Woodside quarry

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sat 16 Jul, 2011 10:48 am

Now that Jon Leeds has saved the newts that live in the quarry spring, it may be a matter of time before this quarry dissapears to become a housing estate.Leeds was jam full of quarries from the massive holes at Woodside and Burmantofts, to small local rock faces quarried to build local houses.Like mining and brickworks, nearly all traces are gone so if you want to wander Leeds last, before it becomes leeds lost it's worth a visit and see if you can't spot the newts.It's supposed to be private an all that but (power to the) local people extensively go biking and dog walking in it and "by popular demand" plenty of access points are available, the safest being from the top end where the quarry road can be walked from there to the works at the bottom.There are remains of what I think are the explosives store (thick brick walls) sawing shed (large stone engine beds and wooden structure) dressed stone compound (lockable for the valuable cut stone) Offices and mess rooms (built in brick would you believe - cheaper?) and the large concrete castings for the crushers and screens that created the sand and gravelThe old pics on Leodid only seem to show the workforce and their delivery vehicles, so a bit of imagination needed. Leodid also shows Whittakers quarry and large processing buildings - anyone know the exact location?

majorhoundii · Post by **majorhoundii** » Sat 16 Jul, 2011 11:34 pm

There are still quarries in Morley. Woodkirk Stone, on Rein Road is still taking block out and sawing it (Morley Town Hall is built of Woodkirk stone) next door Marshalls take sandstone and crush it. Adjacent to both is "the Blue Lagoon" an abandoned quarry where I used to swim as a kid - god knows what made it blue! I wouldn't recomomend swimming today.There are also quarries at Bramhope, and Peckfield (Hook Moor)

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sun 17 Jul, 2011 12:32 am

majorhoundii wrote: There are still quarries in Morley. Woodkirk Stone, on Rein Road is still taking block out and sawing it (Morley Town Hall is built of Woodkirk stone) next door Marshalls take sandstone and crush it. Adjacent to both is "the Blue Lagoon" an abandoned quarry where I used to swim as a kid - god knows what made it blue! I wouldn't recomomend swimming today.There are also quarries at Bramhope, and Peckfield (Hook Moor) Point taken and I am so close to the bramhope quarry although I am not sure they have blown the quarry face in some time? Maybe they are more builders merchants now - I will investigate.

The Doggers · Post by **The Doggers** » Mon 18 Jul, 2011 2:20 pm

I remember a good ten years ago at least, I used to go up there and turn the rocks over, looking for lizards. There were quite a few up there. I believe they were sand lizards, and looked very much like Newts, but were a sandy yellow colour. I caught a bunch of them and took them to Hollybush Farm. Wonder what became of them......

Crazy_Jane · Post by **Crazy_Jane** » Tue 19 Jul, 2011 12:26 am

is Woodside Quarry the one off of Wood Lane nr Smeaton?they've been talking about redeveloping that since at least the 70s, at one point they planned to make it into some sort of park/playground thing?

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 19 Jul, 2011 7:17 pm

Crazy_Jane wrote: is Woodside Quarry the one off of Wood Lane nr Smeaton?they've been talking about redeveloping that since at least the 70s, at one point they planned to make it into some sort of park/playground thing? It's just off west park ring road in the woods by the railway that comes down from Horsforth to Leeds....