Leeds Free School - Anyone know about it?

[jonleeds]

HiI dunno if anyone has ever heard of this but apparently it was a sort of hippy commune / socialist cooperative school that started in the 1960s / 70s and was based around the Woodhouse Lane area of Leeds University. There were also associated communal houses on the streets of terraced housing - Marlborough's / Churchill's and Blandford's to the rear of Woodhouse Lane. I am particularly interested in finding out about this as a friend of mine called Richard Hodgson has recently died and I know his parents were members of this left-wing movement and I'd be interested to find out some more about what it was all about and if anything still exists relating to the Leeds Free School etc. Somebody must know something...

[Dave Mruk]

Just bumping the thread up. I vaguely remember the Free School from the early 1970s. I was at Blenheim Middle at the time. Short-lived, I think the school was some sort of experiment in education. Rumour had it that formal lessons were unheard of such, with the emphasis on a heavy dose of liberalism and no discipline [Yippee]. I also heard something about guitar lessons and music. The school was facing the engineering block at Leeds Uni, between the Eldon and what used to be a book shop opposite the Parkinson Steps. Possibly an old chapel, and on the site where the Quaker Meeting House now stands. Quite close by was Notre Dame School, and another lodge or house where I was told as a kid the PG Tips chimps were trained. I'd be happy to hear about that too [laughs]