Selby, England
Abbey Town With An Abbey Complex
"Home of the Abbey, the Coalfield, and the Ouse Bridge Bottleneck"
Official Coat of Arms
A shield bearing the great tower of Selby Abbey rendered slightly wonky from a hangover of eight centuries, flanked by a lump of coal rampant in memory of the vanished pit, beneath a toll bridge over the River Ouse charging a single confused motorist forty pence.
TripAdvisor Review
★★★☆☆ 3/5
"Popped in to see the Abbey, which is genuinely lovely, then spent forty minutes trying to get out of the one-way system near the toll bridge. The market square has some nice old buildings but half the shops seemed to be vape stores or empty. Decent chip shop though, and the Abbey lit up at night is properly atmospheric, so three stars for effort."— Gary Fenwick, Pontefract
Property Listing
Charming market town offering the rare chance to live in the literal shadow of an 11th-century abbey while enjoying excellent rail links whisking you swiftly away to York or Leeds whenever you fancy it. Ample period character, a genuinely stunning church spire view from the Tesco car park, and property prices that still feel like a rounding error compared to York.
Twinned With
Ferrybridge — Both towns built their entire identity around a big industrial thing (Abbey vs power station cooling towers) that everyone driving the A1 mistakes them for.
Supporting Evidence
Selby Abbey, founded in 1069, is one of the few English abbeys to survive Henry VIII's dissolution intact because the town successfully argued it should become a parish church instead.