Scarcroft in Leeds named as one of Britain's poshest villages in The Telegraph

Based on search by global real estate agents Savills, The Telegraph newspaper named the most desirable villages in each ceremonial county across Britain.

Winning villages were chosen based on factors including high house prices, connectivity, the best lifestyle amenities, and chocolate-box appeal.

The poshest village in each of Yorkshire’s four counties was revealed by the publication and, in West Yorkshire, Scarcroft bagged the top spot on the list.

Among the "posh appeal" reasons listed as to why it was crowned the winner was its good schools, good horse riding facilities and Scarcroft Golf Club.

The paper said: "In the countryside on the outskirts of Leeds, this village has a golf club, primary school and a pub (the Inn at Scarcroft, which dates back to 1852) and backs onto Hetchell Wood Nature Reserve.

"It’s a horse racing hub with the Hellwood Racing Stables and a riding centre at Scarcroft Hall."

The average property price in Scarcroft is £596,585 over the last year, which is more than 39 per cent higher than the average in Leeds over the same time period.

Ling Lane, a popular road in the village, was named the priciest street in the city in 2021 in analysis by Halifax.

A home buyer would face paying around £1,551,000 on average to live in Ling Lane, according to Land Registry figures on transactions between 2016 and 2021.

It's the second most expensive street in Yorkshire and the Humber, behind Fulwith Mill Lane, Harrogate, which has an average price of £1,797,000.

However, it is not just a village for the ultra wealthy. The majority of sales in Scarcroft during the last year were detached properties, selling for an average price of £740,500.

Semi-detached properties sold for an average of £339,190, with terraced properties fetching £382,500.

Head of Residential Sales for Savills Yorkshire Region, Ed Stoyle, said: "Every year there is a cycle of reports about the best place to live and there's a common theme, and it's usually; good pub, school, shop, easy to get to things - those are the classics

"It has always been that combination.

"I think North Leeds has always been a prime location. All those named in the top four are prime villages, predominantly serving a lot of medical and professional people that want to commute a distance but they want to be on the edge of the city because it's nicer.

"They also want to be near schools and clearly for Leeds that is The Grammar School at Leeds.

"The schools an facilities in Scarcroft are good and the architecture is quite nice and spread out, that drives people to look at places like Scarcroft.

"That's what generally identifies a cracking village and so many have lost their pub and their shop, they're losing some of their lustre and I think you'll find places like Scarcroft still have that connectivity and that those services. It makes them an all rounder."

A key to Scarcroft's inclusion as one of the "poshest" villages, is that is lies in an area dubbed by estate agents as 'The Golden Triangle'.

The property hotspot whose unofficial borders take in Harrogate, York and north Leeds, have become magnets for the upwardly mobile over the last 10 years.

Scarcroft is located in a rural countryside setting between Leeds and Wetherby, but it also has easy motorway links to Harrogate and to York, making it ideal for those who want the best of both worlds.

It is why, Ed explains, house prices don't tend to drop in areas within the triangle.

He said "All those prime villages will never stop [seeing price growth].

"There's the shift away away from cities and that's fed us because we've got huge areas of rural.

"There's only three or four major cities in the north. Most of the money used to [shift] towards those now it's doing the opposite en-masse people are drifting out to the regions pulling money with them."

But why does Ed think the people may consider Scarcroft to be posh? "Probably the bigger houses", he laughed. "I think everyone thinks Linton, for an example, is posh but that's because you drive through Linton and you see big houses.

"There is a greater number of larger houses that partly that have been built and others that are just naturally bigger.

"Who knows who's posh? You can only tell by what they wear and what they look like, or rather what they drive and what sort of house they're in

"I suppose there is just natural wealth of people.

"I don't think you come across any "posh" people in Scarcroft - they're just Yorkshire people or professional people generally.

"I think the posh people the public refer to are gentry and there's not many of them. It's more wealthy people have done well in life.

"You meet people and they're not posh, they're proper Yorkshire to be honest.

"You meet people and they're not posh, they're proper Yorkshire to be honest. They speak like it, they act like it and they're down to earth and that's what makes this area really nice".

Also securing a place on the Telegraph's poshest villages was Kirkby Overblow, in North Yorkshire, which is located between Wetherby and Harrogate.

Its ‘posh appeal’ included factors such as the village’s big family homes, good pubs, and the fact it’s near other villages.

It was Ed who suggested the village for inclusion in the list as he is familiar with the area.

He The Telegraph that the average house price in Kirkby Overblow was dragged up by the village’s big family homes.

“It has all the things that define a village, such as good pubs,” he said, recommending the Shoulder of Mutton.

“It has a school and a quiet road that just leads to more villages,” he added.

Over in East Riding of Yorkshire, Sutton upon Derwent was crowned the poshest village, with an average house price of £409,071.

It was chosen in part for its sporting amenities; both the tennis club and Woodhouse Grange Cricket Club, which was the winner of the National Village Cricket Knock Out tournament in 1995, were mentioned.

The village’s primary school, village hall, post office, and the popular pub St Vincent Arms were also cited as part of its ‘posh appeal’.

Cawthorne was named South Yorkshire’s poshest village - and it certainly has a lot going for it.

Not only is Cawthorne home to Cannon Hall Farm, and 70 acres of parkland - but it also has ties to the aristocratic Spencer family - with the village’s famous Cannon Hall originally their seat.

Cannon Hall itself - alongside its Victorian kitchen and museum exhibiting fine arts - was named as a huge draw in this former iron and coal mining village.

The Spencer Arms - the local pub named after the dynasty was cited as another ‘posh appeal’ factor.

So how much will a house in Cawthorne set you back? According to Savills the average house price comes in at £512,288.

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