Questions
The things people actually ask
Roads and routes
Why does it matter how high our house is?
Because in this county height decides nearly everything else. A cliff cottage at sea level, a Harrogate villa at 120 metres and a Rosedale farmhouse on the moor top are three genuinely different jobs.
The gradients, the vehicle bans on specific banks, the winter closures and the national-park rules all follow from where you sit on that cross-section.
Can’t you just go over Sutton Bank?
No. Sutton Bank carries a long-standing prohibition on HGVs and on vehicles towing caravans, and it is signed and enforced. It is not a question of whether a driver fancies it.
Moves between the Vale and the western moors route round via Helmsley or Osmotherley instead. It is further and it is the only lawful option.
Our satnav says the quickest way is over the pass.
It frequently does, and for a car it is often right. A loaded removal vehicle on Park Rash or Rosedale Chimney is a different proposition entirely, and on some of them descending is the worse half.
We plan the route at survey rather than letting a device choose it on the morning. If that means going the long way round a dale head, it goes in the plan.
What happens if it snows?
Above about 300 metres the moor roads have snow gates and they are used. If conditions are marginal we move the date rather than the load.
That contingency is agreed at the quote rather than negotiated in a lay-by, and we would always rather tell you about it before you book than on the morning.
Getting to the door
Our cottage has no vehicle access at all. Can you still move us?
Yes, and in Robin Hood’s Bay, Staithes and the older parts of Whitby it is normal. The load is staged at the nearest legal stopping point and hand-carried the rest of the way.
What we need from you is the number of steps and what the passage or yard is like. A crew told "a few steps up from the road" and finding forty-odd has lost the morning before anything is loaded.
The lane is single track with walls both sides. Is that a problem?
It is the normal Dales situation. The critical difference from an ordinary country lane is that a walled road has no verge to pull onto — if a vehicle meets a tractor, one of them reverses.
We check passing places and turning space at survey, and where the lane genuinely will not take a full-size vehicle we stage at a hard standing and shuttle in.
We’re inside York’s bar walls. What does that mean for the move?
A shuttle, almost certainly. The medieval street pattern, the bollards, the timed footstreet restrictions and the cobbles mean a full-size vehicle often cannot get near the door.
A central address may also have a resident permit bay that still needs formally reserving. We deal with that as part of the job.
Will our wardrobe come down the stairs?
In a Victorian Harrogate villa, usually — they were built for furniture of that size. In a fisherman’s cottage or a dales farmhouse, often not.
Where a piece will not pass, the options are dismantling, an external lift, or accepting it stays. On a listed building the lift is not automatic, which is why we establish it at survey rather than on the day.
Listed and national park
Our house is listed. Does that change anything?
It can. You cannot bracket an external furniture lift against a listed façade without consent, and removing a door, a sash or a section of railing to get something out may also require it.
Doing that without consent is an offence rather than a risk, so we will tell you where the line is rather than quietly crossing it.
We’re in the national park. Is that different from being listed?
Different constraints, yes. Inside the Dales or the Moors park the unclassified roads are narrower, signage is sparse by design, and parking in the popular villages is tighter than the size of the place suggests.
A property can of course be both, which is common in the dale villages.
Can you get a lift into a conservation-area street?
Sometimes not, and it is worth knowing early. Conservation-area streets are almost by definition the ones with no off-street parking, because they predate cars.
If a lift is not riggable and the stair will not take the piece, the honest answer is that it is not going in — and it is much better to hear that before it is packed.
Booking and cover
Do you cover the whole county?
Yes — it is the largest county in England and we work all of it, from the coast to the western dales, plus moves in and out of it.
A move across North Yorkshire can be a substantial run in its own right. That is the county, not a surcharge.
How quickly will you come back to us?
We read everything that comes in and reply by email once we have been through it, normally within a working day or two.
If you already have a date agreed, say so and we will treat it as urgent.
Are you insured?
Yes. Goods in transit and public liability cover are in place, and the level applying to your move is set out in writing with your quote rather than buried in a link.
Anything of unusual value should be declared at survey so it is covered properly and handled accordingly.
Tell us where you are on the hill
Both addresses, roughly how much there is, and — if it is up a dale, on the moors or down a cliff — how the last stretch actually works. That is what decides the vehicle.