We love where we work...
It’s strange, granted. But it helps keep us rooted in reality rather than drifting off into the LaLa world of adland.
So if you’re interested, here are some interesting facts about prego* Country (aka Otley). You can also find more at www.otleynetcom.co.uk
Fascinating facts to impress your mates
Otley is eleven miles north west of Leeds, near Leeds Bradford International airport.
Thomas Chippendale the cabinet-maker was born here in 1718.
Overlooking Otley is a high tree ridge called the Chevin. It was from a quarry on the Chevin that the foundation stones for the Houses of Parliament were hewn.
Otley is divided by the River Wharfe, Wharfedale being the most southerly of the Yorkshire Dales. The Wharfe is the UK’s highest rising and falling river. Fact. It is also Very Dangerous.
Cattle markets are held every week, at the auction mart on East Chevin Road. The annual Otley Show, staged by the Wharfedale Agricultural Society, has been held for more than 200 years, and is one of the biggest in the region.
The town is famed for the number of pubs it has in ratio to the population. It has more than 20, though this is a mere third of the number which used to exist there.
Otley has a women's Morris dancing team (very progressive).
A feature of the town centre is the Buttercross - a people's shelter, a roof on legs. Every sixth Wednesday in June at midnight, the Annual Butterdog Sale is held under the Buttercross.
Name dropping
Catherine Tate recently filmed "The Bad Mother's Handbook" at the Wharfedale pub nearby.
The actor, Julian Sands (Room With a View, Warlock), was born in Otley on 4 January 1958.
The original Emmerdale Farm was actually Lindley Farm near Otley, until the real farmer, Arthur Peel, retired and the farm was turned into barn conversions for holiday lets. As the Lindley filming location was no longer available, the storyliners invented a scenario whereby Jack Sugden's farm was suffering from subsidence and he had to move out urgently. A search was then launched for a new farm location.
Also in "Emmerdale Farm", Otley was used as the nearby town of Hotten. Otley Cattle Market was used for Hotten's livestock centre until Emmerdale dropped the "Farm" and stopped using animals in favour of "sexed up" human-based storylines. A farm produce shop next to the cattle market oddly adopted the fictional name but insisted on spelling it "Hotton"!
