THE HISTORY OF BELGRAVE RETAIL PARK SITE by Anthony Silson BSc (Hons) MSc PGCE FRGS

Other articles by Anthony Silson which may be of interest can be found on his website: http://www.alsilson.talktalk.net

Introduction: this article was written in response to a request from local councillors for information about the history of a site awaiting development by Lidl. Therefore, it had to be written with some speed, but I believe it to be correct at the time of writing. Belgrave works were sited between the former Great Northern Railway, linking and , and Stanningley Town Street. The works were not far from Stanningley Bottom. The article illustrates how industrial land use changes over time. In the early 1870s, Pitts and Binner were engineers and boilermakers on Bradford Road. By 1877, this firm had moved to a site bounded partly by Albion Road and partly by buildings along Stanningley Town Street, and established an engineering works which was named after Albion Road. Matthew Pitts was educated at a York boarding school, lived in an up-market house in , and his father was almost certainly the Joseph Pitts who was a partner in Butler and Pitts iron founders on the opposite side of Stanningley Town Street to the then new Albion Works. These works were built on a green field site except for a former quarry on the margin of the site. Pitts and Binner were engineering contractors who made cast and wrought iron bridges, steam boilers and fireproof floors. The firm seemed to be successful, and in 1881 were employing fifty people. However, the firm went out of business in 1899 and the premises were vacant until 1904. In that year, the works were bought by Samuel Butler. He was a son of John Butler sometime owner of the iron founders on the opposite side of Stanningley Town Street. The Albion Works made eighty per cent of the tank plates manufactured during the Great War. In the old quarry soldiers fired German guns and rifles at the plates to test their strength. Armaments were also made during the Second World War. The business continued to trade under the name of Samuel Butler until 1961. In that year, the firm was liquidated perhaps partly because they had not been successful in a job over in Lancashire. Before continuing the narrative about Albion Works, it is necessary to go back to the fag end of Victorian times. Then, Rowland Frederick Winder established a firm of electrical engineers and contractors near the centre of Leeds. In 1903, R.F.Winder was located at Cross Belgrave Street. Winder himself was still living at 7 Delph Street but he shortly moved to 207 Road. The firm installed one of the first A.C. supplies in Leeds and district. In 1912, they bought an electric motor, which had driven a big wheel in a Exhibition, and so commenced an important part of their business: the re-conditioning electrical plant. Winder’s diversified in 1938 by opening a property business. Three things coincided in 1960. The firm needed to expand. Space was not easily available on Cross Belgrave Street. Furthermore, in 1951 an inner Ring Road was planned which would cut Cross Belgrave Street; work commenced on the ring road in 1967. Winders would have to move. During 1961, the large Albion Works became vacant, and so R.F Winder re-located to Stanningley. An official opening of the new works was delayed by twenty years! But in 1981, an opening ceremony was held, and attended by the Lord Mayor of Leeds and the Lord Mayor of Bradford. The ceremony was held in1981 because new offices and manufacturing plant had just been built. Diversification continued with a new venture into commercial property, and into the early computer industry. The business again re-located but this time only moved a short distance to the Grangefield industrial estate. The firm is now called: Winder Power. They moved in 2008, and Albion Works was then unoccupied before being demolished. The site is now awaiting re-development by supermarket firm: Lidl. When this development is finished, the site will have a very different appearance to that which it had when it was occupied by engineering firms.

Main Sources Primary Bramley Poor Rate Book, 1864 and 1870. (WYAS,Leeds) Directories of Leeds and of the West Riding (including telephone directories), 1900-1985. Census’ for 1841, 1851, 1861,1871 and1881. Official Opening of New Premises, Evening Post, 21-10-81. Ordnance Survey maps, large scales, for 1847,1893,1933, 1984, 2006. R.F.Winder Special Supplement, Yorkshire Post, 20-10-81. West Riding Register of Deeds, YL 244 250. Winder Electrical Group, Leeds Journal,December,1988. www.winderpower.co.uk winder power, accessed, 29-02-16.

Secondary Carr E.T. Industry in Bramley, 1938, p.57. Naylor E. Shitten Street, 2008, p.10. Thornton D. Leeds, 2013, p.123.

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