Oakwood is a suburb of north-east
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, that lies between
Gipton
Gipton is a suburb of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south.
It is in the Gipton and Harehills ward of Leeds City Council and the Leeds East parliamentary constituency. The separate area a ...
and
Roundhay Park
Roundhay Park in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is one of the biggest city parks in Europe.Only Richmond Park (London), Phoenix Park (Dublin) and Silesian Culture and Recreation Park ( Chorzów, Poland) are larger. It covers more than of park ...
.
The suburb lies within the LS8 postcode and sits within both the
Roundhay
Roundhay is a large suburb in north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Roundhay had a population of 22,546 in 2011.
It sits in the Roundhay ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds North East parliamentary constituency.
History Etymology
Roun ...
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
of
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of l ...
and
Leeds North East
Leeds North East is a constituency which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Fabian Hamilton of the Labour Party.
Boundaries
1918–1950: The County Borough of Leeds wards of Crossgates, Roundh ...
parliamentary constituency
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
.
Etymology
The name itself has fairly simple roots, merely referring to the
species of tree, though the usage of the name for the suburb can be attributed to Oakwood House, a stately home that has since been renovated and turned into a retirement home called Sabourn Court.
History
Roundhay Estate and Oakwood House
What is now Oakwood was originally a small rural area part of the greater
Roundhay
Roundhay is a large suburb in north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Roundhay had a population of 22,546 in 2011.
It sits in the Roundhay ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds North East parliamentary constituency.
History Etymology
Roun ...
estate on the fringes of Roundhay Park and was owned by
George Goodman. Oakwood was part of the
Leeds Rural District, a district containing the then growing estates of Roundhay and
Seacroft
Seacroft is an outer-city suburb/township consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies in the LS14 Leeds postcode area, around east of Leeds city centre.
It sits in th ...
, and was heavily tied to the city of Leeds. The land was sold by Goodman in 1825 to a local wealthy wool merchant family. Soon after the land purchase, Oakwood House had begun construction under the name of Wood End. It is not known exactly when the house started construction but maps show between 1825 and 1847.
The house would change hands multiple times between 1847 and 1865 when it was sold to the Hudson family, who dropped the Wood End name and settled on Oakwood House. By 1867 the house would stop being advertised and surveyed as part of Roundhay as the name Oakwood had also begun to be used for the land surrounding the house. In 1891 much of the land was put up for sale as the Oakwood Building Estate and would form the basis for Oakwood as a settlement.
Development and Growth
The Oakwood Building Estate had led to the creation of Oakwood Parade, a series of terraced buildings extending down modern day Roundhay Road with the first four buildings being completed in 1894. The full parade would not be completed until the 1920s.
[www.leodis.net](_blank)
Roundhay Road no. 492, Fish Bar The oldest continuously occupied shop on the Parade is the Fish Bar, a
Grade II
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
Listed Building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
with an
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
frontage of black glass panels, which has been selling
fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular hot dish consisting of fried fish in crispy batter, served with chips. The dish originated in England, where these two components had been introduced from separate immigrant cultures; it is not known who created t ...
since 1934.
Possibly the most recognisable feature of Oakwood is its clock tower. Oakwood Clock, is a small clock tower that was built in 1904 by
Potts of Leeds
Potts of Leeds was a major British manufacturer of public clocks, based in Leeds, Yorkshire, England.
History
William Potts was born in December 1809 and was apprenticed to Samuel Thompson, a Darlington clockmaker. In 1833, at the age of 24, ...
to the design of Leeming and Leeming and is sited at the bottom end of
Roundhay Park
Roundhay Park in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is one of the biggest city parks in Europe.Only Richmond Park (London), Phoenix Park (Dublin) and Silesian Culture and Recreation Park ( Chorzów, Poland) are larger. It covers more than of park ...
; it was first designed as the centrepiece of
Kirkgate Market, Leeds. After the design of
Kirkgate Market was revised it was considered that this clock would no longer be suitable for the building, and the idea to place it in Oakwood came about. Eight years after it was first built this clock was erected in Oakwood.
[www.leodis.net](_blank)
Oakwood Clock In early 2015, the tower was replaced, with the original clock being kept.
[''Yorkshire Evening Post'' 5 May 2015](_blank)
North Leeds: Oakwood rocks around the clock
Roundhay Garden Scene
Although credited as having taken place in Roundhay, It was in the garden of Oakwood Grange that
Louis Le Prince
Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (28 August 1841 – disappeared 16 September 1890, declared dead 16 September 1897) was a French artist and the inventor of an early motion-picture camera, possibly the first person to shoot a moving picture sequ ...
filmed the Roundhay Garden Scene in 1888, credited as the first motion picture.
[Internet Movie Database](_blank)
Roundhay Garden Scene
Oakwood Grange was demolished in 1972 to make way for Oakwood Grange housing estate
but the adjacent stately home, Oakwood Hall, still remains as a nursing home.
[www.commlinks.co.uk](_blank)
Oakwood Hall
Amenities
On Roundhay Road is the
Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
, a supermarket, currently
Home Bargains
Home Bargains is a British variety store chain founded in 1976 by Tom Morris in Liverpool, England, as Home and Bargain. It is the trading name of TJ Morris Ltd.
History
The retailer was founded by owner Tom Morris in 1976 as a single store ...
(formerly
Netto,
Co-op
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
,
Somerfield
Somerfield (; originally Gateway) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative ...
and
Safeway
Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...
) and several shops and banks. Further down from the Oakwood Boundary is
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
. Oakwood Library sits on the corner of the junction diagonally opposite the Oakwood clock.
Oakwood Farmers' Market
Held on the third Saturday of the month since 15 March 2008 around the Oakwood Clock, Oakwood
Farmers' Market
A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...
has become a regular feature. Organised by local residents in conjunction with ''Roundhay Environmental Action Project''
[www.reap-leeds.org.uk]
Roundhay Environmental Action Project the Oakwood Farmers' Market's goal is to provide quality local produce, some of which is
organic, with ''local'' being defined at produce travelling no more than 20 mi to the market.
[www.oakwoodfarmersmarket.com]
Oakwood Farmers' Market Official website
Receiving
FARMA
''The Farm'' is a reality competition television franchise created by the Swedish producer Strix. Sold to more than 40 countries, ''The Farm'' is one of their most popular formats, including '' Survivor'', '' The Bar'' or ''Fame Factory''. In s ...
accreditation, being the second farmers' market in Leeds to have done so, has meant that the Oakwood Farmers' Market can display the FARMA logo to prove its status as a ''true farmers' market''.
[www.farmersmarkets.net]
farmersmarkets.net
Regular stalls and 'feature' stalls provide a range of local products including:
jams
Jams or JAMS may refer to:
*Plural form of jam, a type of fruit preserve
*Jams (clothing line)
*JAMS (organization), United States organization that provides alternative dispute resolution services
*The JAMs, former name of The KLF, a British band ...
, meats, eggs, chocolates, bread and wide range of locally grown fruits and vegetables.
Seasonal holidays are celebrated with local musicians, artists and performers.
Associated areas and boundaries
While the
A58 Easterly Road is often used to denote the border between Oakwood and Gipton, as seen with the city council wards and the constituencies, Oakwood does not officially have any boundaries. Because the
LS8 postcode boundary includes
Fearnville, Gipton and
Harehills
Harehills is an inner-city area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north east of Leeds city centre. Harehills is situated between the A58 (towards Wetherby) and the A64 (towards York). It sits in the Gipton & Ha ...
, they are sometimes considered part of or heavily linked with Oakwood. A major example of this is Oakwood Primary School with bares the name yet sits firmly within Gipton.
Despite being two separate areas, Roundhay is the name of the council ward and as such some areas within Oakwood, such as the Post Office and Tesco, refer to themselves as part of Roundhay rather than Oakwood.
Gipton Wood
Gipton Wood refers to either an area of woodland or an area of housing adjacent to the wood in Leeds. The woodland is now triangular, bounded by the Oakwood Boundary Road on the north-east, Roundhay Road on the west and Copgrove Road on the south-east. It is 8.2 ha and part of the
Forest of Leeds.
[Forest of Leeds]
The Woodlands It is an ancient woodland, previously housing a stone aged, bronze aged, and Roman settlement.
Trees are predominantly
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
,
sycamore
Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry".
Species of trees known as sycamore:
* ''Acer pseudoplata ...
,
beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...
and
hornbeam
Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Origin of names
The common English name ''hornbeam' ...
. It was given to the city in 1923 and is now maintained by the City of Leeds and a voluntary group, the Friends of Gipton Wood.
[Community Groups in Yorkshire]
/ref>
Gipton Wood The public house on the opposite side of the road was formerly called "The Gipton" but has now changed to "The Roundhay".
The Roundhay (Pub)
The residential area known as Gipton Wood is south of the wood down to Easterly Road.
Gallery
File:OakwoodBoundaryRd.jpg, Oakwood Boundary Road on the north-east side of Gipton Wood
File:Shops, Roundhay Road, Oakwood, Leeds (17th May 2018) 001.jpg, Shops on Roundhay Road
File:Easterly Rd 5394.JPG, The A58 Easterly Road, dividing Oakwood and Gipton
Gipton is a suburb of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south.
It is in the Gipton and Harehills ward of Leeds City Council and the Leeds East parliamentary constituency. The separate area a ...
File:Coop Oakwood.JPG, Co-op Roundhay Road
File:Oakwood Clock 21 Nov 2017.jpg, Oakwood Clock at night with Christmas Tree
Location grid
See also
*Listed buildings in Leeds (Roundhay Ward)
Roundhay is a ward in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It contains 50 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade II*, the middle o ...
References
External links
Articles by the Oakwood and District Historical Society
Oakwood Primary School
Oakwood Clock webpage
Oakwood Clock Restoration Campaign
{{City of Leeds
Places in Leeds
Clocks in the United Kingdom