There are many ways to review how South Leeds Life reported on the year just gone. We could focus on the most read articles, or what we put on the front pages of the newspaper. Instead we’ve decided to highlight positive stories that we reported on month by month through 2024.
In the month that saw residents debate improvements to the Tempest Road and Dewsbury Road junction, and two former South Leeds councillors made Honorary Alderman of the City of Leeds, for January we picked the inspirational Big Hair Day at New Bewerley Community School in Beeston which included the unveiling of Rise Up by Andrea Cumming, a globe representing the history of afro hair and its links to the slave trade.
Pupils, staff and guests unveil ‘Rise Up’
We reported that The Hunslet Club is set for a large investment to build a state of the art ‘Youth Zone‘ in February. We carry stories about The Hunslet Club most months, and that’s because they have so much going on for young people. We are very lucky to have the club in South Leeds, there’s nothing else like it in the city, so it’s great to see this project moving forward, albeit slowly. The Knife Angel sculpture also appeared outside the Royal Armouries Museum sparking debate about knife crime amongst those young people that visited.
A Youth Zone facility in another part of the country developed by OnSide
In March we took some readers by surprise with the headline Hunslet man buys Kirkstall Abbey, but this wasn’t news, it was one of Hon Ald Elizabeth Nash’s local history pieces recounting the story of how the city came to own the abbey. Unfortunately it’s topical again as the the council plans to charge entry to the site and close the Abbey House museum. From the past to the future and we heard this month that one of the first new tram lines of the West Yorkshire mass transit system would serve South Leeds.
Kirkstall Abbey ruin, Leeds – view through the Presbytery window to the Nave
It was revealed in April that a new sculpture celebrating inspiration women would include the names of least 18 women with links to South Leeds. They ranged from Edith Pechey, one of the first female doctors in the UK, established a dispensary for women and children in Mill Street, Holbeck; to the first female leader of the council Judith Blake; to the Chair of the South Leeds Life board, our own Christine Smart, who was nominated for her work in the Cottingley community. The sculpture in the city centre was finally unveiled in September.
Corton steel ribbons in production. Credit: David Wilson at Fereday Cylinder Co Ltd
May saw local elections with the SDP ousting Labour by taking the third seat in Middleton Park ward, meanwhile parents and carers marched through Hunslet to protest at the potential closure of local nurseries. That month Our Future Beeston and Beeston in Bloom demonstrated how a mucky binyard can be turned into an urban oasis. The binyard on Marley View now features benching to sit on and planters, but still has room for all the bins. It is hoped that other residents will follow the example and create their own communal spaces.
Lord Mayor Cllr Al Garthwaite opened the binyard
One of our ‘Neighbourhood Networks’, organisations set up to support older people, Trinity Network celebrated half a century of service in June. The organisation started as the Over 55s Club at Dewsbury Road United Reformed Church, it started activities at Nesfield Road in Belle Isle in 1982. Since Covid all activities now take place in Belle Isle, but minibuses still bring people from Beeston. The event celebrating 50 years of service was attended by the Lord Mayor, councillors, former staff and volunteers as well as outgoing Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan.
Celebrating 50 years at Trinity Network
In July the new Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy was officially opened in Middleton. The school is named after a former Cockburn School student who won a Victoria Cross during the First World War. Laurence Calvert’s family were present along with the lord mayor and former Middleton councillor, Baroness Judith Blake. The school was built to cater for the growing number of secondary age children in South Leeds and opened in temporary buildings by the St George’s Centre in 2021 before moving into its new home. Later in the month South Leeds charity SLATE celebrated twenty years of success and playing fields in Belle Isle were renamed in honour of local rugby legends Colin and Una Cooper.
David Gurney (CEO, Cockburn MAT), Baroness Judith Blake and Vicky Smith (Head of School) with the first two pupils to be given places at the school
August started with another Middleton opening, this time of Gascoigne House, the council’s extra care flats complex on Middleton Park Avenue. That was followed by another successful junior rugby league tournament at nearby Nutty Slack, the home of Leeds Corinthians. Three thousand people and 106 junior rugby league teams from across the north of England attended the two day festival organised by the Hunslet Rugby Foundation.
Hundreds of young people came to Middleton to play rugby
An important episode in the history of South Leeds was commemmorated with the unveiling of a blue plaque in September. The ‘Battle of Holbeck Moor‘ saw 30,000 local people stop a rally of Oswald Mosely’s fascist blackshirts on Holbeck Moor in 1936. Families of those who there 88 years ago were present alongside MPs and community leaders. The month also saw the announcement that Leeds United plan to expand the Elland Road stadium and that both Middleton Railway and Beeston in Bloom had won Gold awards for their work in brightening the neighbourhood at the Yorkshire in Bloom awards.
Families of those that were on the moor in 1936 at the unveiling of the blue plaque. Credit: Dave Goodfield
There was huge celebrations amongst rugby league fans in South Leeds in October when Hunslet RLFC won promotion to the Championship against the odds. Hunslet were the underdogs facing first Rochdale Hornets, then Keighley Cougars and finally Swinton Lions, all away matches. We look forward seeing what the Parksiders can do in the coming season. Later in the month the locomotive Hawarden returned to Hunslet as it was installed at Middleton Railway having been built down the road by Hudswell Clarke & Co in 1899.
Players celebrate promotion with fans at Swinton
South Leeds was touched by royalty in November as The Princess Royal visited Beeston bedmaker Harrison Spinks. Then it was announced that Middleton Elderly Aid (another Neighbourhood Network) has been awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE. Over 50 volunteers help the organisation provide a busy timetable of activities and services to the over 60s in the area.
Volunteers with the King’s Award certificate
December saw a host of heartwarming pre-Christmas stories including the toy collection at Holbeck Moor JFC which was delivered to Leeds Children’s hospital; Cottingley Primary pupils serenading shoppers at the White Rose; festive cheer spread by Holbeck Together; and a charity collection at Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy for the Leeds Shoebox Appeal. And finally, on a more sombre note, we reported on the public inquiry held determine whether a historic footpath in Beeston should be closed and diverted.
Pupils from St Luke’s Primary sing at the Holbeck Together Christmas Lunch
Like many other issues we will discover the outcome of that last item in 2025, when we look forward to bringing you your local, community news. Remember that you can help us by sending in articles, or by suggesting things that you think we should report on.
Happy New Year.
Main photo: Christine Smart, Lynn Bailey and Pat McGeever, three of South Leeds’ inspiring women, at the unveiling of the Ribbons sculpture
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