Culture and Community
Otley has a diverse range of cultural organisations. It has five active Morris dance sides, the Wharfedale Wayzgoose, (Border), The Buttercross Belles (Ladies Northwest), Flash Company (Border, Molly, Appalachian & Clog), Hellz Bellz (Contemporary) and Kitchen Taps (Appalachian Step).
Drama groups include Otley Community Players, Otley Youth Theatre (OY) and a thriving arts centre in the former courthouse. There is a poetry society which meets in the Black Horse Hotel monthly. The town has a Brass Band who perform at many events in the town. It is not a regular contesting band, but won first prize in the unregistered section at their first contest at Hardraw Scar in September 2007, repeating the accomplishment in 2008.
Otley hosts the annual Otley Folk Festival in September, a Victorian Fayre in December, a carnival in June and in May, what is reputed to be the oldest one day agricultural show in the country. This celebrated its bicentenary in 2009. There is a beer festival organised by the church in November.
Otley once vied with a handful of towns for the distinction of having the most pubs per head of population in England. It was mentioned in a BBC Radio 4 "More or Less" programme broadcast in April 2008. The story also featured on the BBC website .
There were 17 pubs in the town although the Spite (properly known as the Roebuck), the Chevin and the Royalty are on the outskirts, with the Spite located in North Yorkshire. The Black Horse Hotel situated in the town centre is historically the largest pub and hotel. The Black Bull in the Market Place, was allegedly drunk dry by Cromwell's troops on the night before the battle of Marston Moor during the English Civil War and has a 15th century well in the beer garden. The Junction Inn has won numerous awards including a CAMRA award for best pub. There is a working men's club located on Weston Lane north west of the town centre.
Otley has four Scout troops, the 2nd Otley, Otley Parish, Otley Bridge and Otley Methodist Scouts. An Army Cadet Force detachment is also located in the town.
Read more about this topic: Otley
Famous quotes containing the words culture and/or community:
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)
“... no community where more than one-half of the adults are disfranchised and otherwise incapacitated by law and custom, can be free from great vices. Purity is inconsistent with slavery.”
—Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923)