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South Leeds
Life
 
South Leeds
Life
 
SpecialMiddleton Lifeheritage project edition
Middleton’smarvellousheritage
- 28-page special 
Middleton’smarvellousheritage
- 28-page special 
Is
 
sue 4 -July/August 2012
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Issue 4-July/August 2012
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South Leeds Life - Middleton Life project
July 2012
2
www.southleedslife.com
Middleton Life recallscommunity’s history
W
e’ve always known that Mid-dleton has a fabulously richheritage and a fascinatingpast.But it’s been inspiring to see andhear our Middleton Life group mem-bers recount stories of yesteryear andrecall fond memories of bygone times.The passion and commitment of thegroup has been wonderful to see andreaffirms that community spirit is cer-tainly alive and well here!The energy and enthusiasm thegroup brought each week created areal buzz at Tenants Hall.We hope everyone enjoys the won-derful film members have put together,as well as the exhibition at TenantsHall which everyone in Middleton ismore than welcome to come and see.Our thanks to Cockburn School for their help with the stained glass win-dow and to the pupils at Middleton Pri-mary who’ve done themselves proudwith with their wonderful wall hanging!I hope theybring back some fondmemories - and uncover somethingnew for others. But above all I hopeyou enjoy reading about the group’s journey as much as I did.
Sout 
 
h Leeds
Life
Issue 4 - July/Aug 2012
Welcome to this very special‘Middleton heritage’ issue of 
South Leeds Life
, which ties inwith the Middleton Life localhistory projectyou may have readabout in previousissues.We’re devotingour entire issue tothe project, whichrecruited a team of local resi-dents to look into Middleton’srich history.A fantastic display now standsat Tenants Hall Enterprise Cen-tre in Acre Close.Our friends at Middleton Pri-mary School also contributed abeautiful wall hanging and groupmembers have been to Cock-burn School to put together afabulous stained glass window.It’s been a terrific project in-volving a number of differentgroups and has truly broughtMiddleton together.I’ve loved reading the articlesby our community reportersand it’s great to see Miggy’scharacter shine through.We’ve tried our best to ensureeverything’s as accurate as pos-sible, but historians sometimesdisagree with each other! If youspot an inaccuracy, drop us aline - contact details are below.Enjoy the rest of this specialHeritage Lottery-funded issue.We’ll be back with our regular
South Leeds Life
in a few months.
South Leeds Life editor:
JohnBaron
Contributors:
MartinBartholomew, Ada Bosomworth,Cockburn School (Kath Pen-chion, Anna Clapham and Peter Nuttall), Friends of MiddletonPark, Paul Hebden, Valerie Hig-gins, Vera Humphrey, ChristineJenkinson, Lisa Firth,SandraFirth, Mick McCann, Pat McGeever, Carole McKnight,Middleton Elderly Aid, MiddletonPrimary School, Middleton Rail-way Trust, Steve Peacock,Roland Pilling, Alan Shaw, Mar-lene Silverwood, Robin Silver-wood, Pat Smith, ChristineThornton, Frank Wright 
South Leeds Life Magazine is pub-lished by the South Leeds Informa-tion Project, a project managed byHealth For All, a local charity. Any views expressed in this maga-zine are those of the groups/individu-als concerned and do not reflect theviews of Health For All and its staff.We are independent of all politicalparties and adhere to the PressComplaints Commission’s code of conduct.
www.southleedslife.com
Contact us
Te
 
leph
 
one:
0113 2706903
Wri
 
te:
 John Baron, Health For All, Tenants HallEnterprise Centre, Acre Close, Middleton LS10 4HX 
Email:
 southleedslife@gmail.com
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og
 
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ter:
@southleedslife
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by Pat McGeever 
CEO Health For All 
PARK: Middleton Park has a rich history.
Photo by Alex Smith.
INSET: Pat McGeever, Chief Executive of Health for All.
About Middleton Life
A group of current and for-mer Middleton residentshave become local historyreporters and investigatedthe rich heritage of their community.Led by volunteers from thelocal community, the Middleton Lifeproject received £49,600 from theHeritage Lottery Fund (HLF).The volunteers explored the historyof Middleton, focussing on family life,working conditions and the significantchanges in health and medical care ata number of key points in history.The community-based reporters posted their findingson the South Leeds Life blog -
www.south leedslife.com
- and also write for this magazine.They also put together a permanent exhibition cele-brating Middleton’s history at the new Tenants Hall En-terprise Centre, home of Health For All.Fiona Spiers, Head of HLF Yorkshire and the Humber,said:
“Heritage is not all castles, museums and old buildings.Memories, stories and reminiscences are a very popular way of learning about our past. The Middleton Life project will allow local people to investigate and share their experienceswith the wider community.” 
The project was run by Middleton-based charity Healthfor All.
About us
 
South Leeds Life - Middleton Life project
July 2012
3
www.southleedslife.com
 
Park and woods atheart of our pastPark and woods atheart of our past
Middleton Park and Woods are at the heart of Middleton’s industrial heritage. As we’ll learn in this magazine, mining took part in the woods up until 1968.If you look carefully you’ll see depres- sions where the old mines were and old bridleways which were used to move coal.Middleton Railway was set up in 1758 totake coal from Middleton to the city centre - it’s the oldest continuously working railway i n Britain.So you see, Middleton’s got a rich history! 
Par k  and w oodshist or y  in br ief 
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Middlet on Par k  is a r emnant of  t he manor ial est at e w hich ex -ist ed af t er  t he Nor man Conquest . Middlet on is ment ioned in t heDomesday  Book  of  1086. 
l 
T h e  b o w l- s h a p e d   p i t s  f o u nd  i nt h e  w o o d s  ar e  t h e  r e m ai ns  o f  ane ar ly  f o r m  o f  c o al  m i ning  d at i ng b ac k  t o  at  l e as t  t h e  16 6 0 s .
l 
At  t he nor t her n end of  t hepar k  t her e is an ear t hw or k  f r om1204 demar cat ing t he boundar y bet w een Middlet on and Beest on. Lor ds of  t he manor  included t heGr ammar y s, Cr eppings, Leghesand Br andlings. 
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T h e  B r and l i ng s  c l e ar e d  l and and  b u i l t  M i d d le t o n Lo d g e  i n ab o u t 17 6 0 , c r e at i ng  a c o u nt r  y  e s t at e .
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T he Br andlings ex ploit edt he under ly ing coal and w er e r e-sponsible f or  building t he Mid-dlet on Railw ay  t o t r anspor t  t hecoal int o Leeds.
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S i nc e  19 2 0  t h e   p ar k  h as  b e e ni n t h e  o w ne r s h i  p  o f  W ad e ' s  C h ar i t  y w h o  l e as e  i t  t o  Le e d s  C it  y  C o u nc i l f o r  a  p e  p  p e r c o r n r e nt .
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I n  r e c o g n i t i o n  o f  i t s  i n d u s - t r i a l  a n d  h i s t o r i c a l  i m  p o r t a n c e , p a r t  o f  t h e  w o o d l a n d  w a s  s c h e d - u l e d  a s  a n  a n c i e n t m o n u m e n t  i n 19 9 8 .
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F r i e nd s  o f  M i d d l e t o n P ar k g r o u  p  h o s t s  a nu m b e r  o f  e v e nt s t h r o u g h o u t  t h e   y e ar  i nc l u d ing  b and c o nc e r t s , w o r k i ng   p ar t ie s  and  t o u r s .
BLUEBELLS: Middleton Park is renowned for its bluebells.
Photo by Alex Smith 
 
More articles and videos online at:www.southleedslife.com/middleton-life
BROLLIES: A Middleton Life trip in the park.
Photo by Alex Smith 
BROLLIES: A Middleton Life trip in the park.
Photo by Alex Smith 
BELL PIT: Evidence of early coal mining
Photo by Friends of Middleton Park 
MIDDLETON MINER: Possibly the first picture inthe world of a working steam locomotive. It’sdated c1813.BLUEBELLS: Middleton Park is renowned for its bluebells.
Photo by Alex Smith 
Reproduced with permission of Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library Reproduced with permission of Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library 
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