[4] The town was listed in both the 2017 and 2018 Sunday Times reports on Best Places to Live in northern England.

[5] The local tourist authority bills it as "the perfect place to start your exploration of the Yorkshire Dales".

[6] In the early Middle Ages the site of Pateley lay in lands of the Archbishop of York, which came to be known as Bishopside.

[7] Pateley was first recorded in 1175 (though the document survives in a later copy), as Patleiagate, with 14th century forms including Patheleybrig(ge).

The final elements are clear, deriving from Old Norse gata ('street') and the northern dialect form brig ('bridge') respectively.

There is more debate about the Pateley section of the name: the usual explanation is Old English pæþ ('path') in the genitive plural form paða + lēah ('open ground, clearing in a forest'); paða lēah would mean "woodland clearing of the paths", referring to paths up Nidderdale and from Ripon to Craven, which intersected here.

The town is in the electoral ward of Pateley Bridge, which includes the whole of upper Nidderdale as far as Stonebeck Up, with a total population at the 2011 Census of 2,718.

The population of the Pateley Bridge Built-up area, which includes Bridgehousegate and Bewerley village, both outside the parish, was 1,432 in 2011.

[26] There are bed and breakfast houses, St Cuthbert's Church, Pateley Bridge, a Methodist chapel and a Roman Catholic church, a garage, hotels, Nidderdale Museum, public houses, public library, public park, restaurants, a primary school and a secondary school (Nidderdale High School), shops and a theatre (Pateley Playhouse).

Comprising a 20-metre swimming pool, gym, sports hall and two squash courts, the facility officially opened in 2005 after many years of local fundraising.

The town is also famous for the "Oldest Sweet Shop in England", which was established in 1827 and is validated as the longest continuous trading sweet shop in the world (Guinness World Records Book 2014); it is housed in one of the oldest buildings in Pateley Bridge, built in 1661.

Their studios are open and they include jewellers, milliner, textile art and gifts, sculptors, fine artist and glassblowers.

[31] The AONB website provides specifics for activities within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty including maps of popular walks, and information on canoeing and kayaking, caving, climbing, cycling, fishing and horse riding.

[26] Madge Hill Campsite, east of Pateley Bridge, is maintained by a team from West Leeds Scout District.