Cobbled streets in Leeds.

[volvojack]

I believe it's paviors rather than pavors and I remember years ago there was a bunch of Irish lads who did this work of laying or replacing cobble stones, they were reputed to be the best around and every Saturday morning they would assemble in the Beech Pub on Tong Road where their Ganger ( boss) would pay them. He had them contracted out to the Leeds Council and other Councils around especially small towns like Morley, Batley etc. that had mainly cobbled streets

By 3.30p.m. between Tetley's Bitter and William Hill's betting office just up Tong Road sadly some of those grafter's did not have a lot of wages left.

[Leodian]

I believe it's paviors rather than pavors and I remember years ago there was a bunch of Irish lads who did this work of laying or replacing cobble stones, they were reputed to be the best around and every Saturday morning they would assemble in the Beech Pub on Tong Road where their Ganger ( boss) would pay them. He had them contracted out to the Leeds Council and other Councils around especially small towns like Morley, Batley etc. that had mainly cobbled streets

By 3.30p.m. between Tetley's Bitter and William Hill's betting office just up Tong Road sadly some of those grafter's did not have a lot of wages left.

Hi volvojack .

Thanks for that interesting post. Your "By 3.30p.m. between Tetley's Bitter and William Hill's betting office just up Tong Road sadly some of those grafter's did not have a lot of wages left" made me .

[trophy]

i remember when valley road in pudsey had a strip of tarmac up the middle with cobbles left at both sides ,for horses ?

[blackprince]

i remember when valley road in pudsey had a strip of tarmac up the middle with cobbles left at both sides ,for horses ?

Sutherland Rd in Harehills was just the same - a strip of tarmac in the middle and a cobbled lane left at each side. It was a hill so maybe it was left for horses to get a grip, although at the time I am thinking of (1953-56) there were very few horse drawn vehicles left. I vaguely remember horse drawn milk floats in the early 50's but apart from that only the odd coal delivery waggon and Rag and bone man used horses. It could also have been an austerity measure not to tarmac the whole road just after the war.

[Cardiarms]

Just relaid the cobbles on one of the broomfield in headingley

[Barwicker]

The items referred to and illustrated in this thread are actually SETTS not cobbles. Anyone who doubts this is invited to read the article in September's issue of "The Dalesman" at page 68. The article also explains the difference between a cobble and a coble.

[warringtonrhino]

during my weekly visit to Leeds today I had to visit Oxford Place and Varley Street in Pudsey, both have original cobbles.
Damn! Ive told the cobble thieves were they are

[volvojack]

Worse than that theft is that there are gangs going around the older towns not only stealing the cobbles but setting up red / white fencing and taking away whole strips of flagstones. the house holders are told that new pavements will be relaid but, of course they never are. I understand places like Batley Dewsbury that ave been targeted

[jma]

After recent reports of thefts of pavements by people posing as official contractors, this caught my eye - it's Wellington Street, Morley.

Wellington Street.JPG (217.51 KiB) Viewed 2648 times

For anybody unfamiliar with the area, it runs along one side of Morley Town Hall.

Was this pile of stones ready for a quick getaway, I wondered. (On your marks, get sett, go! )

Pile of stones.JPG (232.3 KiB) Viewed 2648 times

The only ... er ... concrete evidence that the civic heritage wasn't being stolen from under our very feet was that some of the flags had already been replaced and repointed. Here are some of the stones which formed the carriageway ready to be re-laid.

Work in progress.JPG (228.23 KiB) Viewed 2648 times

The carriageway here was certainly in a sorry state of repair when Leeds City Council agreed to fund this restoration work. I've not managed to attach a fourth picture with some detail of the damage, so I may try again with that later.

I do wonder about this work being done at this location. Morley Town Hall is an important civic building, but most of its setting has been destroyed by modern retail developments. Wellington Street is now just a side street, serving only as a bus route and with little other purpose. Indeed, it's almost half a century of relentless use by buses that has so obviously wrecked the surface of the carriageway. Although the bus services have been re-routed for the period of the works, they will return here afterwards, I understand, so the reinstatement may soon be starting to deteriorate. I imagine the skills to do this type of work, especially relaying existing stones rather than replacing them with all new evenly matched materials, must be disappearing, like so many old crafts.

[Leodian]

They are very interesting images jma .

Your "On your marks, get sett, go! " made me smile. The blocks could perhaps be said to getting 'sett in stone' .