“West Yorkshire is quite dramatic and beautiful, the crags and things.” – David Hockney
The Brontës and Hockney; Harewood House and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Royal Armouries and Ilkley Moor – West Yorkshire has compelling reasons for people to visit, spread across a diverse county that includes Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield. Regional visitor numbers are bucking the national trend with a 1.5% increase in total visits year-on-year and overnight stays across West Yorkshire, rising by 3.5% in comparison to the rest of England where overnight tourism fell by 3%. People staying longer presents an opportunity for visitors to plan beyond the headline events, world class attractions and legendary landscapes, to explore further, now made easier with a new website – explorewestyorkshire.com – that unifies the best the region has to offer visitors – all in one place.
‘Set jetting’ is one example of an international travel trend that covers the whole of West Yorkshire and has emerged as a key reason for film fans to pay the region a visit. Since 1888, when the first ever moving pictures were created by Louis Le Prince in Leeds, to the location of the longest-running live-action comedy series in the world (Last of the Summer Wine), West Yorkshire has consistently played a starring role in TV programmes and films seen all over the world. Iconic screen locations become must see visitor destinations, with film tourism giving an economic boost to regional and local economies. The Brontë Parsonage Museum saw a doubling of visitors in the two months following the release of “Wuthering Heights” in February, maintaining a 27% increase month on month thereafter. In the same period, Airbnb reported a 200% increase in searches for Haworth and a 25% rise in searches for Brontë Country while nearby hotels including Holdsworth House have capitalised with literary escape packages and custom film location trails.
In West Yorkshire, a set-jetting weekend could include a morning in Calderdale exploring PS Catherine Cawood ‘s Happy Valley of Hebden Bridge and the 1830s Halifax of Anne Lister, AKA Gentleman Jack. After a stop off for lunch at Halifax’s The Piece Hall, a key location for 1996 classic Brassed Off starring Ewan McGregor and Marvel mini-series Secret Invasion, it’s a short 11-minute train ride direct to Bradford, the world’s first UNESCO City of Film. The afternoon can be spent exploring Little Germany – the location of countless period dramas including The Crown, Peaky Blinders and the upcoming Narnia series, The Magicians Nephew, for Netflix and the day finished at one of the city’s famous curry houses.
Day two could start at Harewood House – where soap series Emmerdale has been filmed on the estate for the last 30 years. The house doubled as Buckingham Palace for ITV’s Victoria and rumour has it, it will next be seen as Pemberley in Netflix’s new Pride and Prejudice. Then it’s off to the wild and windy moors of Haworth which so inspired the Brontës, to round off a whirlwind visit of just some of West Yorkshire’s most iconic starring roles.
Find out more at explorewestyorkshire.com