Removals Company in Ilkley
Ilkley's quality Moving Services
If you're looking for a reliable moving service in Ilkley then your search is over! Van Man Hire are proud to provide a professional, fully insured and low-cost moving service to the people of Ilkley and surrounding areas.
We specialise in full house removals and office relocation. Our team of friendly and efficient packers and movers will use their expertise to relocate all your valuable possessions and make sure each and every item is moved safe, sound and secure to its rightful place in your new property.
House Removals
It doesn't matter whether you are moving items from just 1 bedroom in a flat or the entire contents of a 5 bedroom house with garage and garden furniture! Van Man Hire can help! Our domestic removal services cater for every need. Contact us today for your part or full house removal service.
Office Relocation
We help many businesses with their office moves. Whether you are moving from 1 room in a building to another area of the same building, or moving to completely new premises. We will assist you every step of the way, even down to the dismantling and reassembling of desks and other furniture, to packing away computers and setting them up in their new places. Whatever the level of service you require, we can help!
Removals Vans
We have a selection of 3.5 Tonne Extra-LWB Panel vans, 3.5 Tonne LWB Luton vans with tail lifts and 6.5 Tonne LWB Luton vans with tail lifts to cater for every move of any size. You can see pictures of some of our removal vans here.
Removals Preparation
Like anything in life, preparation is the key and removals is no exception. There's a lot more to it than you think so please check out our Removals Preparation Guide for hints, tips and advice. Everything is covered from protecting your delicate items efficiently to prevent breakages in transit, covering floors to protect laminate flooring from scratches and snags to carpets, right down to what size boxes you need to be using for particular items.
Removal Packs and Boxes
We can't stress enough how important it is to have the correct type of boxes and an adequate amount of them for your moving day. We highly recommend these Discount Moving Packs which can be ordered for next day delivery.
Removals Prices
Unlike the larger moving companies such as Pickfords and Britannia, using Van Man Hire for your removals service in Ilkley often works out half the price of what you would have paid with them. Click the prices links from our menus for a detailed list of our pricing structure and then compare them with the bigger removal companies to know for certain that Van Man Hire is the best choice!
Ilkley's History
The earliest evidence of habitation in the Ilkley area is flint arrowheads or microliths, dating to the Mesolithic period, from about 11,000 BC onwards. The area around Ilkley has been continuously settled since at least the early Bronze Age, around 1800 BC; more than 250 cup and ring marks, and a curved swastika carving dating to the period have been found on rock outcrops, and archaeological remains of dwellings are found on Ilkley Moor. A druidical stone circle, the Twelve Apostles Stone Circle, was constructed 2,000 years ago. Serious interest in the rock art of Ilkley began after the publication in 1879, by Romilly Allen, of "The Prehistoric Rock Sculptures of Ilkley" in The Journal of the British Archaeological Association.
The remains of a Roman fort exist on a site near the town centre. A number of authorities believe that the fort is Olicana, dating to 79 AD, but the identification is not settled. A number of Roman altars have been discovered dating to the reigns of Antoninus Pius (138 to 161), and Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (211 to 217).
Three Anglo-Saxon crosses formerly in the churchyard of All Saints', but now inside the church to prevent erosion, date to the 8th century. The site of the church as a centre for Christian worship extends to 627 AD, and the present mainly Victorian era church incorporated medieval elements.
The Domesday Book, of 1086, records Ilkley (Ilecliue/Illecliue/Illiclei/Illicleia) as being in the possession of William de Percy 1st Baron Percy. The land was acquired by the Middelton family of Myddelton Lodge, from about a century after the time of William the Conqueror. The family lost possession through a series of land sales and mortgage repossessions over a period of about a hundred years from the early 19th century. The agents of William Middelton (1815–1885) were responsible for the design of the new town of Ilkley to replace the village which had stood there before.
In the 17th and 18th centuries the town gained a reputation for the efficacy of its water. In the 19th century it became established as a fashionable spa town, with the construction of Ben Rhydding Hydro, a Hydropathic Establishment at Wheatley, a mile to the east, between 1843 and 1844. Charles Darwin underwent hydropathic treatment at Wells House when his book On the Origin of Species was published on 24 November 1859, whilst staying with his family at North View House (now Hillside Court). Tourists flocked to 'take the waters' and bathe in the cold water spring. Wheatley was renamed Ben Rhydding after the Hydro, which has been demolished.
Development based on the Hydro movement, and on the establishment of a number of convalescent homes and hospitals, was accelerated in August 1865 by the construction of the railway, the Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway, to the Leeds and Bradford Railway and the North Eastern Railway. A further connection was made in May 1888, by the Midland Railway, to Skipton via Bolton Abbey.
Other Victorian visitors to the town include Madame Tussaud. Today, the only remaining Hydro building is the white cottage known as White Wells House. The cottage can be seen and visited on the edge of the moor over-looking the town
Local Information for Ilkley
Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in West Yorkshire. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the metropolitan borough of Bradford. Approximately 12 miles (19 km) north of Bradford, the town lies mainly on the south bank of the River Wharfe in Wharfedale, one of the Yorkshire Dales. The parish has a population of 13,828 (census 2001).
Ilkley's spa town heritage and surrounding countryside make tourism an important local industry. The town centre is characterised by Victorian architecture, wide streets and floral displays. Ilkley Moor, to the south of the town, is the subject of a folk song, often described as the unofficial anthem of Yorkshire, "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at". The song's words are written in Yorkshire dialect, its title translated as "On Ilkley Moor without a hat."
Ilkey.Org contains local information.
