All swimming spots › Bradford, England
Can I swim at Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley?
Bradford, England · River
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Before you get in
Inland water is cold all year, and there are no lifeguards here.
If you get into trouble, float on your back until the cold shock passes. Full advice below.
In an emergency call 999, or 112 in the Republic of Ireland.
Water quality today
The last fortnight
What this verdict covers
Independent site, not an official one. This verdict is about water quality. It does not tell you whether the water is safe to get into today.
How it has been rated
The annual classification for 2021 to 2025. Each one is calculated from samples taken over up to four bathing seasons, so these overlap and none of them describes today.
Every sample, 2024 to 2026
45 samples, 2024 to 2026. The highest E. coli count in them was 9,300 per 100ml, on 28 May 2026; the standard for Excellent is 500 or below and for Good 1,000 or below.
One bar for each sample, oldest on the left. The taller the bar, the more E. coli that bottle held.
The scale is the same on every beach on this site, which is why a clean beach looks flat — the bars are measured against the standard rather than against that beach’s own worst day. Hover or tap a bar for that day’s figures. A single count over a line is not a failed beach. The classification is worked out as the 90th and 95th percentile of four years of samples, so one bad morning does not decide it — and one good morning does not either. 10 of these are above the Good standard, so they are pinned to the top with a notch rather than the chart stretching to fit them.
What these bacteria mean for you
Neither one is what makes people ill by itself. They are markers: they live in the gut, so finding them means sewage or animal waste has reached the water, and whatever else came with it is likely there too.
The usual way to catch something is swallowing the water, and the usual result is a stomach upset. Ear, eye, chest and skin infections are the other common ones. Putting your head under and swimming with an open cut both raise the odds.
The riskiest time is the day or two after heavy rain, when storm overflows discharge and rain washes off farmland — including at beaches rated Excellent for the rest of the season. That is the whole reason this page shows you rainfall and discharges alongside the grade.
Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley was rated Poor for 2025, below the minimum standard, based on samples taken across recent seasons. That grade comes from bacterial samples taken over several seasons rather than from the water today — but a Poor rating does not only describe the past. Advice against bathing is posted at a Poor bathing water for the whole season, which is why it sets the verdict at the top of this page every day until the season closes.
The Environment Agency issues a pollution risk forecast each morning during the bathing season for nearly every bathing water in England, and the water company publishes the status of its storm overflows every few minutes.
The rest of its file
What the regulator holds for this place. None of it describes the water today.
- Water
- River
- Area
- Bradford, England
- Monitored outfalls within 5km
- 14 (nearest 0.0km)
Wind, water and weather
The weather here today and for the week ahead. Not the water quality verdict above.
Today
Rain, the week behind and ahead
The weather for the week ahead
Water temperature
There is no water temperature for this place, and no honest way to give one. Nobody publishes a live temperature for Britain and Ireland’s rivers and lakes: SEPA and Natural Resources Wales measure none at all, and the satellite products that cover lakes do not include this one and run weeks behind.
Air temperature is not a substitute. Inland water stays cold through the summer, and it is coldest relative to the air on the warm still days when most people get in. The RNLI says inland water like lakes, rivers, lochs and reservoirs can be colder than the sea, even in summer, and it defines cold water as anything below 15°C. Cold water can seriously affect your breathing and your ability to move. Treat this water as cold, get in slowly, and know how to float.
Where it is, and what discharges near it
Directions to this bathing water
That is the Environment Agency’s sampling point, which is at the water rather than at a car park. Your maps app will take you to the nearest road it can reach.
The nearest mapped car park is about 250m away in a straight line. That is not a walking distance: OpenStreetMap knows where the car park is and nothing about the path, which may be longer, steeper or not there at all.
What is mapped at this beach
- Toilets about 290m away — free
- Lido Cafe about 290m away
Straight-line distances from OpenStreetMap, not walking distances, and only what volunteers have mapped — something missing here may still be there.
Getting here without a car
- Nearest bus stop Leeds Rd Thwaites Avenue, Leeds Road, about 370m away
- Nearest railway station Ilkley Rail Station, about 880m away
Straight-line distances to where the stop or station is, from the national registers of them. That a stop exists is not a promise that a bus calls at it — timetables are somebody else’s data and this page does not read them, so check the operator before you rely on it.
The record since 2022
In 2025, the 32 monitored overflows the Environment Agency lists against this bathing water spilled 948 times, for about 3,872 hours in total. Over the 2025 bathing season alone, 1 May to 30 September, 344 of those spills happened — 36% of the year. One of the monitors behind that figure was working for 60% of the season, so the real count may be higher.
- 20221,200 spills · 4,650 hours
- 20231,484 spills · 7,798 hours
- 20241,214 spills · 5,671 hours
- 2025948 spills · 3,872 hours
These are annual totals for the whole year, not readings from today — today’s answer is the verdict at the top of the page. Figures come from the Environment Agency’s Event Duration Monitoring annual returns, which the water companies submit and the EA publishes, and the EA decides which overflows count as belonging to this bathing water.
What the regulator says about this swimming spot
From the Environment Agency’s published bathing water profile for 2026. It describes the place and its catchment, not today’s water.
The place itself
The bathing water site, known as ‘Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley', is located on the River Wharfe at Ilkley, close to Ilkley town centre. It can be accessed from the Riverside Walk footpath alongside the river. When the river level is low, a gently sloping shingle beach is exposed. The Cromwheel site is located upstream of the suspension bridge and all discharges from Ilkley Sewage Treatment Works.
What drains into it
The upper catchment of the River Wharfe lies within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The surrounding hillside is scattered with springs and old mine workings. It is mostly rural with several small centres of population including Kettlewell and Grassington and is primarily a mixture of low intensity livestock farming. There are a number of designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) within the catchment including the stretch of the River Wharfe which flows from Buckden to the south of Kettlewell. Below the National Park the Wharfe flows through the village of Addingham and the larger market town of Ilkley.
More from the profile
Where the sewage works discharges
There are a number of Water Company Sewage Treatment plants upstream of the bathing water discharging treated effluent both directly and indirectly, through tributaries, into the River Wharfe. Ilkley Sewage Treatment Works has a final effluent outfall and a storm/emergency outfall, which discharge to the River Wharfe, however these discharges are downstream of the designated bathing water site.
What has been done about it
The Environment Agency works closely with Yorkshire Water to identify and deliver significant investment in sewerage infrastructure.
What the samplers see at the water
Environment Agency samplers make observations of litter present on the beach at every visit, this includes assessments of sewage debris, litter and tar. At Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley for the four year (2022-2025) assessment period where data is available, sewage debris was not noted at this site. Litter was assessed as being sufficient to be objectionable for 8% of visits, with 69% of visits noting the presence of litter. Tarry residue was not noted at this site.
The council's part
The Environment Agency is supporting Yorkshire Water and City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council in progressing catchment investigations and undertaking work to minimise surface water entering the combined sewer, in order to reduce the operation of storm overflows. Bradford Council is expanding upon the works conducted as a Defra-funded pilot Natural Flood Management (NFM) on Backstone Beck that completed in 2022. Peatland restoration works are being progressed on other catchments on the moor.
Published by the Environment Agency under the Open Government Licence. The full profile carries more, including sections repeated for every beach that are not reproduced here.
Other swimming spots nearby
The closest bathing waters on the regulators’ lists, straight-line distance. Each has its own checks and its own verdict.
Check the official source
The regulator’s own page for this bathing water. If it disagrees with this one, believe theirs.
Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley's official page at the Environment Agency · See it on a map
This page is not official. It reads published data and presents it plainly; if a sign at the water says otherwise, believe the sign.
If you get into trouble
This is the RNLI’s advice, not ours.
Float. Tilt your head back with your ears in the water. Relax and let your breathing settle. Move your hands and legs gently to stay level. Your legs may sink, and that is fine, everyone floats differently. The first shock of cold water passes in less than a minute, so do not try to swim straight away. Once it has passed, call for help or swim to safety.
In an emergency call 999 and ask for the fire service, or for the Coastguard at a tidal river. In the Republic of Ireland call 112 or 999.
Inland water has its own hazards and none of them are visible from the bank. The bottom shelves away without warning, weeds and submerged branches catch legs, and a river runs faster and colder after rain than it looks from the side. There are no lifeguards and no flags at almost every place on this list.
Never jump in. You cannot see what is under the surface, and the cold on entry is what causes the gasp, not the depth.
This advice is the RNLI’s. Their Float to Live pages are worth two minutes of anyone’s time.
Use this page elsewhere
One sheet of A4 with a QR code to this page, for a clubhouse, a campsite reception, a surf school or a harbour office. The address is printed underneath in words, so it still works for anybody who would rather not scan a code.
Print a sign for Wharfe at Cromwheel, IlkleyOr put today’s verdict on your own site.
Put this swimming spot on your own site
A small card showing today’s verdict for Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley, updating itself. Paste this where you want it to appear. It loads nothing of yours and sets no cookies, and it costs your visitors about ten kilobytes, most of it the readings themselves.
Click the box to select it all. There is also a feed for this swimming spot, if you would rather be told than have to look.