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It’s been decades since ITV soap Emmerdale has properly filmed in the small Yorkshire village of Esholt, close to Bradford.

But from 1976 until 1997, all filming was done on location in the real-life village, where locals still had to live and work, before a purpose-built set was constructed in the Harewood House Estate close to Leeds.

Filming did return to Esholt for a spell to film Ashley Thomas’ dementia scenes, with the village – and a series of lookalike actors – being used to create a sense of confusion as Ashley’s mind deteriorated.

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Of course, being a lifelong Emmerdale fan, I had to pay Esholt a visit in person to see what all the fuss was about. Front and centre, you’ll notice the real-life Woolpack pub.

Previously called The Commercial Inn, the real-life pub serves all manner of bitters and lagers, as well as a bread platter I tucked into with a friend during our visit.

For filming Emmerdale, a specially made sign with The Woolpack name on was placed over the pub’s original name, before – to capitalise on tourism – the pub itself was renamed.

Inside, we found plenty of signed photos from the Emmerdale cast – and though the pub owner did consider renovating the pub interior to match that of the soap Woolpack, work was never carried out, and the inside remains vastly different.

Though reviews from publications like LeedsLive report Esholt is “nothing like” the Emmerdale village, I found more than a few striking resemblances.

One family told SomersetLive they were “disappointed” by their visit, telling the publication: “We didn’t know what to expect, we thought it was going to be a bit bigger. It’s bigger on the telly I suppose, it always looks bigger on the telly.

“We thought we’d see a few things that were familiar, like oh here’s where somebody [an Emmerdale character] lives, you know what I mean? Or this is where the garage is but there’s not anything like that.”

The nearby Bunkers Hill served as the filming location for Demdyke Row, which was destroyed in Emmerdale’s 1993 plane crash.

And Esholt’s church bears a striking resemblance to the Emmerdale church in which legendary vicars like Harriet, Ashley and Charles have put down roots.

But what hit me the hardest were the local legends of ghostly presences in the neighbourhood.

A ghost known only as the Grey Lady has been seen around the old manor house and the church, with Esholt Hall caretaker Alan Maddocks confessing to Freaky Folk Tales: “Strange things have happened. I was in the house one night upstairs in one of the rooms when the door slammed shut and the key turned in the lock. I had to ring my daughter to come and let me out.

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“The previous caretaker had a dog and it flatly refused to cross one of the corridors in the house.”

Alan has witnessed “all sorts of strange happenings” over the years, including “mysterious voices and coughing sounds”, and lights being turned on and off when “nobody else is in the building”.

Unfortunately I didn’t spot any ghosts or ghouls when I was visiting, but I did get a chill down my spine knowing that the village itself was a ‘ghost’ of Emmerdale.

After something to sustain us in the pub, we turned our attention to the nearby Post Office, which stocks all manner of Emmerdale merchandise – including, when we were there, some pretty nifty tea towels.

Would I return? Probably not. There’s not a crazy amount to see. But if you’re an Emmerdale fanatic and you live nearby, there’s no reason not to pop into Esholt and have a nosey.

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