Exactly where is your village in Leeds?

[The Parksider]

Born on the seacroft estate it was always a pleasure to walk over to seacroft village green, with the village pub, the village church the village "stately home" the village shop and the village cottages sprinkled around.Leeds started quite small then went up to swallow a score of old villages and Hamlets.Seacroft is so easy to recognise as the village it was, even today. Elsehwere is not.What is left of your local original village or hamlet? can you pinpoint it's centre?? How old is what is left???

[simonm]

Although I have lived in Armley for the majority of my life, so far, I wasn't born here. Although that being the case, I consider Armley to be my "home" as it were.Armley has been around since the writing of the Doomsday book and was called "Ermerlai" The origin of the place name is uncertain, but probably a personal reference to someones land, ie, Earm (a)s woodland glade or clearing, Lai being the said woodland glade or clearing. The main track way / Route through Ermalai was the North / South route and pretty much along modern day Canal road today, from burley, up through Armley town st and up towards Bramley.Not much ref till around the mid 1700's when a "modern" Map was produced that shows Armley Town st as Armley Gate. The layout then hadn't changed much from the medievil layout, comprising long strips of land with small homes built on the edge of fields. The main one still in it's original layout can still be seen today, Hall Lane. Armley was a village that was part of a rural farming community, until the building of the Leeds Liverpool canal, then things went balistic, in terms of industry.Armley Mills was the main industrial site of the production of Wool and a mill, of sorts has stood on the site since the early 16th Century. Origianlly a wooden shed operated and owned by the saville family and rented to Richard Boothe. The mills were called Armley Millnes at the time. The founding father of the Mills from 1788 was Colonel Thomas Lloyd who turned it into the world’s largest woollen mill. Lloyd was a cloth merchant who prospered and had risen to Deputy Lieutenant of the West Riding and Commander of Leeds Volunteer Infantry.Although the mills prospered, Colonel Lloyd agreed to sell the mill to Benjamin Gott in 1804, but in November 1804 the mills were nearly destroyed by a fire. Benjamin Gott re-built the mill with materials that were fireproof (brick and iron wherever possible). The mill, which replaced the old mill, still survives today. Benjamin Gott became a major figure in the history of Leeds and its Woollen Industry. He also became very active in local politics as he became Mayor in 1799 and was a Patron of the Arts.Between the mid 18th Century and the very early years of the 20th century, population went from around 1500 to over 30,000. And the housing had to cope, hence the massive building of back to back houses, which followed the old filed and land plot system (tofts). This layout can still be seen today. Due to the massive rise in population from the mills and other industry, ie, the steel works / forges etc, the demand for consumer goods. This proliferation of shops built up along the north south road to Bramley and became the Gate into Armley, ie Armley Town street. There never really was a centre, as such, but a lot of historical bulding still stand, Armley towers (at the top of town street), Charlie cake park, Armley moor comon land, Armley mills, Armley fold, but the most important reference to it's origins of the history of Armley is it's layout. By the mid 19th century Armley was incorporated into the city of Leeds as a borough.Armley has a history of over a thousand years, that we know of, but it goes back a lot further. Bronze age axes have been found on what is now Armley park. St Barts stands on a pre medievil chapel site. We have our own Botany bay (already mentioned on SL) where wool from Australia was unloaded. Lots more that could be said, but this post is long enough and i'm pretty sure most will not see the end cos they'll fall asleep by paragraph two.     

[exiled in essex]

I was born in 1972 in Scholes and lived there until 2006. It's still very much a village (no village green though) and the people of Scholes have fought to keep it that way. How long it will remain that way is anybody's guess though as I believe the council have been wanting to build around it for years. It used to be protected by green belt land but I'm not sure if that is the case any more.

[Chrism]

I read it all SI, I was born in Armley in 1958 at Arksey Terrace just behind the old Roberts Factory on Canal Road. We then moved to Hope Grove, the Hopes were just before Armley Park on Armley Road. Then we emigrated over the Pennines for 3 years and moved onto Mistress Lane in 1965. I stayed there until leaving home at 18 and moving to Burley. Where I spent most of my adult life. I moved to the City Centre in 96 and then came to the Midlands last year!

[jf]

If you overlay the earliest 'modern' style map (from around the 1850s) on a modern map or aerial photo of an area it can surprise you with what is still there, often disguised behind rebuilt frontages or rendering. Armley has plenty of old bits, hidden away and sometimes forgotten. Things like boundary walls are often left unchanged when buildings are demolished and rebuilt.

[simonm]

Aye, of the original "village" there are still lots left, but I would have still been typing now. A walk through the Hall rd area see's old house gate posts. No house left, well not the original house, but the gateposts are still there. Lots of little nuggets like this all over Armley. such a shame that it has been allowed to go downhill, but it's looking good with the new West Leeds Gateway plans.    

[The Parksider]

simonm wrote: Although I have lived in Armley for the majority of my life, so far, I wasn't born here. Although that being the case, I consider Armley to be my "home" as it were.Lots more that could be said, but this post is long enough and i'm pretty sure most will not see the end cos they'll fall asleep by paragraph two.      Extremely interesting post. Some of the stone built places look old especially on the armley road near the two pubs.

[The Parksider]

jf wrote: If you overlay the earliest 'modern' style map (from around the 1850s) on a modern map or aerial photo of an area it can surprise you with what is still there, often disguised behind rebuilt frontages or rendering. Armley has plenty of old bits, hidden away and sometimes forgotten. Things like boundary walls are often left unchanged when buildings are demolished and rebuilt. That's what I'm after. Pinpointing the really old bits of these ancient villages, hidden amongst the relatively modern victorian industrial revolution stuff.In Cookridge apart from the obvious Hall and Smithy we have the old woodsman's and gamekeepers cottages that today are set back from Tinshill Road and hidden by the modern houses. You can just see them down the tacks that lead to them.........either side of Kirkwood Drive

[The Parksider]

simonm wrote: A walk through the Hall rd area see's old house gate posts. No house left, well not the original house, but the gateposts are still there. I'll have a look - anything else?

[Dalehelms]

Guiseley has the old Town Well and also The Stocks.