Sheepscar Meanwood
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71m ABOVE SEA LEVEL Meanwood Road hosts approximately At rush hour, it’s quicker to cycle than drive. THREE TIMES AS MANY FRIDAYS ARE THE BUSIEST DAY By 2030, projections suggest that the road could be of the total length of the road on 21,000 MOTOR JOURNEYS A DAY. motorists are on Meanwood Road on the road, with over 1000 more carrying 5838 more vehicles per day* – that’s You can walk/cycle TWO THIRDS the trails that run alongside it. That works out as 124,773 a week WALK between 6am and 9am as during the journeys taking place. a whole extra rush hour’s worth of traffic! and 6.5 million a year! whole of the rest of the day put together. CYCLE LONG. The surface area it covers is equivalent to 19 Olympic swimming pools. 2 MILES (3.2km) The road itself is MORE CARS TRAVEL NORTH UP CAR (off peak) +??? Walk the length of Meanwood THE ROAD THAN SOUTH DOWN IT. CAR (peak) On average, there are around 1500 more Road from the old bank at daily journeys towards Meanwood 0 10 20 30 40 Sheepscar to Stonegate Road than towards the city. Travel time in minutes The combined weight of the material that and you will climb a gradient makes up the road structure is approximately The road has 7 PEDESTRIAN CROSSING points. of 35m – roughly the height of If you walk the road from one end to the other, you will have burnt off calories equivalent to 30 JELLY BABIES. 9000 tons – that’s the same combined weight as 45,000 DONKEYS. The longest distance between crossings is 0.9km. 8 DOUBLE-DECKER BUSES. *Road traffic forecasts are illustrative only, and use data from the Department for Transport (Road Traffic Forecasts 2015). In 1829 I was a hairdresser. My premises were at the bottom of the Sheepscar to Meanwood Road. Marc Almond lodged there opposite, with Do you know where the steps come Waitrose supermarket used to be the site of The Capitol Meanwood ‘turn pike’ The theme from the A-Team blaring tinnily from an unseen sandwich van some other young men. They were very nice people. I used to Mam once said her favourite hymn was ‘All in an April down from the allotments? One morning, I I have lived on and in Meanwood Road Meanwood Road is flanked cinema, which closed in 1968. The last film shown was Bonnie road was established down The braying of a donkey like the horn of a distant barge take in parcels for him. His friend used to come over for them Evening’. It was years later I learned why she loved it saw a deer come trotting down on its way for over ten years, I walk the area daily with fields and woodland. Recent and Clyde. After the closure, the cinema became a nightclub the valley to Leeds city centre. The rattle of a discarded spray-can as it clatters down the street with a scarf on his head and pink fluffy slippers! Sometimes so. My brother Arthur was stationed in India during the to the Valley Farm for some breakfast. with my dogs. What I love most is the idea studies suggest that green spaces in called The Cat’s Whiskers and eventually a Mecca Bingo. The name “Meanwood” only The whoosh and whine of a speeding car I used to do people’s hair for free if they had nothing. One of War. He once wrote home very home-sick and said, “The Gilli that I live in a valley set within a busy, urban areas help to improve physical and came into use as the name Or perhaps, depending on the time of day, them used to pay me with a sandwich… Himalayas tonight Mam, are just like Woodhouse ridge on The premises were demolished in 1980 and a GT Smith for the whole village creative, bustling city. I am surrounded an April evening.” Arthur was killed in Burma in 1944. mental wellbeing amongst local people. In supermarket was built on the site. The idling thrum of a stationary traffic jam. Norma 2012, the Forestry Commission attempted in 1847. And, within the middle of it all, by trees and hills. I wake to the sound of Jean Pages From My Meanwood Scrapbook sheep, horses and birds – I could be in the to quantify the monetary value of these The steady call of a mystery bird, spaces. Using their assessment criteria, the With a voice like the squeaking of a bicycle pump. countryside, but a twenty-minute walk and I’m in Leeds City Centre … a unique place When I was about ten, I went health and wellbeing benefits of the land In the ‘50’s, we were sledging – near the Forty-six years opposite the recycling pony trekking. There was a stables on either side of the road, could offer of urban beauty. Wharfedales – and we came down the steep bit. When I was six going down the hill past The Becketts. plant. I’m not overlooked at all. It feels behind the houses. I was quite a savings to the NHS of around I was on my bike. I pitched over and went through a One of the kids must have had better runners like countryside. We have loads of birds large child so I had to have the about £640,000 per year. than the rest of us because he went right out into window and landed on a sofa belonging to a nurse. and squirrels and a fox comes. biggest horse. It was called Copper. Terry People who live in Meanwood, the road and a tram hit him – but because of the I think it was an old police horse. they came from either Woodhouse or fender it just nudged him out of the way. When we went onto the road, the Beeston. The tram went from Beeston Brian I’ve lived my whole life horse bolted and I ended up in the Meanwood is the only place in to Meanwood, so if you were going The hidden allotments. He must have been Leeds where four road (not lane) ends I remember when there were to go for a day out on a Sunday, within a one-mile radius. Biopower Plant The beck – half-hidden in the mist, hungry or something. come together. They are Meanwood trams. The Terminus was up near Meanwood was where you’d go. I grew up at the bottom (Buslingthorpe Green) that The birds – half-hidden by the reeds runs on disused cooking oil Someone got knocked down. One day At the official opening of the refuse disposal Cassie Road, Monkbridge Road, Green Road where Waitrose is. Where the 1970’s Christine of Meanwood Road. we formed a chain across the road. All This place – half-hidden, by the road’s edge shopping centre is, there was a row Now I live at the top. can produce 2 mega-watts plant on Meanwood Road a workman fell to his and Stonegate Road. of power. That’s enough to the neighbours together. The police came. death from the balcony at the top of the 250-foot Pages From My Meanwood Scrapbook of cottages with long gardens. My power half the homes in We were protesting because we wanted a chimney. When the chimney was taken down in dad was the local GP. He was born in Meanwood. zebra crossing – or a pelican crossing with 1978 another man fell and was killed. 1914 and retired in 1988. He had his lights. We got it within a couple of weeks. Pages From My Meanwood Scrapbook own practice next to Maria’s Café. That must be forty years back now. Gilli Terry and Pauline SHEEPSCAR The history and development Every year he has a MEANWOOD of Meanwood Valley is linked very different Santa Claus House prices closely to the presence of Meanwood on his house. I love these things – these lines vary on the road – beck. Although its flow has been much Hannah of desire – where people try and All this were rhubarb fields – increasing as you move reduced, the beck was once extremely powerful. My mum remembers rationing – and make pathways through. from Little London into There were more In ancient times, the water helped to carve out where this farm is now. she remembers, as a child, Prisoners of Betty Meanwood. the valley itself and over the years, it has acted David War working on Meanwood Road. pubs than soft skin. as a water supply, a power source and a sewer for local residents. In centuries past, the beck At the Buslingthorpe end of Sugarwell Hill We live on Farm Hill North. We’ve been there for about provided power for corn mills, paper mills, My girlfriend lived there in 1964/65. There was Years ago the pantomime Cinderella was a favourite Bacon frying, coffee brewing, chemical works and tanneries and the the Beck flows behind what was Mather’s Mill. twenty-five years ... When we first came we had no fence, Warning! Unsafe building! At one time it was a favourite place for boys to an off-licence opposite. I say girlfriend. She was more at Leeds City Varieties. The novelty was that real ponies Fresh tarmac by the roadworks, industrial activity of Meanwood was There’s a café on the road only a hedge. The horses used to get into the garden. Our Dirty white walls bulging outwards like the sides of a ship, go for a swim. There were ten houses behind hopeful than actual.