Late Victorian Burley-1

Begin (in your imagination, if you don't feel like the stroll) at the little one-lane bridge over the railway on St Michael's Lane, behind Headingley cricket ground, facing Burley. Check the sketch-map on pages 32 and 33 to see where you are. Here, in 1890, only footpaths stretched in either direction: towards Headingley, across the bridge; and towards Burley Hill, where, in the distance, an old quarry road straggled across fields where the Stanmores (built in the 1900's) and the allotments (first established in the 1890's) are now.

It was a combination of many factors that led to the rapid development of the area we see before us. Mills and factories, mainly down by the river, were growing, demanding workers who in turn demanded housing. The population was expanding rapidly. The Cardigan family, owners of most of the land, needed money. And Leeds Corporation were anxious to ease the pressure on housing nearer town, and to help develop roads and amenities out in the suburbs: for at that time, this was the very edge of the city.

So it was that St Michael's Lane and Beechwood Crescent (then known as Beechwood Drive), down which we now turn, were cut through the fields in the 1890's. The land was sold off in small plots, a block or two at a time, to builders. The Beechwoods themselves were built in the early 1900's, a good deal larger than the smaller back-to-backs nearer town and the river, a step up the housing ladder for millworkers and their families, or new homes for teachers, tram drivers and conductors, or office workers. Beneath our feet Burley Beck runs unseen, culverted then, trickling down through the old Village to the river. If the distant sound of the water makes you thirsty, beware: the entire estates were sold off with restrictive convenants to prevent the building of public houses, so you won't find a pub from here almost to Kirkstall Road.

The rough line of Cardigan Lane, reached at the end of Beechwood Crescent, exists on a map of 1711. Until the late 19th Century it was, however, much narrower, and known as Bucktrout Lane (Bucktrout was also the name of one of the early tenants of the Cardigan Arms, early in the 19th Century). On the left, looking down toward the river, was open ground: an old quarry, where sheltered housing now stands, in front of the then Clarendon Cricket ground; and, beyond the road to the little footbridge across the railway, a recreation ground and the remnants of Burley Farm which were, in 1899, transformed by the Corporation into Burley Park. The park included, not merely a bandstand, trees and flowers, recreation areas and sports facilities, but also a sandpit filled with sand brought from Redcar, and renewed at intervals, to give the illusion of the pleasures of the seaside.

Next: Late Victorian Burley-2
Back: ??Origins Of Burley-7
Up to Early Burley