SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Used to go there for picnics in the 50'sWhere is (was) it remember a beck and fresh water spring and warm tomato sandwhichs!!!

See If you go down to the woods thread.

ads wrote: See If you go down to the woods thread. searched for thread no result thanks for the try

This is it:http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Mess ... ssage=25We believe my Grandad's family (of the same name) lived at Beulah House (Farm?) in Tong. Really not sure which was Sykes Wood, though I'm told there was a small sign on a footpath off Tong Lane on the left as you travel towards Tong - does that prompt any memories?

This has come up on Google Earth though on 'Old Maps', it's not called Sykes Wood - wonder if that was a local name given to it?

think that is it got other info re "iron spring" it was like an orange bowl with freezing cold water that bubbled up from the ground and flowed into the beck course we were more interested in the contents of the beck sticklebacks etc but quite smelly !!!

nobbyslass wrote: Used to go there for picnics in the 50'sWhere is (was) it remember a beck and fresh water spring and warm tomato sandwhichs!!! Hi there nobbyslass Sykes Wood is at the bottom of the hill leading up to Tong Village its on the left hand side if you know were Roker Lane meets Tong Road then one entrance is over the road from there.        

I remember Sykes wood very well, living in Armley we used to get to it sometimes by bus, I think up Whitehall road. At the top of the wood nearest the road was an orchard, all kinds of fruit trees grew there. Down at the beck yes I remember the red spring, we did used to drink from it.

The 'Retro' section in today's YEP is about June 1983. In part of a 'The Big Story' piece it reports:-"A 35-ft-deep open air-shaft in a Leeds wood was branded a death trap by firefighters. The old mine ventilation shaft, ringed by a six-foot-high wall, stood in Nan Whins Wood, Tong, Pudsey. Fire crews were called out to the air-shaft after a dog was found at the bottom of the shaft - it was thought someone had thrown the animal in. Firefighters were winched into the air-shaft to rescue the dog". The YEP reported that "Today, only a low ring of bricks stands where the pit once stood and it has been filled in with soil".The piece was accompanied by a copy of the original news report, but the date of that was not given. In that report it states "The old air shaft, one of two in the wood, known locally as Sykes's Wood".

Leodian wrote: The piece was accompanied by a copy of the original news report, but the date of that was not given. In that report it states "The old air shaft, one of two in the wood, known locally as Sykes's Wood". See "Cockersdale watercourses and mills" thread.