GARFORTH TODAY HOUSING CHARACTER ASSESSMENT Introduction, Historical background and over-view Page 2 Area 1 - West Garforth Page 10 Area 2 - Church Garforth Page 17 Area 3 - Fairburn and Longmeadow Estates Page 21 Area 4 - East Garforth Page 26 Area 5 - Lotherton Industrial Estate Page 29 Area 6 - Oak Estate, Station Fields, The Crescent and The Oval Page 33 Area 7 - Main Street and Barrowby Lane Page 39 LAND CHARACTER ASSESSMENT Map of Areas Surveyed Page 51 Area Reports Page 51 to 66 Page 1 Garforth Housing Character Assessment Introduction This assessment attempts to record and express the character of Garforth as evidenced by the buildings, streets and pathways, topography and visual appearance of each area of the township. The origin of the name ‘Garforth’ is a choice between two accepted possibilities, both based on Norse roots. The first part comes either from ‘geirl’, meaning a triangular piece of land or from the name of a man, ‘Geir’, ‘Ger’ or ‘Gaer’. The second part refers unequivocally to a ford. The stream forded is today known as Sheffield Beck and was later bridged near that point – hence Garforth Bridge. The entry in Domesday Book (1086) was ‘Gereford’ and this or ‘Gerford’ was the way it was spelt during the 13th and 14th centuries. In the 15th century it became ‘Garford’. In 1559 it was ‘Garfurthe’, in 1603 ‘Garfurth’ and, finally, since 1632, ‘Garforth’. Wakefield Road Milestone Between 410 A.D. and 627 A.D. Garforth was a settlement of about 1000 acres in the Kingdom of Elmet just off The Magnesian Limestone Ridge - “The Cliff”. In 1086 A.D., according to the Domesday Book, there was a church and a priest and the village was worth 30 shillings. During the Middle Ages, Garforth was still a group of small settlements, cultivated by the customary strip method, evidence of which can still be seen in Glebelands. The population during the 14th. Century (1387) was recorded as 49 persons over the age of 15. Although some mining had been carried out previously, until the 19th century, Garforth was primarily agricultural and gained a reputation for soft fruit production, notably for strawberries and rhubarb. Since the 13th. Century, coal was being won from ‘bell’ pits or surface ‘picking’, but mining was of little significance. The Industrial Revolution gave rise to an extra-ordinary demand for coal and the Enclosure Act of 1810 extinguished Common Rights allowing land-owners to exploit the mineral resources of their property. In 1723, the Gascoignes, who, incidentally, never lived there, owned 75% of Garforth and in 1729 they claimed the lordship of the whole. They were therefore in a good position to take advantage of the economic and legal situation. Mining was an important factor in the first significant population growth in Garforth and in the development of the settlement. In 1830 the population was 782. In 1833 the Isabella Pit was opened and by 1840 the population was 1195, an increase of over 50% in ten years. East Garforth owes its existence to this pit, around which a new community, with its own school, developed. In 1843, the Sisters Pit was opened and a similar development took place around it in Moor Garforth. Sisters Villas and Kensington Terrace date from this era. In 1899, Door Detail when the Trench Pit opened, the population was 3224, an increase of over 160% in 50 years. The rows of terraced housing which were built towards the end of the nineteenth century are evidence of the need to house the workers involved in this expansion. Examples can be seen in Lyndon Avenue, Barleyhill Road, Strawberry Avenue, Beech Grove Terrace, Poplar Avenue, Lidgett Lane, Ash Terrace and Newhold. The same Enclosure Act which benefitted the land-owners enabled agriculture to be less labour-intensive and therefore much of the increase in population was due to unemployed farm labourers from the surrounding area coming into Garforth to work in the mines or supporting occupations. The Crescent and The Oval, established in 1922, were probably the last houses built to accommodate the mining community. In 1922, the Sisters Pit closed, followed by the Isabella Pit in 1925. Although mining continued in the neighbourhood, notably in Micklefield and Ledston Luck, it ceased completely in Garforth with the closure of the Trench Pit in 1930. Apart from the terraced houses which remain scattered throughout Garforth and the Welfare Hall, there is little evidence of its mining past. Now that the last pithead building, the Trench Winding Shed, has been demolished to make way for the Roundwood Wakefield Road Terraced Houses, circa 1892 development on Ninelands Lane this year, no industrial building linked with Garforth's mining past remains. The only public references to mining are a floral arrangement by ‘Garforth in Bloom’, outside the Academy, with a descriptive tablet and featuring a replica colliery tub, a stone in the churchyard, marking the grave of a 15-year-old boy, killed in an explosion in Page 2 Garforth Pit in 1856, and, in St. Mary’s Church, a tablet erected by miners in memory of Isabella Gascoigne. There are links in the names of the Miners public house, Isabella Road - named after the pit, not the lady - and, of course, the local football team, The Miners. In the 18th. century, Garforth was in the form of three distinct parts, namely the hamlets of West Garforth and Moor Garforth and the parish of Church Garforth, separated by numerous arable and grazing fields, The Victorian terraces, scattered throughout Garforth, are indicative of its existence as separate settlements and are also evidence of the expansion which took place because of the development of mining on an industrial scale from 1830 onwards. East Garforth, as such, did not exist before then except as fields. It is only in the last 70 or so years, however, that these separate parts have been joined together by housing estates and infill. The closure of the mines did not stop the expansion of Garforth. People were forced to look for other kinds of work in and around Leeds, where employment was available in heavy engineering, printing and tailoring. Garforth’s location made it attractive to outsiders who were also seeking employment in the neighbourhood and the village started to become a commuter settlement. In 1936, a council survey reported severe over-crowding and a housing shortage and the solution adopted was to build the first council social housing estate. This is the Oak Estate and these properties provided modern facilities, such as indoor toilets and bathrooms, front and back gardens, at a reasonable rent. It must be remembered that, at that time, most people did not own their own home and to pay rent, either to a private landlord or to the local authority, was the norm. No significant further growth took place until 1950 when access to the M1, M62 and A1 made Garforth attractive to commuters and businesses, particularly in the distribution sector. The series of housing estates, started in 1930, increased substantially in the 1950's into the 60s,70s,80s and continues to the present day. Each estate has its own characteristics, depending on the economic situation, the current mood and style at the time of development. In addition to the housing estates, the population explosion has been catered for by in-filling with single or small groups of modern houses between the older buildings, sometimes with remarkable ingenuity. Garforth was, at one point, the fastest growing settlement in the country and was documented in the press across Western Europe. The Grange and Fairburn Estates were regarded as the largest housing Alandale Crescent - 1950 estate developments in Europe at that time. Although Garforth has its origin as an ancient settlement, there is nothing of its ancient past to be seen today. The local stone is limestone which, although much used in mortars and plasters, etc., is not itself a durable building material. Most houses and buildings in Garforth were made of brick – over-whelmingly, red - since stone would have to be brought in from elsewhere. The most notable old building of stone is St. Mary’s Church (1844). A clay quarry and brickworks occupied a site where Halliday Court now stands. The bricks, manufactured by Marshall’s, were reputed to be of high quality. The oldest structures that still exist today in their original state would appear to be the milestones on Wakefield Road and on Aberford Road and that at the Selby Road (A63)/Ninelands Lane junction. These date from the opening of the Turnpike Road, no earlier than 1735, and may be replacements for earlier stones or, in fact, the original stones fitted with cast-iron facing. East Garforth Boundary Stone The Gaping Goose Inn The oldest remaining building in Garforth could well be the Gaping Goose Inn which pre-dates the turnpike road but has been considerably altered. Many towns and villages have a church which goes back to Norman times but Garforth's earlier church was demolished and replaced in 1844. This replacement church is the only listed building in Garforth that is actually a building. The other listed ‘buildings’ are the 3 milestones mentioned above, the footbridge at Garforth Station, the road bridge in Aberford Road and the railway bridge in Barwick Road. Page 3 Over the years, Garforth had several Lords of the Manor but the most important were the Gascoignes and their influence affected every aspect of its development – Industry, Housing, Education, Welfare and even Religion. Garforth had a Parish council until 1908, when it became Garforth Urban District Council. In 1939, this expanded to take in Kippax and Allerton Bywater.