is the lack of property coming on the market. It's expensive and we had to flex on our requirements a bit. However, I think the proximity to the town centre means it's worth it over moving to the nearby villages where I expect you could feel a bit cut off, especially with children.

We originally looked at Ilkley but ruled it out as we both need to be able to get to London easily. Harrogate has direct trains to London, albeit it doesn't really save you any time over changing at Leeds. But you also have the option of travelling from York too, which could be handy.

I grew up in this area and there’s lots of good public transport routes. I went to state then private school, both were fine. Lots of southerners live there, you’d be hard pressed to find an actual Yorkshireman. Which might be good in your case if you not from the area…

I agree about the traffic, but that has been the case for a long time.

There were available primary school places 2024-25 though. A quick look shows at a minimum ( haven't looked at the whole list) Bilton, Grove Rd and Hookstone all undersubscribed last year, as well as some of the village schools local to Harrogate.
https://hub.datanorthyorkshire.org/dataset/aebd87cc-a828-4196-b584-f43d66fbb045/resource/b8db89a3-99f1-42d7-b1a9-ad14b3326feb/download/2024-25-all-primary-stats-data.xlsx

Where are you relocating from @GER1610 ?

Ah so did I! We had a first floor flat overlooking Valley Gardens when we were newly married 30+ years ago. Harrogate is a beautiful place, it's still my happy place but yes the traffic is awful (we go back to visit a lot).

Come and spend a weekend in Harrogate. If you travel to London regularly then you need easy access to York on the train.

£450k it depends on what you want as that won't buy a large house in many parts of Harrogate

I was born and grew up in Harrogate but moved to London in 2001 as it looked more exciting. I still go there to visit family. There is now only one bus service to Bilton and there used to be lots more. Didn't know about queing to get into supermarket car parks, do you mean ASDA or Morrisons?
Morrisons used to be under the Conference Centre, years ago.

I think you really need to list out the must, should and coulds. Ie easy access for train to London? Access for kids to facilities, ease of travel locally, shops etc. There are nice areas around Harrogate as well if being fairly centre isn’t essential,

I’d choose a nice area on the outskirts of York in your shoes based on your schooling needs/priorities. I’m currently very near Harrogate and always go into York for anything I need.

Agree that Harrogate healthcare is appalling at GP level but the hospital has always been fabulous for me and my family.

York has so much to offer for teens, the bus service is ace and everything connects well, mainline trains are a huge bonus once they start to travel independently. One of mine is at Uni of York and travels from home, the other one is likely to do the same at present based on their subject choice and the university’s ranking. My job is based in York for half the week so I’ve decided to make the move this year.

Are you still around? Wondering how you got on?