Campfields and Belle Isle

Yvon · Post by **Yvon** » Sat 08 Aug, 2009 5:50 pm

Hi I,m Yvon,I have just found this forum it is just what I need to help with my search. I am tracing my husbands ancestors .Their surname is Rainford. I have a John Rainford b.ab.1855 Lived at 9, Stone Row Leeds.He was a Sawyer. His father was Thomas Rainford.He was a Labourer. Does anyone know if this was the area known as Campfields? He married a Catherine Murphy of Plane Street Leeds .b. 1865. They married in 1889 at St Patericks Chapel,York Road,Leeds. She was a Rag Sorter. Her father was Paterick Murphya Glazier. The Rainfords eventually moved Belle Isle. Can any one tell me anything about Campfields? I have been told that this was the worst place to be living at this time. And what was Belle Isle like.Hope someone can helpThanksYvon

Si · Post by Si » Mon 10 Aug, 2009 3:52 pm

Yvon wrote: Hi I,m Yvon,I have just found this forum it is just what I need to help with my search. I am tracing my husbands ancestors .Their surname is Rainford. I have a John Rainford b.ab.1855 Lived at 9, Stone Row Leeds.He was a Sawyer. His father was Thomas Rainford.He was a Labourer. Does anyone know if this was the area known as Campfields? He married a Catherine Murphy of Plane Street Leeds .b. 1865. They married in 1889 at St Patericks Chapel,York Road,Leeds. She was a Rag Sorter. Her father was Paterick Murphya Glazier. The Rainfords eventually moved Belle Isle. Can any one tell me anything about Campfields? I have been told that this was the worst place to be living at this time. And what was Belle Isle like.Hope someone can helpThanksYvon Hi Yvon,Stone Row was in Camp Field, Holbeck, south west of the city centre. The area was to the right of Victoria Road as you travelled south over the river Aire. It will have been a very rough area in the late 19th century. A rag sorter was possibly the poorest paid job in the textiles industry, and not very pleasant. Belle Isle in those days would have seemed like moving to the promised land! I notice that John Rainford was a sawyer - between Stone Row and Victoria Road, was the Victoria Saw Mills!If you look on the Leodis web-site, there are some photos taken in the 1930s of Camp Field. I believe they show the Stone Row area, but sadly after slum-clearance demolition. Type "Camp Fields" in the search box.Cheers,Si

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Mon 10 Aug, 2009 8:00 pm

Yvon wrote: Hi I,m Yvon,I have just found this forum it is just what I need to help with my search. And what was Belle Isle like.Hope someone can helpThanksYvon Belle Isle was originally a Hamlet consisting of a row of miners cottages below the curent Belle Isle estate near to Middleton Broom Colliery. Great piccies on LeodisIn the 20th. Century the cottages were demolished and the housing estate we see today was built above the area to the east. I have no date for the estate, but like lot's of theses estates they were used to re-house people when the inner city "slums" had to go so it may be the case the house the Rainfords moved to in Belle Isle is still there.....

Si · Post by Si » Tue 11 Aug, 2009 4:30 pm

Here's a Leodis pic of Plane Street, where Catherine Murphy lived, Yvon. It was taken in 1932, just prior to demolition and shows the sort of area this was. Judging by the multi-paned windows and shutters, these back-to-backs are very old.Plane Street was to the east of the city centre, north of the river in Quarry Hill, coincidentally running parallel to a Stone Street. St Patrick's RC Church was just round the corner.

Si · Post by Si » Wed 12 Aug, 2009 9:27 am

A modern picture from Leodis showing how the area has changed somewhat! In the centre is St Patricks, beside the York Road fly-over. Plane Street would have been somewhere under Quarry House, the large red building extreme left. Plane Street would probably have been demolished, along with the whole surrounding area, for the construction of Quarry Hill Flats, built in the 30s. These in turn were demolished in c.1978 to make way for the DSS's Quarry House and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Si · Post by Si » Wed 12 Aug, 2009 9:46 am

A pic of Stone Row, Camp Field, Holbeck, 1938. Stone Row runs off from the camera to the right. (Courtesy Leodis.)

Si · Post by Si » Wed 12 Aug, 2009 9:49 am

This shot from Leodis, dated 1999, is taken looking in the opposite direction, toward The Grove Inn, on the corner of Stone Row (where the parked cars are.) The photographer in 1938 would have been stood by the corner of the pub, facing toward us.

Yvon · Post by **Yvon** » Wed 12 Aug, 2009 10:39 am

Hi The Parksider and Si, Thanks very much for the info and the pictures.It is so interesting to be able to see where they lived.I have now managed to go a bit further back in time and are looking into Hathersage, Derbyshire which is where my husbands mother's side came from before they ended up Campfields. Thanks again .Yvon.

Si · Post by Si » Wed 12 Aug, 2009 11:51 am

Yvon wrote: Hi The Parksider and Si, Thanks very much for the info and the pictures.It is so interesting to be able to see where they lived.I have now managed to go a bit further back in time and are looking into Hathersage, Derbyshire which is where my husbands mother's side came from before they ended up Campfields. Thanks again .Yvon. My pleasure, Yvon. That's the beauty of using this site - especially when cross-referencing with Leodis, geneology sites and old maps. It really brings the past to life!

Si · Post by Si » Tue 13 Oct, 2009 2:18 pm

Whilst looking at Water Lane for another thread on the Godfrey 1847 map, I noticed that, towards the Camp Field end, there was a Camp Lane, Camp Lane Court, and a Camp Hall. I assume Camp Lane is very old, as it is split into two by the Friend's Meeting House (dated on the map 1699?) and it's burial ground.Does anyone know what 'camp' this area is named after? Was it a Civil War camp, or perhaps even older?