Addingham village is situated about 17 miles north west of Leeds in the county of West Yorkshire in northern England. The nearest towns are Ilkley (3 miles east) and Skipton (7 miles west). The village grew up on the A65 road (now bypassed) which goes northwest from Leeds, through Skipton and on to Cumbria and the Lake District through the Gargrave Gap in the Pennines. The Skipton to Ilkley railway came to the village in the 1880s but was closed in the 1960s. Addingham Moorside to the south slopes up to Rombald’s Moor (which includes Ilkley Moor) while to north lies the peak of Beamsley Beacon with the valley of Wharfedale to the west of it going north west into the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The River Wharfe runs through the edge of the village.
The area around Addingham was populated from at least Bronze Age times, as shown by the ‘cup & ring’ carved stones found on Rombald’s Moor and a Roman Road to the south. The first documentary mention referred to the Archbishop of York staying here in 867AD so it is certainly an ancient settlement.
The village used to be called ‘Long Addingham’ because it grew up round three centres – Church Street in the east, The Green (about a mile away) in the west and The Old School in between. The earliest of the existing houses were built in the 17C when it was a farming community, but the real growth was in the late 18C and early 19C when the textile industry arrived and five mills (plus other loomshops and weaving sheds) were established making it a busy industrial community. During the 20C the textile industry declined and the village is now largely a commuter and retirement community with a population of about 3,700.
