Where is the happiest place to live in the UK? The answer: the Craven district in the county of Yorkshire in the north of England. Every year since 2011 the Office for National Statistics has made a study of the nation’s happiness and wellbeing. In 2017, it declared Craven, in the Yorkshire Dales, to have the highest level of life satisfaction and the lowest level of anxiety.
‘God’s own country’
Yorkshire people are very proud of their county, which they call ‘God’s own country’. The county has beautiful scenery, a beautifully-preserved medieval city in its capital, York, and iconic castles and abbeys, such as Castle Howard and York Minster. It was also home to the Brontë sisters, and has inspired artists such as Turner, Henry Moore and David Hockney. The county – and, most especially, the district of Craven - has won numerous awards in recent years. In 2008, the high street in the market town of Skipton, Craven, was named the best high street in the UK. In 2014, Skipton, again, was named as the best place in the country to live by the Sunday Times newspaper. In 2015, Harrogate, in Yorkshire, was named as Britain’s happiest town.
Reasons for Happiness
What is behind the happiness of the people of Craven? Residents talk about the district’s resilient communities, with limitless events and clubs of every variety, from cycling, through bookclubs, to young mothers and self-help groups. Craven also has some of Yorkshire’s best schools: Skipton has two excellent state-funded grammar schools, which are very attractive for parents moving into the area from nearby cities. The new faces keep the district young and vibrant. Skipton also has excellent rail links to the important cities of Leeds and Bradford. What makes Craven people really happy, however, is what is on their doorstep: the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, with its thousand square miles of moors and valleys.
Another World
The Dales is another world, with strangely-named, stone-built villages such as Yockenthwaite, Starbotton, Blubberhouses and Hubberholme. There are also more than two thousand caves and vertical shafts, with one cave big enough to contain St. Paul’s Cathedral. Around the villages you will find some of the best scenery in the UK, home to farms, barns, stone walls, waterfalls, woods, and meadows full of flowers. The river valleys and hills of Craven have some of the best walks in Britain. The Craven area is also full of independent breweries and authentic pubs. The 15th century Craven Arms in Skipton has been called “the perfect country pub” (Telegraph).
the Magic Formula
To get more information on Craven, and discover the secrets behind its happiness, Speak Up spoke to David Shields, North Yorkshire Area Director of Welcome to Yorkshire, the official tourism agency for Britain’s largest county. Why, we asked him, were the inhabitants of Craven so happy?
David Shields (Yorkshire accent): I think, really, Craven, the area of Craven, in Yorkshire, the UK... it’s a beautiful place with fantastic countryside. It’s got a lovely town in Skipton. But I think it’s probably the people themselves, the inhabitants of Craven – they’re so warm and welcoming. So I think a lot of people move there for business and that they are really well looked after. They have good schools, they have good health facilities, so I think it’s just a place where people feel very relaxed and very happy to live.
Community Spirit
The Yorkshire Dales is one of the most attractive parts of the UK. Does that have an effect on the people of Craven?
David Shields: I think there is definitely a big impact. If you are living on the edge of, and in some cases in, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which is probably one of the most fantastic national parks in the UK, where within five, ten minutes of your front door, you can be out in the countryside, either walking or cycling, you know, it is a great place to live, and I think it does have a strong effect on the people.
Tour de Yorkshire
The wonderful scenery in Yorkshire reached an international audience in 2014, when the county hosted the most northerly stage ever of the Tour de France. Two million people lined the streets in towns and villages to cheer the riders, while 3.5 billion watched on TV around the world. Some farmers even painted their sheep red, white and blue.
David Shields: I think another point that has really helped put Yorkshire on the international stage is when we got the ‘Grand Départ’ for the Tour de France Yorkshire in 2014 – you know, that was a fantastic advert for Yorkshire, the scenery where the race went, the towns where it went, and showcased Yorkshire to an international audience, and that’s continued, since 2014, as we’ve had the Tour de Yorkshire, the big cycle race that started in 2015, that has fantastic international coverage as well as national coverage.
Defining Happiness
The district of Craven is the happiest place in the UK. But what exactly is ‘happiness’? An interesting answer has come from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, possibly the longest study of adult life in the world. The study has covered 724 men from rich and poor backgrounds since 1938, asking them questions about work, home life and health every two years. Sixty of the original 724 are still alive. Robert Waldinger, director of the study has no doubts: “The clearest message ... is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.”