SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

HiIf there is anyone who can help me in relation to getting information or pictures of what was cud hill pitt (near the woodcock on whitehall road) or its sorrounding area i would be very greatfull, i have lived up there for apx 35 years and my past family used to live on Long Row, the land what is known has Cud Hill Pit is owned by my family and we have details showing the workings on the deeds but no photos, i am aware that it was mined and shiped down to Leeds Fire Clay...any information would be good. Added from duplicated (almost!) thread to consolidate responsesJoined on: 17-Nov-2010 09:39:34Posted: 7 posts # Posted on: 17-Nov-2010 12:49:36.    Edit | Quote If anyone can help me source information and pictures on a pit known as (cud hill pitt) on whitehall road just past the woodcock in farnley it would be a great help to me as i have lived at the disused pit since i was 7 years oldThankyou for any information people may have .

This is all there is on Long Row on Leodis... ...http://alturl.com/28sjw

Chrism wrote: This is all there is on Long Row on Leodis... ...http://alturl.com/28sjw Thankyou for that, i have looked on here before and did come across these, my great grandmother and grandfarther lived on there and next door was my granmother and grandfarther, im struggling to get any information in relation to cudhill pit and ive lived on that site from when i was 7 years old, keep your ears open for me because i have been strugglin for many years for any information and anything could give me a leadthankyou

Hello History, welcome to Secret Leeds.In the late 1940s/early 1950s I lived in New Blackpool, by the Ring Road at Lower Wortley. Much of my boyhood playing out time was spent around "The Forge" as it was known - despite all parental warnings it was a magnet for lads of the time. Despite the passing of over fifty years the Forge is still something of an obsession with me.The site is now the Whitehall Trading Estate. Long Row was built for the workforce of Farnley Ironworks in the 1840s. The Ironworks closed in the early 1920s,and the site was reconstituted as Farnley Fireclay. Leeds Fireclay was the company that worked sites at Cabbage Hill, Elland Road, and elsewhere. I am fairly confident in saying that the mines and dayholes that were liberally scattered over an area between Cockersdale, Gelderd Road, the Ring Road, and the Leeds-Huddersfield railway line would all have been to serve the Ironworks in the first place. Ironstone would have been their primary target, with associated coal and fireclay measures as secondary winnings.The works and mines were connected by a railway starting near the present day Traveller's site by Gelderd Road, which, with a number of subsidiary branches, led across Whitehall Road a little way to the east of the Woodcock. It then crossed Low Moor Side Lane, swung round to the east, crossed Lawns Lane by Barker's Well Farm, and entered the Ironworks site at high level to allow direct access to the furnace bank top so that direct feeding of minerals could occur. I am told, but cannot confirm, that this railway was of narrow gauge. Much of it's route can still be followed as footpaths and cartways. The rest of the Ironworks railways were of standard gauge, being connected to the LNWR Farnleys Branch, a statutory railway built by Act of Parliament.I am reasonably certain that a branch of the narrow gauge railway served the Cud Hill Mine if it was the pit across Low Moor Side Lane, and if that is the case it would be a reasonable supposition that the mine was to supply the Ironworks.I hope this rambling post is of some interest to you.    

jim wrote: Hello History, welcome to Secret Leeds.In the late 1940s/early 1950s I lived in New Blackpool, by the Ring Road at Lower Wortley. Much of my boyhood playing out time was spent around "The Forge" as it was known - despite all parental warnings it was a magnet for lads of the time. Despite the passing of over fifty years the Forge is still something of an obsession with me.The site is now the Whitehall Trading Estate. Long Row was built for the workforce of Farnley Ironworks in the 1840s. The Ironworks closed in the early 1920s,and the site was reconstituted as Farnley Fireclay. Leeds Fireclay was the company that worked sites at Cabbage Hill, Elland Road, and elsewhere. I am fairly confident in saying that the mines and dayholes that were liberally scattered over an area between Cockersdale, Gelderd Road, the Ring Road, and the Leeds-Huddersfield railway line would all have been to serve the Ironworks in the first place. Ironstone would have been their primary target, with associated coal and fireclay measures as secondary winnings.The works and mines were connected by a railway starting near the present day Traveller's site by Gelderd Road, which, with a number of subsidiary branches, led across Whitehall Road a little way to the east of the Woodcock. It then crossed Low Moor Side Lane, swung round to the east, crossed Lawns Lane by Barker's Well Farm, and entered the Ironworks site at high level to allow direct access to the furnace bank top so that direct feeding of minerals could occur. I am told, but cannot confirm, that this railway was of narrow gauge. Much of it's route can still be followed as footpaths and cartways. The rest of the Ironworks railways were of standard gauge, being connected to the LNWR Farnleys Branch, a statutory railway built by Act of Parliament.I am reasonably certain that a branch of the narrow gauge railway served the Cud Hill Mine if it was the pit across Low Moor Side Lane, and if that is the case it would be a reasonable supposition that the mine was to supply the Ironworks.I hope this rambling post is of some interest to you.Thanks Jim,funny enough i work in one of the old building what was once a pair of houses on the top half of whitehall estate and our old building opposite used to be the sheds of the pit ponys where my small workshop still had the hoof prints on the wall, the building im in now my great great grandfarther worked in, my farther told me that under the road surface he had been told they used to be a rail track and only this morning they have been digging up the road and dug up 3 railway clamps that was still attached to the railway sleepers, i managed to get them which im over the moon with    

Hi History. Along with the forge,I also have a long-standing fetish with maps ( oo-er! ) and amongst my collection is a repro. 1893 1-2500 of the site. I once had a very large scale 1920s map of the site which appears to be connected with the change from Ironworks to Fireclay company. I no longer have the original as I passed it to the Wortley local history group, feeling it should go there rather than risk it's future loss. I did have it photocopied for my own use, and to give an idea of its scale it covers about ten A4 sheets. The then function of every building is given, along with lots more interesting info.From the mid 1960s onwards for a number of years probably my oldest friend lived in one of the tiny cottages at the other side of Low Moor Side Lane, just before it swings right north of Long Row, and I visited him there on a number of occasions. We may have unknowingly passed within feet of each other!

I was born on branch road opposite doctor cars surgery, you may know my farther then who owned the land opposite the surgery...he was a builder, he was the chap who bought the old petrol station what once was cud hill pit if you can remmember it been a petrol station, it was Texaco who had it and prev to that it was regent. i used to play as a kid on the fordge and can remmember when the back bit of what now is whitehall estate was dug out, i also used to spent many days playing on the shale hills just up from long row and remmember it catching fire apx 30 yrs ago..it burned for ages after, i used to know a guy who had goats ect on there called Loyd Linsey..if you know him

Hi History, I lived in New Blackpool until the time that the Butterbowl Estate was being built, when we moved to Lincoln. I delivered papers to Branch Road from Hunter's newsagents. I didn't know anyone from New Farnley other than my boyhood friend who moved up there in the late 1960s.

Hi History and Jim,I too was born in New Blackpool---Cow Close Grove-1949Hist. you must have known Squire Broadbent who had a farm squashed between the D & R bridge and Dr Carr on Branch Rd.Squire was his real first name and produced generations of Squires.It was an amazing setup. He had a dairy cows, pigs and poultry all crammed into a tiny yard and still made a handsome quid.He supplied milk all over Wortley and the Kirkdale's and grazed his herd of about 8 mainly in the Daisy field.Kids used to beg to to work for him for free--me included.Jim I also risked life and limb running amuck in the Forge and like everyone else, survived.My great grand father,John Gibson, was a foreman blacksmith/engineer at the Forge and he and a partner invented a device which helped the quick evacuation of sailors from a sinking submarine. This was just before WW2.He showed his plans to the War Office and patent office who immediately confiscated them.Later to his disgust he found out that his invention was credited to some poncy southern aristocrat.It's amazing how you can digress on good old SLSeeya

i do remember the little small holding, it was just ten yards up from our house...No 29 branch road, i spent many hours on the fordge riding bikes and took many risks but am still here lol, i found out last night that it was my great grandfather who used to ship coal from cud hill pit near the woodcock on his horse and cart down towards the line which then transported it to the fire clay. does anyone remember the textile mill heading into gildersome on the left after you had turned left at the woodcock, if so my grandad used to be the manager there and lived in the two little cottages which the mill owned as you turned up into gildersome again on the left, my mothers side come from wortley and my grandma and grandad on my mothers side lived in the flats on the butterbowls.Dont mean to waffle but its amazing who knows who, if anyone has any old photos of the sorrounding area it would be nice to view them