Leeds in the 1870s

[Dakota]

That's an amazing aerial image. You all can't believe how grateful I am to you for what you are offering to me - I've gotten such a better image in my mind of what the "greats" lives were probably like and I've been going to the various web-sites that everyone has suggested and really appreciate everyone's interest in this.If anyone ever wants to know about Dakota Territory or Sioux Falls, SD in particular, I'm your girl.......sadly that's about all I can offer in terms of knowing an area.

[Si]

Here's another Leodis aerial, dated April 1966. It's from farther away, looking north, and depicts a large area of east Leeds. The cemetery is the dark rectangle near the top, above the extensive "slum" clearances.    

[Dakota]

I definitely need to do a trip to Leeds and other places around there to really "soak it in". Thank you so much

[dogduke]

http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 2008528_If you look at this one from Leodis it only showsa small section of the cemetery but you can see the numberof graves there.Bear in mind that some of these arelarge graves with several peoplein them.

[dogduke]

Si wrote: I found a nice aerial picture on Leodis of St James's Hospital. The cleared site of Glebe Street can be seen to the left of the cemetery. I'd guess this was taken in the 1960s? The clearence area shows structures remaing on the main road -Beckett Street,these are 'The Cemetery Tavern'later to become 'The Florence Nightingale' and 'The Fountain Head'The Fountain is still there for the time being,the 'Florrie'was destroyed by a gas explosion about 3 years ago,fortunatlely the pub was closed waiting new management.During slumclearence many pubs were left isolated in some areas.Only a limited number of licences to serve drink were allowed so the pub remained open until a new one was built elsewhere and the licence transferred.

[compton]

This may be of interest to readers of this thread, from about 1952 to 1957 I lived with my grandmother at 9 Shakespeare Terrace, this was a one up one down back to back, and the toilet was halfway down the street in a seperate yard and shared with one other household. The house had one tap, no hot water, gran. used to keep a pan of water in the oven of the blackleaded yorkshire range and that was our constant hot water system, there was also a swiveling hob to keep a kettle over the fire. There was also a cellar to the house for coal and also where milk and butter etc. were kept on a stone table for cooling. Regarding St. James,s, my gran was terrified of the place and always referred to it as the workhouse, which it was when she was a girl. The map of Becket St. cemetary shows a wooded area at the bottom right, when I was a child it had a very low iron railing around it and no graves to be seen, it was known as the cholera pit and supposedly not allowed to be disturbed as the victims of the cholera epidemic were buried there, (anyone confirm?). I attended Becket street school at this time and played on the rec. I never understood why it was called the wreck, it seemed o.k. to me, but as a child didn,t know the word recreation, laiking mebbe.    

[compton]

I forgot to mention for Dakotas benefit, as I remember, Glebe street was one of the better streets and was the type where foremen and lower managerial classes lived.

[cnosni]

Dakota wrote: Thank you - the children are:George Wells, died of Pertussis Convulsions on March 20, 1868Ernest Wells, died of water on the brain on August 18, 1871William Wells, died of spina bifada on March 18, 1872I appreciate any info you can find on their graves.Thank you again. Hi DakotaSorry for delay in replying,have been busy outside looking at a strange orange coloured ball of light in the sky,damn U.F.O;sAnyway here goesGeorge Wells is burial number 24654,buried in grave 5376 with 21 othersErnest Wells is burial number 33114,buried in grave 4164 with 14 othersWilliam is burial number 34163,buried in grave 8709 with 9 others.I do have a plan for the burials at Beckett Street but i dont have the means to post them here,its on a cd rom by the Leeds Indexers,its a copywrited pdf document.There is no guarantee that there wil be any headstones either decipherable or inded still in existance.

[cnosni]

compton wrote: This may be of interest to readers of this thread, from about 1952 to 1957 I lived with my grandmother at 9 Shakespeare Terrace, this was a one up one down back to back, and the toilet was halfway down the street in a seperate yard and shared with one other household. The house had one tap, no hot water, gran. used to keep a pan of water in the oven of the blackleaded yorkshire range and that was our constant hot water system, there was also a swiveling hob to keep a kettle over the fire. There was also a cellar to the house for coal and also where milk and butter etc. were kept on a stone table for cooling. Regarding St. James,s, my gran was terrified of the place and always referred to it as the workhouse, which it was when she was a girl. The map of Becket St. cemetary shows a wooded area at the bottom right, when I was a child it had a very low iron railing around it and no graves to be seen, it was known as the cholera pit and supposedly not allowed to be disturbed as the victims of the cholera epidemic were buried there, (anyone confirm?). I attended Becket street school at this time and played on the rec. I never understood why it was called the wreck, it seemed o.k. to me, but as a child didn,t know the word recreation, laiking mebbe.     The cholrea bit would seem to match up with a cholera hospital on the sight of old Shakespeare schools all weather pitch,Si will have a picture,a map and of course schematics ready to hand,clever so and so

[Dakota]

cnosni - thank you for finding them. Do you or anyone else have a sense that since they were buried in a common grave whether or not at the time there would have been the ability for any type of a service, or were the bodies just taken away and placed in the common graves without any fanfare or fuss? Also, do you know what the custom at the time would have been for a memorial service, or would a family just have the minister in to the house to say a few words, or would they just suffer in silence? I think of it in today's terms when we use the memorial service or funeral as a way to say goodbye and was just curious as to what the custom might have been back then, particularly for the lower income. Any thoughts about this would be welcome.