Asket Hill / Asket Hall

[The Parksider]

Tomel wrote: Yes I do remember that bridge. The bank of the stream was very sandy and steep and I remember a large tree with a rope suspended from it which we used to swing over the stream on. I do remember a childrens school of some sorts on the lane up to Cobble Hall but the mansion I am on about was further up and very close to Cobble Hall GC.It had one of those blue/green domes and could be seen from the present mansion over the trees at the far side of the big lake. It was never occupied and we used to pass it virtually every weekend in the very early fifties on our way to look for golfballs which we sold to an old chap who had a bric-a-brac come antiques shop at the top of Calverley Street. We frequented that Asket Hill area a lot and I remember the mushroom field at the bottom of Boggart Hill below the big flats where Ronnie Hilton lived. We would always walk that field and the rookery next door to it before crossing the road and walking up to the quarry opposite the Wellington Pub. We occasionally found mushrooms too which we hid to collect on our return. I remember too that there was a mansion on the corner of Dib Lane and Fearnville something but it was occupied. I remember a murder of a woman in Quarry Hill Flats and the police were looking for a Polish man. He walked in to "Browns" off licence at the corner of Dib Lane and Oakwood Lane and the proprietor recognised him and followed him to the hollow at the back of the shops opposite the Oakwood Pub. He had been sleeping rough there in that hollow just at the top of Lawrence Gardens. I remember the Hollin Hill estate being built and the field at the end of Hollin Hill Drive where they put the school. We made a cricket pitch in there In the autumn I used to go through a hedge in that field and get into a pear orchard, fill my newspaper round bag with pears then sell them at school.What with the paper round, golf balls, conkers, greengages and pears. It broke me when I had to go to work and collect my measly £3 pounds 14 shillings and 6 pence. I'm so glad you remember the bridge!! Thanks for the memories!!

[chameleon]

The Parksider wrote: chameleon wrote: PARKY OLD BOY....opinionSo I think that somewhere in this thread someone has mixed up the two mansions which were about a mile apart.     Hi Tomel,The stream that runs along the foot of the (former) terrace gardens of Asket Hall is Wyke beck, the principle beck that before the advent of Roundhay Park and it's overflows was also the Beck in Great Heads Wood above the lakes.It is a larger beck and is marked as Wyke Beck on maps. The beck from Wellington Hill comes down from Roundhay Grange and I have never known it have a name. Where the two becks converge is also the part of asket Hill where Asket Hall was and the stables, Lodge and the bridge over the wyke all still stand.The second hall you refer to is Elmet Hall half way up Elmet Lane towards Cobble Hall. It may be my turn to be corrected here but I recall that the Hall and further developmments in the grounds were a school for the deaf for many years.That small stream has many memories for me. It ran on the other side of wetherby road to Low Wood which had an old house and garden called Ash Bank House on it's northern edge. The old house had the council house kids making up spoooky stories about it. I knew nothing of that house and wish today I did, or could find a picture of it.In Low Wood there was a quarry we kids played in. It's not there now and I just wonder what is done to landscape and remove quarries?? Maybe the legend that is Grumpytramp will come and tell us?Lower down the stream a bridge still carries the footpath from the old police station up Boggart Hill when that too was just a footpath. Lower down again just before asket hill was a second bridge over that small stream. It was a simple stone arch with banking up either side and a sandy earth track on top. No sides. There was no real track to it or away from it and when I was a kid in the sixties it was fun to carefully balance on and cross, but to this day I have not a clue why on earth it was ever built, and what it was built for. Remember this?? Yes it certainly was (and may well still be) a special school - I visited there a couple of times some years ago now. Parky, I wonder if you would mind cotacting me directly by email when you have a mo, addy is on my profile. ty

[The Parksider]

Tomel wrote: Yes I do remember that bridge. The bank of the stream was very sandy and steep and I remember a large tree with a rope suspended from it which we used to swing over the stream on. Poring over old maps and trying to get the logic side of my brain working, the bridge to nowhere we both remember on the small beck near asket hall was probably built by the quarrymen and/or builders of the hall.Old maps show a sandstone quarry roughly on easterly road by the bottom on Boggart Hill. I suspect that Asket Hall a grand sandstone building may have been built from stone quarried in the quarry.A track on the old maps appears to follow now easterley road then turn across to Asket Hill/Hall. So that bridge may have been built to cart the stone from the quarry over the small beck to the hall during it's construction. With builders and quarrymen working in unison popping up a bridge must have been easier than carting the stone all the way round wetherby road and up the steep hill.Further to my Monkey Bridge post today when I said there were some good comments on leodis as regards this, there's a comment on an ariel photo of the Boggart Hill part of the seacroft estate about Ash Bank Farm/house that was the spooky old building on wetherby road above the quarry above Low Wood. Again superb to find someone else with the same memories, but again an idea of why that quarry was there - probably to build ash bank house.Gives a flavour of how to build your stone house/hall/mansion.First locally dig into a hillside to the sandstone strata, second quarry blocks of stone, third use that to build the building. No ringing Marshalls for 40 wagon loads of building stone then.

[Guiseppe]

strawman wrote: Dragging up an old thread, sorry. Anyway, this picture is my house at the moment (my gf's old car is the Focus). Didn't know we had trespassers The house was the old coach house for the Hall. It was converted in 1974 iirc from the 2 houses it used to be to the 3 houses it is today. Sometime in the 80's, I think, all the other houses were built behind it in Ladywood Grange. It was very early in the morning, I'm sure you were all sound asleep! I was trying to get the photo from the same angle as the photo on Leodis, but the garages have been built since so it's impossible to get the same shot.Incidentally, it seems Leodis have updated the entry on that page, so you'll be pleased to know that your house still exists!

[Phill_dvsn]

I've just come across some good photos around Asket Hill before Easterly road was built. I know Chameleon and the other beck busters will find them useful regarding the Wyke beck.Here's a 1930's pic showing there was a ford at Asket hill before Eaterly road was built.http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... _80799502A view of Asket Hill before construction of Easterly Road extension. Wyke Beck is in the centre.http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 9514407You can see Guiseppe's bridge in the distance on this shot.http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... ULLAnother small stream in the area, I think this is what runs parallel to Easterly road.http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 085940**My faves are these two aerial images of Boggart hill, Easterly road and Asket hill areas in the 1960's**http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... AY=FULLAnd herehttp://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIde ... AY=FULLThe full list of pics around the wyke beck and Asket hill areas are herehttp://www.leodis.net/searchResults.aspx?LOCID ... CURRPAGE=2    

[Phill_dvsn]

Another good one for the guess where and what beck boys is here!http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

[chameleon]

Phill_dvsn wrote: Another good one for the guess where and what beck boys is here!http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL Wondering which bit of the various tributeries this one is PHill - not from the farm perchance? Roundhey Grange - we know there is one from Shadwell way and you've mentioned fast water through there....

[Phill_dvsn]

Yes i'd deffo say it's from Shadwell joining the Wyke beck, the small stream that runs parallel to Easterly road, I can't quite place this underground culverted junction there constructing though.    

[Phill_dvsn]

I would have thought that picture was taken from around this area at first.The Wyke beck is behind the wall where that gate is, the stream from Shadwell goes underground in the tree line behind the road sign in the distance. Here's the google street view.http://snipurl.com/ub139    On second thoughts i think the section there building now stands under Easterly road itself. They must have built an embankment over those pipes. It's where that Google street view is though would you agree?

[chameleon]

Phill_dvsn wrote: I would have thought that picture was taken from around this area at first.The Wyke beck is behind the wall where that gate is, the stream from Shadwell goes underground in the tree line behind the road sign in the distance. Here's the google street view.http://snipurl.com/ub139    On second thoughts i think the section there building now stands under Easterly road itself. They must have built an embankment over those pipes. It's where that Google street view is though would you agree? Quite likely Phill. As I remember from the mining cum mill thread, I think we decided there had been two strems, one collecting water from the Monkswoods running along west side of Easterly Road and a larger one which is probably what you heard in the culvert near the Farm, originating from Ring Road and beyond.