Town where Happy Valley was filmed popular place for Easter holiday

The Happy Valley effect: Town where Sarah Lancashire’s ultra-bleak crime drama was filmed sees popularity soar with largest increase in Easter getaway trips

• Number of people heading to the market town soared by more than 300 per cent
• Other tourist hotspots in the top ten include Weymouth, Margate and Penzance
• But tourist numbers have also led to house prices plummeting, experts warn 

The market town of Halifax – one of the settings for bleak crime drama Happy Valley – has seen its popularity soar ahead of the Easter break.

Home to just under 90,000 folk, the West Yorkshire town’s famous sons include singer Ed Sheeran, TV star John Noakes and footballer Frank Worthington.

And interest in visits has spiked over the last year – with the number of people booking train tickets to the market town rising by more than 300 per cent.

Figures from Trainline show its popularity has increased 120 per cent higher than any other spot, with Weymouth in Dorset coming in second at 187 per cent.

This comes as house prices in Hebden Bridge – another Happy Valley hot spot  – have plummeted by 15 per cent last year, with experts blaming this on the area becoming a tourist trap.

One of the settings for gritty crime drama Happy Valley – which often graphically portrays murder, rape and drug abuse – is fast becoming a tourist favourite

Figures show its popularity has increased 120 per cent higher than any other spot, with Weymouth in Dorset coming in second at 187 per cent

Halifax local Ian Broadhurst, 35, said the town and surrounding countryside was ‘fantastic’.

The professional dog walker said: ‘Halifax is a fantastic place – even in Happy Valley you can see the natural beauty and stunning architecture.

‘I’m not surprised more people are coming here, and it’s not just Happy Valley crime buffs.’

Bosses at Trainline revealed that Halifax had seen the largest year-on-year rise in ticket sales for the Easter weekend break, which kicked off today.

The blockbuster – whose shock final episode was released in February – was filmed in a range of locations around Yorkshire’s Calder Valley including Halifax, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Luddenden, Ripponden, Sowerby Bridge, Wainstalls, Leeds, Bolton, Bradford and Kirklees. 

The gritty drama often graphically portrays murder, rape and drug abuse. 

Despite this, visitors are flocking to the town in record numbers.

A spokesman for Trainline said: ‘Topping the Easter getaway list is Halifax, the filming location of Happy Valley.’

Home to just under 90,000 folk, the West Yorkshire town’s famous sons include singer Ed Sheeran, TV star John Noakes and footballer Frank Worthington

The area was once known for its industrial mill and market towns and as the gritty subject of poets like Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Pictured: The Piece Hall, built in 1779 as a place to trade cloth

Heathrow Airport came in at number three on the list, showing a rise in number of Brits jetting out of the country.

Portsmouth comes in fourth, with Bodmin in Cornwall, Margate in Kent, and Penzance and Newquay Cornwall following close behind.

 Exeter and Windermere in the Lake District round out the top ten.

This follows nearby Hebden Bridge’s house prices plummeting by 15 per cent last year, according to property site Rightmove.

Experts fear the cobblestoned streets of Hebden Bridge, West Yorks, might suffer from ‘The Last of the Summer Wine’ effect – where an area becomes a tourist trap.

Property professional Jonathan Rolande of the National Association of Property Buyers said often when an area becomes famous owing to it being the location for a much loved film or TV show, it’s flooded with fans and becomes gimmicky – which eventually drags prices down.

He said: ‘It could be what you call “The Last of the Summer Wine” effect, it becomes an absolute tourist trap.

‘There’s similar things with shows like Escape to the Chateau that generate all this interest.

‘So then there is two things going on, you’ve got the locals who won’t like it, and people just turning up for day trips.’

And homeowners in the historic town are struggling to shift houses, with at least a third of houses reduced in price by as much as 13 per cent.

The area was once known for its industrial mill and market towns and as the gritty subject of poets like Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.

Now Hebden Bridge, with a population of 4,500, is dubbed Hippy Valley owing to its hipster-ish locals, largely second home owners, who have boosted the price of pints and filled the high street with artisan shops and trendy cafes. 

But since it has been revived as the backdrop to Sally Wainwright’s gripping BBC1 crime drama, viewed by almost five million people every Sunday night, it has become a tourist trap.

Locals are reported to moan about a through-fare of foot-traffic with eager telly lovers hoping to catch sight of Sarah Lancashire charging about in front of the cameras, or soak in the scenes of some of their favourite moments.

And the fictional ‘home’ of Catherine Cawood – Lancashire’s character – is said to have doubled in price, to £400,000.

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