Stourton and Thwaitegate War Memorial - Wakefield Road - geograph

Stourton is a mainly industrial area of the city of

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. The area falls within the City and Hunslet ward of Leeds Metropolitan Council.

Location

The area is to the south-east of

Leeds city centre Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is roughly bounded by the Leeds Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road to the north and the River Aire to the south and can be divided into several quarters. C ...

, between

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the Leeds city centre, city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside (ward), Hunslet and Riverside ward of Lee ...

, the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

and Cross Green in the LS10 postcode area.

History

Until the local boundary changes in the 1970s Stourton was a village in the Rothwell Urban District, attached to the southernmost border of Leeds, and administered by the

West Riding County Council West Riding County Council (WRCC) was the county council of the Administrative counties of England, administrative county of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1974. The council met at County Hall, Wakefield, County Hall i ...

. Stourton dates from the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, and was a community of about 2,500 people with its own churches and pubs, but from the 1970s the housing was demolished to make way for motorways and industrial developments, until by 1990 little remained of the village except its

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

. This memorial to "the men of Stourton and Thwaitegate" lists 75 names from the First World War and 25 from the Second. It was moved from its original site to a new one donated by

Waddingtons Waddingtons was a British manufacturer of card and board games. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and the manager, actor and playwright Wilson Barrett, under the name ''Waddingtons Limited''. The name was changed in ...

in about 1973, when its previous home, St Andrew's Church, Pontefract Road, was demolished. One of the men named on the cenotaph is CQMS Denis Gill MM and Bar,

York and Lancaster Regiment The York and Lancaster Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1881 until 1968. The regiment was created in the Childers Reforms of 1881 by the amalgamation of the 65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of ...

, who was killed in action on 5 January 1944 at

Cassino Cassino () is a ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, Southern Italy, at the southern end of the region of Lazio, the last city of the Latin Valley. Cassino is located at the foot of Monte Cairo near the confluence of the Gari and Liri rive ...

, Italy. He is buried in the

Cassino War Cemetery The Cassino War Cemetery is a war grave cemetery in the commune of Cassino, Province of Frosinone, south-east of Rome, Italy. Of the burials, 289 servicemen are unidentified. Within the cemetery stands the Cassino Memorial which commemorates over ...

Industry

Stourton used to provide electricity for Leeds and the surrounding areas from the Skelton Grange power station until it was demolished in 1995. Its associated substation remains in use however. The site is next to the

Gateway 45 Gateway 45 is an industrial estate and park and ride location on the south eastern edge of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The site was initially developed under the name Temple Green and is located with the M1 Motorway on its southern edge and ...

development and in 2019 it was selected to be a maintenance depot for the

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...

railway. The village was home to some significant industry: John Waddingtons, Yorkshire Copperworks, Camerons Iron Works, Concrete Northern (Bison) were among the larger companies, as well as a not insignificant railway shunting yard.

Freightliner terminal

There is a substantial railfreight intermodal

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...

at Stourton operated by Freightliner (UK). It has eight departures and arrivals on most days, going to and from Southampton, Felixstowe and

London Gateway DP World London Gateway is a port within the wider Port of London, United Kingdom. Opened in November 2013, the site is a fully integrated logistics facility, comprising a semi-automated deep-sea container terminal on the same site as the UK ...

. There is also a thrice-weekly feeder service to Tees Dock, which conveys containers from Southampton services. Intermodal trains to and from Stourton are often used to bring locomotives to the Freightliner Group's Depot at nearby Midland Road in

for maintenance and repair.

References

External links

* Places in Leeds Rothwell, West Yorkshire {{WestYorkshire-geo-stub