Bunker in Clayton Woods

[electricaldave]

I have found out a little bit more about the 'bunker' in Ireland wood - which is the one to the North side of Cookridge Hospital.It appears on the 1934 map as 'tank' and on the subsequent maps 1953 and 1960. There is no such similarity marked in Clayton woods, however the construction is the same.The house that I noted in those woods was called Cookridge Tower, and you can see the orchard, along with the glass houses and also the gate lodge on all those maps.On the older maps, this house was obviously of some importance, stadning in such large grounds, there was a farm not far from it called Grove Farm - and the nearby newer streets are named after it - this was still standing in 1954 - however the Tinshill estate was built around that time too, and thats when it seems to have gone.The next nearest large house in the locality would have been Iveson House - owned I expect by that family sibnce they were very much Leeds notables - owning collieries and one time Leeds Mayors.The thing is, that Iveson House was on a similar scale to Cookridge Tower so one assumes that its owenr was also of some note.

[rangieowner]

LandyDefender wrote: Hi Folks, if the one you're refrering to in cookridge is in the copse of trees you can see from Otley old road, going from Cookridge towards Bramhope, then that is definately a water tank. I am the ripe old age of 41 now and far too fat and unfit to shin up the pipe at the side of it, but did it many years ago when i lived in the moseley woods and was about ten i think.It was full of mud and junk and had you fallen in there was no way of climbing out.Sounds like Clayton Woods is the same type of thing, would lov eto get in there with my defender but can only see bike routes in. All hail the green oval!!!! Ay up LandyDefender!! me and our kid were thinking of trying to get clayton quarry opened as an official off road site to be managed by ourselves but we decided it was too small! plus we don't think the owners (if we could find them) would stump up the cash for facilities or liability insurance!! I wanna get at it too! hey ho! back to topic!!        

[electricaldave]

I just got an email from Susan Stepan, who works on Leodis and has put some more information about it next to the picture of the map. -( Pity there isn't a photo of the building)from LeodisThe area was once the site of a large house known as Cookridge Lodge, built in the 1860s for James Fox, architect and surveyor. A subsequent owner, Albert Sykes, woollen merchant, added a single tower to it, to provide a billiard room for his children. This became known as Cookridge Tower. The building was demolished in 1970.

[jonleeds]

I've also noticed in Clayton Woods there are quite a few old trackways which cross the wooded areas around the quarry. Some still appear to have the old rough cobbled surface intact whilst others are flanked by the remains of long since tumbled drystone walls. Occasionally there will be a gatepost at the junction of the old tracks. I remember looking up something in Horsforth library that said there had been a house in the Silk Mill area of the woods adjacent to where the mature beech trees grow.

[electricaldave]

The farm down at Silk Mill was called, wait for it, Silk Mill farm. However it was on the north side of the railway, whereas Silk Mills itself (Springfield Mills) was on the south of the railway.If you go down Silk Mill drive, until it meets Silk Mill road, and then turn left into the woods, and go in maybe hundred yards, then you'll not be far from where it was.Those woods were called Backhouse Woods.Silk Mill Way was a track that ran just next to the walls of the hospitals we used to walk it to get to school,and it had to be moved when they stole half our woods to extend both those hospitals, now its a road. It used to stand on something of a slope, the house was very small, with one of the very old fashioned style barns, which had a set of stone steps on the outside to get to the upper level hay loft.I think it had two houses, one was a reasonable sized affair - probably originally the farmers house, and then there was a much smaller one, probably a workers lodge. I also think one or two of the yard buildings had glazed windows too.The main house had mullioned windows, and that would put the age back to the 18thC.The farm was not demolished in one go, they knocked down most of it, but they left the cow shed standing and one corner of the hay loft for a while, I think it was finally finished off around 1968-70, can't remeber exactly when.It was, all in all, a very small farm, you'll have seen plenty of other similar types of deserted farms, these places were just not large enough to be economic so the land ended up being joined together into larger farms, and the best farmyard would be developed. The outbuildings were very small too, they did have a cow milking shed, but it could only have been big enough for perhaps 12 to 18 stalls.There's similar stuff all over the area around Armscliffe Carg. You can find it on Leodis, but they have it wrong, they state that Silk Mill farm was in Daffy Wood, but although the two woods joind, Daffy wood ran parallel to the railway, with Clayton Wood at one end and the railway footbridge underpass at the other.Backhouse wood joins Daffy Woods at near enough right angles.When you look at the older maps, you can see that Silk Mill farm really didn't have much land around it, it was virtually an enclave cut out of woodland, and from the shape, it almost looks like an assart.One reason why I think that these woods had not been disturbed in a very very long time is that there are scheduled monuments in there, some dating back to iron age times, and when I was at junior school, we were told that some of the drystone walls in Clayton woods were extremely old, they had been dated using slow growing lichens.http://www.leeds.gov.uk/fol/fol_6.html

[Si]

Hayloft? Hayloft? Did someone say hayloft?.......

[chameleon]

Si wrote: Hayloft? Hayloft? Did someone say hayloft?....... Steady now Si, wrong thread

[LandyDefender]

Sorry for the delay Rangie, been away with work and hols, sorry to go off topic but there must be other places around leeds that can take 4 x 4s other than yeadon bomb hole.

[rangieowner]

LandyDefender wrote: Sorry for the delay Rangie, been away with work and hols, sorry to go off topic but there must be other places around leeds that can take 4 x 4s other than yeadon bomb hole. Hey Landy! there are no places i know of that you can LEGALLY off road in leeds! not even the bomb holes are legally drivable any more! nearest off road site is Tong but they are only open to the public twice a year or so at a cost!! (sorry to stray off topic)    

[moorgrangeschool]

I went to Moor Grange School in the 60's,and we used to go in this bunker,so glad its still there,It had a huge slab over the entrance,but seven or eight of us managed to remove it and I was one of the first down the ladder,it was empty apart from some rusty tins, a three legged stool and a broom and was quite dry and clean,it became a lunchtime den,and somewhere in a corner,neatly done in Indian Ink,should be my initials and the date
(It was before the days of mindless vandalism),
I remember taking some old fruit boxes down to use as seats,but my transistor radio wouldnt work inside until I realised If I wrapped a piece of wire around the ladder and shoved it into the car aerial socket in the back,the ladder acted as an antenna,and we could listen to Radio Caroline without the fade you would normally get. . . !