Pictures of Tadcaster

About Tadcaster

Tadcaster has been at the centre of the Brewing industry since the 18th century, and today breweries remain conspicuous on its landscape. It is also known for its limestone, used in many famous buildings including a Roman fort at York and York Minster. In centuries past when the Romans had charge of England, Tadcaster was a Roman outpost for York, it was then known as Calcarica.

St. Mary's Church, is one of this old market town's premier buildings, built of white stone, the building is mainly Perpendicular, but shows traces of Norman work. It was taken down between 1875 and 1877 and reconstructed 5 ft higher to protect it from the River Wharfe. The exterior of the church is enlivened with gargoyles and graceful pinnacles, whilst inside visitors can see many church treasures and exquisite modern woodwork.

Close to St. Mary's visitors will find The Ark, a superb 15th century Merchant House which was used by dissenters in the 17th century and later as a museum. Today, the building serves as offices for Tadcaster Town Council.

Tadcaster Bridge was constructed around 1700 to replace an earlier bridge. There has been a crossing over the Wharfe since as early as 1200, this would originally been made of wood, with other likewise bridges following. In the 17th century, the bridge and surrounding area rang to the sounds of The Battle of Tadcaster when Parliamentarian troops engaged in conflict with Royalists on the 7th December 1642.

The imposing multi-arched Tadcaster Viaduct was built by George Hudson in the middle of the 19th century. It was used to fetch and carry goods until 1955. Now a listed building the viaduct forms part of a country scheme and visitors may take advantage of an enjoyable walk running from the Wetherby Road right across it, with access to both river banks.

The town hosts a market every Thursday, this is a lively affair with traders and buyers coming into the town from far and wide. Shopping is a pleasure as Tadcaster is well provided with individual retail shops run by the owner/occupier, therefore visitors are likely to come across something a little bit different. As you can imagine, being an established market town, Tadcaster also has plenty of pubs, inns, hotels, restaurants and quaint tea-rooms.

This is an ideal place to use as a base for exploring the interesting little towns and villages of the West Ridings, it is close to Wetherby with its fine racecourse and sufficiently close to York for discovering the beauty of York Minster and to learn a little more of the regions Roman heritage.