Meanwood

Tunnel How Hill, north of the Stonegate Road, "was reputed to be the highest point in Leeds." A folly in the form of a ruined castle stood there from the 18th century until 1946, dedicated to King Alfred.[3] Some streets adjacent to the hill are named after King Alfred.

The hill was formerly known as Pen-how-fyn, and a hamlet below it was Paenfynaen (where fynaen means settlement). It was referred to as Penny Fun in the 19th century and several houses in the vicinity used the name.[4] The 1850 Ordnance Survey Map labels the settlement as Pen-y-ffynon.[5] A public house in the Moor Allerton District Centre was called the Penny Fun until 2020, when it was renamed.

Sugarwell Court

Former Baptist School

The 1841 census listed 144 houses, including Carr House (Carr Manor), Meanwood Hall and Whalley House (now demolished). Most properties were stone cottages, now gone, with the exception of a few houses on Monkbridge Road. Hustler's Row remains as a group of 1850 stone cottages named after John Husler, a quarry owner.[6] To the west along the road towards Meanwood Park are some houses built for tannery workers and the Meanwood Institute, built about 1820, but opened as the Institute in 1885, a Grade II listed building.[6]

Sugarwell Court on Meanwood Road, is the former Cliff Tannery, an 1866 Grade II listed building converted into a university hall of residence.[7] Nearby is a former Baptist school, a brick Grade II listed building dating from about 1886.[8]

Meanwood Tannery blue plaque

There are a number of 19th-century industrial buildings in Meanwood Valley along the Meanwood Beck, and 19th century terraced housing on the valley side leading to Headingley, Weetwood and Woodhouse, along with an area of woodland known locally as the Ridge.

New estates have been built with grand, suburban housing, the Woodleas, the Stonegates and the Bowoods. 20th century council housing mixed with open space forms the opposite side of the valley leading up to Scott Hall. There is a shopping centre opposite a Waitrose Food & Home store on Green Road, near the site of a tannery which is believed to date from 1700.[1]

Meanwood Hall

Meanwood Hall is a grade II listed building. It was built about 1762 for Thomas Denison, extended in 1814 for Joseph Lees, and further developed in 1834 for Christopher Beckett. In 1919 it was bought by the city council to form the nucleus of Meanwood Park Hospital which accommodated men, women and children with learning disabilities. It served the city of Leeds and other areas of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and at its maximum extent in the 1960s had 841 beds. After the hospital closed in 1997, the hall was converted to housing, and further housing developments now fill the hospital grounds.[9][10]

Meanwood Towers, in 2017

In the middle of an estate of inter-war semi-detached houses behind Stonegate Road stands a Victorian Gothic house, Meanwood Towers. Designed by Edward Welby Pugin, and built in 1866-67. A private house, it was commissioned by Thomas Stuart Kennedy and was originally called Meanwood House. Kennedy commissioned the German organ-builder Edmund Schulze to build him a pipe organ. In 1869, it was installed in a specially-built 800-seat wooden concert hall or 'organ house'.[11] After eight years, there were problems with the organ house and the Schulze organ was loaned to St. Peter's Church, Harrogate and two years later, in 1879, it was sold and presented to St. Bartholomew's Church, Armley.[6][12] In keeping with its grand design, the house was built with tall chimneys, but in 1969 these were shortened for safety reasons.[6] Most of the original house survives, but converted into flats.

Carr Manor was a 17th-century manor house sometimes known as Carr House. It was greatly extended 1880-81 by architect Edward Schroeder Prior for Thomas Clifford Allbutt.[6] It was used by the City of Leeds as a residence for judges during trials at Leeds Crown Court,[6] but is now private dwellings.[13] Carr Manor gives its name to a 1950s estate of private houses[14] and a primary and high school.

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  Carr Manor House
• 
  Carr Manor estate 1950s private houses
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  Carr Manor Walk later residences
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  Carr Manor Community School

Early photographs show the Model Farm, which occupied the hillside, with fields in which rhubarb was grown.[15] The area also hosted Sugarwell Hill Mill which had a distinctive round chimney.[16]

Farm Hill estate

In 1919, 80 acres of land to the south of Meanwood, close to Woodhouse Ridge, was sold by the Model Farm to Leeds Corporation. The Farm Hill housing estate was developed on the land. The area was often referred to informally as the 'white houses' because of the colour the concrete was rendered. The estate became a concentration of bad press for Meanwood very quickly. Most of the original houses were demolished in the late 1980s and many of the residents were moved to the Beckhill estate. The opening credits to police drama Parkin's Patch began with a scene shot at Farm Hill.[17]

View of Farm Hill Way and Boothroyd Drive, showing the Model Farm towards the bottom left. Meanwood Cricket Club can also be seen.

The area was redeveloped in 1990 as a series of two- and three-bedroom semi-detached houses and bungalows, around half of which are privately owned. A few of the original 1920s houses remain on the fringes of the estate. The Model Farm, after which the hillside and estate is named, is still standing today (situated off Farm Hill South) with a number of fields used as pasture for horses. Many of the streets in the area are still known as Farm Hill.[18] The estate also hosts the much newer Meanwood Valley Urban Farm. A network of woodland and field footpaths connect the estate to Potternewton Lane, Buslingthorpe Lane and Woodhouse Ridge.

In 2000, a further estate of residential houses was built on the opposite side of Meanwood Road, centred around Boothroyd Drive. Although the Farm Hills and Boothroyd Drive are contiguous, Meanwood Road divides the older and new estates and represents a political and postal boundary. Houses on the Farm Hill have an LS7 postcode, whilst houses on the south side of Meanwood Road have an LS6 postcode.

Woodhouse Community Sports and Social Club is sandwiched between the two developments (despite its name, the club house and pitches are in Meanwood, not Woodhouse). The club hosts cricket (Woodhouse Cricket Club) and amateur rugby league (both Headingley Hawks[19] and Woodhouse Warriors[20]).