Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England, 3 miles (5 km) east of the Great North Road, 12 miles (19 km) north-east of Leeds, and 10 miles (16 km) south-west of York. Its historical importance from Roman times onward was largely as the lowest road crossing-point on the River Wharfe until the construction of the A64 Tadcaster by-pass some 660 yards (600 m) to the south, in 1978. There are two rail crossings downstream of the town before the Wharfe joins the River Ouse near Cawood.

The town was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974, but is now part of North Yorkshire. Thanks to its position on the banks of the River Wharfe parts of the town adjacent to the bridge are prone to flooding.

Economy Tadcaster has a long association with the brewing industry because of the quality and accessibility of the local water, which is rich in lime sulphate after filtering through Permian limestone. In the right conditions freshwater springs, known locally as popple-wells, still bubble up near St Mary's church in the town. Tax registers from 1341 record the presence of two breweries or brewhouses in the town, one paying 8d in tax and the other 4d. Today Tadcaster is second in importance only to Burton-upon-Trent as an English brewing centre.

Currently there are three breweries in the town: The Tower Brewery (Coors, formerly Bass), John Smith's and Samuel Smith's Old Brewery, which is the oldest brewery in Yorkshire and only remaining independent brewery in Tadcaster. A fourth brewery stood by the river on the site of the present central car park.

Despite these large commercial enterprises, Tadcaster exhibits many signs of urban decline, with a large number of empty and derelict properties in the town centre. In part this can be attributed to disputes between the owner of the Samuel Smith's brewery, Humphrey Smith, who is a major landowner in the town, and Selby District Council. There are no major tourist attractions in the town, which has one supermarket and no bank. The closure of the railway station (1964), the reduction of the market and the construction of the A64 Tadcaster bypass (1978), whilst substantially reducing traffic using the Tadcaster Bridge, have all contributed to the decline of footfall and therefore of retailing in the town.

Transport Tadcaster is served by local bus services operating from Leeds City bus station. The town is a stop on the Yorkshire Coastliner service, which accesses the Yorkshire Coast. Buses also run to Wetherby and Harrogate and to Sherburn-in-Elmet.

railway station on the Church Fenton to Harrogate line closed to passengers in January 1964. The nearest railway stations are Ulleskelf and Church Fenton. York railway station has a wider range of services and is connected to Tadcaster by the Yorkshire Coastliner bus service.

On 29 December 2015 the Wharfe bridge partially collapsed. It had been closed to traffic and pedestrians three days earlier as a result of flooding which affected much of Yorkshire over the Christmas period. The bridge was widened when it was reconstructed after this.