Weetwood is an area between Headingley and Meanwood in north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is bounded on the north by the A6120 (Outer Ring Road), on the west by the A660 (Otley Road), on the east by

Meanwood Beck The Meanwood Beck is a stream in West Yorkshire, England, which flows southwards through Adel, Meanwood and Sheepscar into the River Aire in central Leeds. Different portions of the same watercourse have been referred to as Adel Beck, Carr ...

and to the south by Hollin Lane. Weetwood Lane runs north and south through it. The area lends its name to and sits in the Weetwood ward of Leeds City Council, which is also part of

Leeds North West Leeds North West is a constituency in the City of Leeds which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Alex Sobel, of Labour Co-op. Boundaries 1950–1955: The County Borough of Leeds wards of Far He ...

parliamentary constituency.

Politics

The Weetwood ward for local government purposes includes areas known as

Far Headingley Far Headingley is an area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England approximately 3 miles (5 km) north of the city centre. The parish of Far Headingley was created in 1868. The area is part of the Weetwood ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds ...

(south of the above), West Park (west of the A660), Ireland Wood (north of the A6120), and Tinshill. Its three Leeds City Councillors and the terms for which they are currently elected, are Jonathan Bentley ( Liberal Democrat, 2018–2022), Christine Knight (Labour Party, 2018–2020) and James Gibson (Labour Party, 2018–2019). The population of this ward was 22,375 at the 2011 Census. Weetwood is part of the

parliamentary constituency, and its MP is

Alex Sobel Alexander David Sobel (born 26 April 1975) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds North West since the 2017 general election. He defeated the Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland, wh ...

( Labour Party, first elected in the snap election of 2017).

History

The name (earlier Wetewode) means the wet wood to the west of

.W. A. Hopwood (1981) A ''Brief History of Meanwood'' (self-published in aid of Meanwood Methodist Church organ fund)Ralph Thoresby (1715) ''Ducatus Leodiensis: or, the topography of the ancient and populous town and parish of Leedes, and parts adjacent in the West Riding of York'', page 155 The main activities of the area were quarrying the sandstone which underlies it and charcoal burning and later iron smelting in

bloomery A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a ''bloom ...

furnaces which occurred from 1240 to 1550. For most of this time the land was owned by Kirkstall monastery. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, the area went into private hands, notably the Foxcroft family who held it from 1583 until 1741, building a manor house, Weetwood Hall in 1625. The Meanwood Beck provided power for Weetwood mill and Walley's tannery from 1656 to 1820. In the Middle Ages Weetwood Lane was the principal route between Adel and Leeds, and particularly to the market in Headingley. The construction of the Leeds to Otley Turnpike (now the A660 Otley Road) in 1741 provided a faster link so that residences began to be built, particularly after 1840. In June 1853 Ann Husler inherited Weetwood Quarry from her husband, and ran it successfully until her death in 1874.

Buildings

Weetwood Hall

Weetwood Hall is now a hotel and conference centre, which includes a manor house and buildings of the same name dating back to 1625. It is a Grade II* Listed building of local

gritstone Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for pa ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

. The porch is of Classical design, with widely spaced Ionic columns, and the interior has elaborately plastered ceilings. It was taken over by the University of Leeds in 1919 and was a hall of residence until 1993, when it took on its present role after extensive re-development.

Fox Hill

Fox Hill is the name of a hill, a hall which stands on it, and a residential area within Weetwood. The hall was built in 1863 for the Tetley family of Tetley's Brewery. It is now Moorlands School. Fox hill also includes other Grade II Listed buildings, Weetwood Grange (1861), now flats, and Weetwood Croft (1898) now a university student residence, Oxley Hall.

References

External links

Far Headingley Village Society
*
Weetwood Conservation Area Proposal
{{City of Leeds Places in Leeds