tunnel in wortley

Leeds Hippo · Post by **Leeds Hippo** » Thu 19 Aug, 2010 8:50 pm

jim wrote: Leeds Hippo, I happened to pass the SW corner of Oldfield Lane Cemetery yesterday, and there are neither rail nor route remains to be seen. To the SE the ground levels have been seriously altered by later housebuilding, and although NW of the corner is an open field, any remains must have been ploughed out.There is some slight possibility that some minor earthworks running across Wortley "Rec" were connected with the earlier tramway branch to the colliery at the SE corner of the later playing fields, but I would hesitate to put money on it. Thanks JimThat's a shame - I distinctly remember seeing them as a kid- I recall at the time I thought it was a small railway! If I'm up that way I might take a metal detector!

Leysholme Lad · Post by **Leysholme Lad** » Fri 20 Aug, 2010 2:17 pm

Leeds Hippo wrote: Old thread - but I've just been reading the book "Wortley de Leeds" published in the 1920's by the Thoresby Society and it reports a tunnel between a house and the churchyard of St John the Evangelist on Dixon Lane - does anyone know if this tunnel still exists? Mentioned it lay between Greenhill house and the graveyard - no reason was given for it's existance. Hi Leeds Hippo,I have long been a reader of this website, but have now just registered and this is my first post, so please be gentle.I know the tunnel you refer to. Access to the tunnel was through a green (house size) door which fronted on to Lower Wortley Road and I would have seen it about 1960.The other end of this tunnel I presume would have been Green Hill House which I think was the old vicarage. The purpose I expect would be to enable the vicar to get to the church by the shortest route and get a bit of shelter.Technically I think it would have been a covered way, rather than a tunnel as there would not be enough ground above to bore a tunnel.Most of the tunnel still probably exists (but don't tell Phill d). A row of town houses (Green Top) has been built across the probable course of the tunnel and no doubt the foundations would have penetrated and blocked the tunnel. The Lower Wortley Road end has been bricked up in stone to match the surrounding wall.This blocked doorway is clearly visible on Google My street but I don't know how to paste or attach the picture, and the link is endless.Regards, P

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Fri 20 Aug, 2010 2:56 pm

Postman wrote: I am new to this but here goesAm I the only person in Leeds who remebers the old tunnels that used to run under the old quarry just off Blue Hill Lane in Leeds?The new Windmill estate is situated on it nowIf yes, what exactly was it and where did it go? Hello there postman, I remember the tunnel very well. I did post a comment on here about 20months ago and got some interesting replies. It would be about 1955-56 when some friends and I discovered this place. We entered the site from somewhere off Wortley Moor Rd and the tunnel was on the right hand side of a deep quarry which had a pond in the bottom in which there were frogs,newts and fish. We would go there fishing for gudgeon of which there were some decent size ones. The tunnel ran from the lip of the quarry in a straight line but steeply to the bottom and was lined with large stone blocks. It was I think about 60yds long and at the end was some sort of pumping engine which in those days was working. We did venture down ,about 4 of us with lighted newspapers which we held aloft to light our way. There was an open barred grill on the left near the pump. We were a bit scared to say the least and when a bloke in overalls stood slhouetted at the mouth of the tunnel(wish i could spell) and shouted for us to clear off we did! Sharpish! I suppose it was a bit dangerous as there were large stones on the floor where they had fallen from the roof but you dont see danger when yoru young do you? The quarry was starting to be filled in at the left side with rubbish from leeds cleansing dept towards the end of 56 and we never went back after that. The comments said that it was a fireclay mine or something like that.

Leeds Hippo · Post by **Leeds Hippo** » Fri 20 Aug, 2010 4:22 pm

Leysholme Lad wrote: Leeds Hippo wrote: Old thread - but I've just been reading the book "Wortley de Leeds" published in the 1920's by the Thoresby Society and it reports a tunnel between a house and the churchyard of St John the Evangelist on Dixon Lane - does anyone know if this tunnel still exists? Mentioned it lay between Greenhill house and the graveyard - no reason was given for it's existance. Hi Leeds Hippo,I have long been a reader of this website, but have now just registered and this is my first post, so please be gentle.I know the tunnel you refer to. Access to the tunnel was through a green (house size) door which fronted on to Lower Wortley Road and I would have seen it about 1960.The other end of this tunnel I presume would have been Green Hill House which I think was the old vicarage. The purpose I expect would be to enable the vicar to get to the church by the shortest route and get a bit of shelter.Technically I think it would have been a covered way, rather than a tunnel as there would not be enough ground above to bore a tunnel.Most of the tunnel still probably exists (but don't tell Phill d). A row of town houses (Green Top) has been built across the probable course of the tunnel and no doubt the foundations would have penetrated and blocked the tunnel. The Lower Wortley Road end has been bricked up in stone to match the surrounding wall.This blocked doorway is clearly visible on Google My street but I don't know how to paste or attach the picture, and the link is endless.Regards, P That's great Leysholme LadThanks very much for that information

Leysholme Lad · Post by **Leysholme Lad** » Mon 23 Aug, 2010 8:11 pm

[quotenick="Phill_dvsn"]Yes, very interesting area to look at.There's still sizeable remains of what looks like a brick retaining wall of the old Fireclay here. Questions about it's structural integrity arise due to it being fenced off in the car park area.Hi Phil, I know the retaining wall you mean. I attach part of the Godfrey 1908 map. I have marked in blue where I think the wall is. I am assuming that the siding that crossed it maybe was an unloading gantry due to height difference. As there are two tracks shown I think one would be for loaded wagons and one for empties.The Inghams Fireclay Works were cetainly operating in the 1950s as mum always complained about the black smoke on washing days. By about 1960 I think they had closed, but I do remember doing an explore round the disused works which were about two storeys high and going into the brick kilns.By 1960 there was no trace of the tramway (I think I would have noticed as I was a trainspotter at the time). The course of the tramway was then a track for road vehicles which led from Cabbage Hill to what we are now calling Trapper Dan Way. The area known as Red Brick Works was a very deep disused quarry with a steep cliff face on the western side.The line marked red on the map was my first estimate of where I thought the wall was, but I dont think it is now.The whole area now has been completely transformed by tipping and landscaping. The deep quarry is now a grassy hill! All that is left sadly is childhood memories.

Daphne · Post by **Daphne** » Wed 25 Aug, 2010 6:06 pm

As the Godfrey map shows there were 2 'dayhole' claypits or clay quarries on Blue Hill, the one nearest Wortley Moor Road belonged to Cliffe then Farnley Fireclay (owned by Cliffes). It was filled in by a waste operator in the 1990s. There was a tunnel into the pit with tram-rails for trucks leading from the pit into the brick-making yard (now beneath the first clothing warehouse, for which the buildings and chimney were demolished.) The windmill site between the two pits was mediaeval, belonging to Kirkstall Abbey then sold to the Cliffes who established tilemaking in the area in the 1500s. There has perhaps been no windmill since then but it kept the name. The upper pit, towards Leysholme, belonged to another company - I think called Ingham bricks. It became a dump for polluted waste from a manufacturer and either it, or another pit, was filled in after a drowning. The blocked tunnel entrance from Ingham's brickworks into the pit was briefly visible in c. 2004 when the brickyard was demolished and replaced with buildings for a building repairs company. The opening was quite large, arched, at least five feet by seven foot high. Kiln features and hearths were also visible during demolition. In 2000-2003 further dumping was carried out across the whole area known as Cabbage Hill, Windmill Hill and Blue Hill. The land was raised many metres and with the replacement of the brickyard buildings as well, all surface traces of the 2 pits and their tunnels have gone. In the depths, near the old Ingham brickyard site but behind dumping and a retaining wall, remains the blocked entrance to the Ingham pit tunnel.

Daphne · Post by **Daphne** » Wed 25 Aug, 2010 6:15 pm

I heard that the tunnel from Lower Wortley Road (the one whose door has gone, replaced by a stone wall) to Greenhill House was thought by locals to be for the doctor, who then lived in Greenhill House, to get down to the graveyard secretly at night and rob the graves for dissection. Urban myth, I'm sure.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Sat 11 Sep, 2010 3:41 pm

Leodian wrote: There is a letter about the tunnel in Wortley on page 15 of today's YEP. There is a letter on page 15 of today's (September 11th) YEP in its Yorkshire Diary section that is a reply to the letter in the YEP on August 14th. Today's letter mentions the Secret Leeds website and the information in the letter about the tunnel in Wortley is clearly taken from rikj's message of August 25th 2007. The Secret Leeds website's fame is spreading.

Leeds Hippo · Post by **Leeds Hippo** » Sat 11 Sep, 2010 3:55 pm

Daphne wrote: I heard that the tunnel from Lower Wortley Road (the one whose door has gone, replaced by a stone wall) to Greenhill House was thought by locals to be for the doctor, who then lived in Greenhill House, to get down to the graveyard secretly at night and rob the graves for dissection. Urban myth, I'm sure. Mentions in the book Wortley de Leeds that grave robbing was rife at the time and they even built a guard house to protect the graveyard!

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Sat 11 Sep, 2010 5:08 pm

Leodian wrote: Leodian wrote: There is a letter about the tunnel in Wortley on page 15 of today's YEP. There is a letter on page 15 of today's (September 11th) YEP in its Yorkshire Diary section that is a reply to the letter in the YEP on August 14th. Today's letter mentions the Secret Leeds website and the information in the letter about the tunnel in Wortley is clearly taken from rikj's message of August 25th 2007. The Secret Leeds website's fame is spreading. Makes a change for the source of the info to be mentioned, doesn't it..?