SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Anon the mouse said "Also I think Adel is an old place. I assume it was once a village if it is not now.If it was once a village then what was its pub called? My uncle (aproaching 100 yrs of age )once told me that everywhere once -had a church, -and a pub and - possibly a PO".Today I had the pleasure of getting on the construction site where Seacroft Manor (Grange, Lodge whatever) is being renovated, and the old staircase from austhorpe hall is being put back in. Taking in mind anon's comments I looked for the village landmarks they included:-Village GreenManor HouseVillage ChurchRebel Methodist Chapel20 x 18th/early 19th. Century cottagesComplete old farmhouse Original Lion & Lamb pub buildinggatehouse to Seacroft HallBoy is seacroft the most complete suburban village left standing!!How about your nearest local village in the city? What's left of it you can pick out amongst the modern mass that engulfed it?

KirkstallPolice station and public toilets, but only because I read about them on here!

Interesting point ParksiderYou can see and feel it with places like Chapel Allerton and Headingley.Often routine everyday 'names' are so familiar that you don't think about them or understand them.Gledhow has a village feel about it, tho' perhaps bad example lacking focal church etc. The protected woods have allowed it to keep much of it's feel intact.I expect it was a Hamlet using the shops etc ie Village of Chapel Allerton.For me "Allerton Grange" = a school. So Leeds Council's 'Gledhow Valley Conservation Area Appraisal' made interesting reading.>> Crossing the wooded valley is Gledhow Lane, an ancient monastic route between Allerton Grange and Kirkstall Abbey<<

Grange tends to mean a monastic farmstead, either worked by monks or rented out.

Cheers CardieDidn't know that. Ties in, there was Gledhow Grange on Brackenwood Dr which became a Children's Home, all part of same parcel.Looking over a map from Kirkstall Abbey there is/was an almost straight lineKirks Abbey>Shaw Ln>Monk Bridge Rd>Meanwood Aldi>Stainbeck Ln>Gledhow Ln    

Jogon wrote: Cheers CardieDidn't know that. Ties in, there was Gledhow Grange on Brackenwood Dr which became a Children's Home, all part of same parcel.Looking over a map from Kirkstall Abbey there is/was an almost straight lineKirks Abbey>Shaw Ln>Monk Bridge Rd>Meanwood Aldi>Stainbeck Ln>Gledhow Ln     There is certainly a link between the Abbey and Monkbridge Road, although not quite in a straight line - I've pasted below a post I made to another thread (Ginnels of Leeds) about this: Looking at an 1890s map, this footpath also extended in a westerly direction towards the Hawksworth Wood brickworks and quarry (based on field boundaries shown in the 1850s map) with a side path to Moor Grange which was a former grange of Kirkstall Abbey) so it was clearly an important pedestrian route across north Leeds at the time (unfortunately now buried under Lawnswood School and the West Park estate).    Edited to add: picking up on Phill's comment about the Kirkstall monks, this extract from Eveleigh Bradford's book on Headingley links Meanwood, Weetwood and Moor Grange, all places on the footpath:"By 1182 the Abbey was established, and over the following centuries it flourished [...] Within its immediate neighbourhood too, the Abbey slowly acquired increasing property. As well as his initial grant of the Abbey site, William Poitevin gave more land in Headingley where farms (granges) were established to help support the Abbey (Bar Grange, New Grange and Moor Grange) [...] Then early in the fourteenth century, the manor passed form the Poitevins to John of Calverley, connected to the Poitevins by marriage. In 1324 John granted the entire manor to the Abbey, with all its dues and revenues. [...] So the Abbey took control of Headingley and held the manor for the next 200 years, renting much of the land out to tenant farmers. The early records show that by this time a mill had been established there called Headingley Mill, in the field called "Bentlay", next to Meanwood Beck but on the Allerton side. There are references too to a Hall, gardens, granges, named fields, and woods: "Le Meenewude", "Riggeclyf", and the Wetwude", names still familiar today. It is clear that much of the land was enclosed and cultivated or used for grazing, but there was common land too, in particular the Moor, the "mora de Heddinglay", where local people would have been able to graze their animals, cut peat, dig stone, and collect firewood. The name "Monk Bridge" is a reminder of the monks' tenure here: a track across the Moor led to this bridge, built across Meanwood Beck around 1300 to provide access to Abbey lands in Allerton."I wonder if this footpath is the legacy of the track across the Moor? http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messag ... Message=75

The last remanant of Headingley Moor is the field they want to put the trolley bus through.There's not much of 'old' Headingley left. A couple of cottages and Headingley Hall, bits of the Oak and Skyrack. The last vestige of the Green is the garden outside St Michael's Parish hall, the old school.

How about Burley Park? The triangular bit of land here could be a village green but reading through old-maps.co.uk it looks like it was once part of the land belonging to Burley Grange:It has a school, a few churches, a library, a doctor's surgery and a park, and used to have a co-op, a post office, a working men's club. It doesn't have as many pubs as it used to, but the Merry Monk is still open (although that's more Kirkstall). There's also a lot of old lodges around there. I'm not sure what you could define the boundaries as, and it's pretty much merged with Kirkstall and Hyde Park, but it still feels a bit more villagey than some other areas.Horsforth has a town council and used to have an urban district council so I suppose it's strictly speaking a town, but it does feel a bit overstated. I'm told the traditional definition is that a hamlet has a church, a village has a post office, a town has a market, and a city has a cathedral, but obviously a lot has changed since.

Farsley, Pudsey, Rawdon, Calverley. Weren't these areas once villages?

Caron wrote: Farsley, Pudsey, Rawdon, Calverley. Weren't these areas once villages? Not only were these places swallowed up by Leeds, but, in Pudsey's case, Fartown, Lowtown and Chapeltown were swallowed up by Pudsey itself!