Leeds Daily Photo - Leeds in Yorkshire Photography

Crocus in the Rain

2012-02-09T22:58:00.000Z

Picture of crocus flowers Leeds.

Today here in Leeds it has been a cold, wet and very overcast day.

There was one bright spot, at least I thought so when I saw some crocus flowers in a garden outside a local methodist church.

Bramhope

2012-02-08T23:23:00.000Z

Picture of a lane in the village of Bramhope near Leeds in Yorkshire.

A short walk along this lane is the Wendy House from yesterday.

Does Wendy Live Here

2012-02-07T22:56:00.000Z

Picture of a Wendy house in a garden in Bramhope, Leeds.

I was passing through the village of Bramhope a few days back and as I passed the gates of a house I saw the above Wendy House in the garden.

I just had to go back for a better look and photo for this blog.

I just could not get Loyd Grossman's voice using his well-known ... Who lives in a house like this, out of my mind.

Diamond Jubilee

2012-02-06T23:23:00.000Z

Picture of Golden Jubilee stained glass window at the church of St Peter in Rawdon, Leeds.

Today 6th February it is 60 years since the death of George VI and on that day it was The King is dead long live The Queen.

I have never met The Queen, though I have sworn allegiance to her and was proud to do so when I was a young man on joining the military. I find it incredible that all these years later in a very changed world there has been one constant as an example of duty and service.

By some very odd chance today I visited the church of St Peter in Rawdon, not for the first time but I looked around the interior. I say odd because there is a very modern stained glass window in honour of the Golden Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II back in 2002.

The sunlight was almost behind the window when I took the above photo, this is not ideal I think, hence the wire mesh behind the window. I have cropped the image to show the main detail the motto of the Order of the Garter "Honi soit qui mal y pense" this being a French phrase meaning: "Shamed be he who thinks evil of it" surrounding the shield of the royal coat of arms. Under this in a scroll is Dieu et mon droit, this being the motto of the British Monarch.

The other window of the pair reads: AD 2002 The Golden Jubilee year of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Leeds Church Restoration Interior

2012-02-05T22:48:00.000Z

On Friday I got to revisit the church of St Mark at Woodhouse in Leeds. This fine old Waterloo church, now the last remaining of 3 that were built in Leeds, has been under repair for some months.

The last time I visited the church it was covered in scaffolding whilst stonemasons restored some of the stonework. By chance when I was approaching the church to get a few photographs of the newly repaired exterior I noticed someone else admiring the church. We got chatting and it turned out that he was awaiting the architect who was supervising the work.

Until I was shown into the building I had thought that the work was just about finished. As can be seen from the above photo the interior of the church building is the next phase of the work. I was last inside this Victorian building nearly a year ago and I had forgotten just quite how much work needed to be done.

Magpie Numbers

2012-02-03T23:24:00.002Z

This photo was not at all the one I intended for today. I was mooching about waiting for someone just across from the church of St Mark Woodhouse Leeds casually watching some magpies in a couple of tall trees.

I do not really have a long lens suitable for much bird photography but I caught these magpies above the church.

Many people know the magpie verse "One for Sorrow", common here in the British Isles. There are a couple of regional variations on some of the lines. An early version goes:
One for sorrow,
Two for luck; (or mirth)
Three for a wedding,
Four for death; (or birth)
Five for silver,
Six for gold;
Seven for a secret,
Not to be told;
Eight for heaven,
Nine for [hell]
And ten for the devil's own sell!

If you look carefully in the expanded picture above you can easily do the rhyme as you count the magpies in the photo.

Leeds Church Restoration

2012-02-02T23:38:00.000Z

I took the above photograph back in mid December when the restoration work at the church of St Mark in Woodhouse was still underway.

I have visited this church in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter over the 3 years that the Leeds Daily Photo has existed and there has alway been something for me to see.

I guess it has something to do with the fact that the church of St Mark is a Waterloo church and I am an old soldier and am interested in social history.

This old church has been redundant, disused and slowly decaying but over the last few months stone masons have been hard at work repairing and restoring the stonework.

When I last spoke with one of the specialists working on the church he thought the work would be finished perhaps by the end of September. But later a mobile phone carrier wanted to put a mast in the tower and the scaffolding for that work enabled access for more repairs to the structure. This work is being carried out by the workmen in the above picture.

Chapeltown Community Church

2012-02-01T22:53:00.000Z

Picture of former United Reformed Church at Potternewton, now the Chapeltown Community Church.

Today this is the Chapeltown Community Church, but prior to this fairly recent change it was a United Reformed Church.

Yorkshire was very much home to the Nonconformist religious movements with many towns, villages and cities having several chapels of various denominations.

This building constructed in 1906 just across from Potternewton park would I think be quite a bit less visible when these tall mature trees are in leaf.

Adel Church

2012-01-31T23:21:00.000Z

Picture of Adel church, Leeds a little before dusk.

I called into Adel church some days back to get a few photos of the stained glass.

As I was leaving the churchyard the light was beginning to go and I took the above photo.

Moles

2012-01-30T22:36:00.000Z

I would love to able to post a photo of a mole on here but this picture is the nearest I seem to get to them.

I passed a large garden a couple of days back and it was just about covered in mole hills. I just took a sample photo, rather than the whole lawn.

I have loved the story of The Wind in the Willows, since I was a small boy and I guess I am quite influenced by the characters. Much as I love a nice lawn I like moles too and toads, badgers indeed all of our native wildlife.

Herding Geese

2012-01-29T23:23:00.001Z

Picture of border collie sheepdog herding geese in Yorkshire.

This dog is a border collie called Eve, her beautiful coat colouring is described as red.

I met Eve and her owner Eric whilst walking on the towpath of the Leeds - Liverpool canal some miles from where I live. When I saw this dog I just had to say hello and how much I loved her colouring.

Eve is part pet and part working dog, working as she does with a small herd of sheep. Eve is now two years old and loves the exercise, she like most of her breed is pretty smart.

Herding sheep is no challenge for a dog like Eve, but geese are as she discovered something else. The one quirk in Eve's temperament is that she is not too keen on water, so the geese were beyond her scope.

I hope to catch up with Eve sometime in the not too distant future and watch her at work in the fields with the sheep.

By an odd chance there is a great story about another red collie in the paper today.

Headingley Stadium

2012-01-29T00:03:00.000Z

Picture of Headingley Stadium in Leeds.

This photo shows a view of Headingley Stadium, a sporting complex in Headingley, Leeds.

The stadium is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, the Leeds Rhinos (rugby league) and also Leeds Carnegie (rugby union).

The two grounds rugby and cricket are separate but share joint facilities. Headingley is perhaps best known as the home of Yorkshire cricket, with first class cricket played here since 1891 and test matches since 1899.

Swan

2012-01-27T23:20:00.000Z

A week or so back I saw a pair of swans on the Leeds - Liverpool canal at rodley. One of them came over, think perhaps it thought I might feed it and I liked the back-lit view.

Headingley Dusk

2012-01-26T23:32:00.000Z

Picture of Headingley Leeds as dusk falls.

The above photo was taken a few days back on a late winters afternoon at dusk at the end of a rather wet day.

This is the Headingley war memorial and in the background on the right is the Original Oak public house.

Big Brother Leeds

2012-01-25T23:07:00.000Z

Picture of ANPR Cameras in Headingley Leeds.

These ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras are on a tall post outside the the building that was the Elinor Lupton Centre on Headingley Lane the A660.

Between the council and the police there are now I believe a ring of these cameras monitoring vehicles across Leeds. There are another pair just outside Wilkinsons at the Arndale centre in Headingley. Two more are just up from the former Lounge Cinema on North Lane a short walk from the previous cameras.

These ANPR cameras and system are supplied by a company called CitySync and they describe this sector as Homeland Security. Now whilst I generally would class myself as a supporter of the police and understand the need to keep up with criminals I suspect that the STASI in the former East Germany would have loved this system. Yes I do think the police introduced these to help catch criminals but the potential to use this technology for mass surveillance of ordinary people just going about their daily lives is too great and also I think too tempting for the politicians.

If you think I exaggerate the possible use of this system I suggest you read The Dying Light by novelist Henry Porter. I read this book a couple of weeks back having borrowed it from the public library.

I think that these ANPR cameras could also have the facility for monitoring the average speed of a vehicle too.

Lounge Cinema 2

2012-01-24T23:08:00.001Z

Picture of Lounge Cinema Leeds after demolition leaving only frontage standing.

This photo is the one that in my view says it all about the current state of the Lounge Cinema.

The company that owned the cinema became and is now a property development firm and as you can see that is what the Lounge is, a development building site.

I saved the best news till last there will apparently be a Sainsbury's supermarket on the ground floor. OK I admit that is just my warped sense of humour, the arrival of any supermarket here in this part of Headingley is not something I would welcome. By chance yesterday our PM David Cameron was here in Leeds visiting ASDA UK head office in the city heaping praise on the company for announcing the creation of 5,000 new jobs. I am no economist but I really cannot see a supermarket building new stores creates "new jobs". Initially perhaps this is true but what about the small local shops that can not compete. Eventually our towns will be nothing but charity shops, estate agents and fast food places, that is not somewhere I would like to live.

The plan with the Lounge Cinema re development is that they leave the frontage in place and build around it. Local Pudsey construction company Jack Lunn are doing the work. Years back I lived on the same road as old Jack, used to see him about did not know who he was until the day he came into the office at the place where I worked.

Lounge Cinema

2012-01-23T23:11:00.000Z

Picture of the Lounge cinema at Headingley, Leeds.

Back in 2005 the Lounge Cinema in Headingley, Leeds closed and this being two full years before I started the Leeds Daily Photo I have no pictures of it from the days when it was a working cinema.

I have always loved film and have over the years seen several movies at this cinema. I am always a little sad to see the end of the road for any old cinema.

The above photo only tells a small part of the story here at The Lounge cinema. Tomorrow I will reveal the real story about the closure and the future here.

Canal at Rodley 2

2012-01-22T22:10:00.000Z

Picture of a damp and drizzly day on the canal at Rodley near Leeds.

Another look at the Leeds - Liverpool canal at Rodley here in Leeds.

I was here 3 weeks ago, not much has changed except for a barge moored this side of the bridge. The weather was very damp and there was a light drizzle on the morning I took the above photo.

The last photo of the canal at Rodley is here.

Charles Armitage Anvil Maker

2012-01-21T23:48:00.000Z

Picture of a memorial in a Leeds churchyard.

Walking around the churchyard at St Stephens in Kirkstall yesterday a couple of the memorials caught my eye.

All too often memorials and headstones in a churchyard give little away as to the person whose life they mark. I am I guess curious to know a little more of the life that they once led.

A few headstones do give little clues and these are the memorials that perhaps name the house or the occupation of the person whose mortal remains lie beneath. I saw the above memorial to one Charles Armitage anvil maker of this town.

I spent a little time researching today and at the 1861 census Charles Armitage lived at St Stephens cottages with his wife Jane and their family. Several of the nearby men on the census also worked with iron including a couple that puddled iron in a forge. I had to look up "puddler" - A puddler used to stir the molton pig iron (the first product of the iron making process) until it turned into wrought iron. Kirkstall was well known in earlier times for its forge, with the nearby canal providing easy transport and later a railway was built to the forge.

the memorial reads:

In loving memory of
Charles Armitage
Anvil maker of this town
Who died Feb 16th 1877
aged 52 years

I may well be wrong but I think Charles Armitage was born in Ecclefield here in Yorkshire 12th June 1818 and his mother was Sarah. His wife Jane was born in Kippax as indeed the census says were their children. From this I think perhaps they moved to Kirkstall for his work. I say may be wrong because given a birth date of June 1818 and that he died in Feb 1877 the years do not add up.

Their several reasons that I think I have the right Charles Armitage. The census of 1861 says he was born in Ecclesfield and that he was 43 years at that time and that would be consistent with being born in 1818. Also his eldest daughter was named Sarah, most likely after his mother.

In the census for 1881 Jane is called a widow and head of household at the age of 70, now living with their younger daughter Elesia (dressmaker) at 29 Tordoff Place just a few streets from St Stephens.

Clock Church of St Stephen

2012-01-20T22:57:00.000Z

Picture of clock on the Church of St Stephen at Kirkstall, Leeds.

Today I passed by the Church of St Stephen in Kirkstall, Leeds and had a quick look around the churchyard despite the drizzle.

I used to live not far from this church when I was a student, but I have never been inside this church.

The exterior looks quite dark and the rain made it look darker. There are several trees around the church I mostly got round the branches by the oblique angle in the above photo. If you look at the photo you can see a couple of out of focus branches in the shot.

The clock seemed to be working, if a few minutes out and as I left it rang the hour.

Before I left I photographed a couple of memorial headstones in the churchyard, I will write about these tomorrow.

More Snowdrops

2012-01-19T23:06:00.000Z

Picture of snowdrops in a Yorkshire churchyard.

Before todays afternoon of heavy rain it was a cool but bright and blustery day here in Leeds.

I managed to visit a church not to far from me that has some quite nice old stained glass windows by Powell Brothers of Leeds. I knew the church would be open around lunchtime but did know the reason. I soon discovered there was a funeral in place when I arrived so I mooched about the churchyard.

The only flowers that were not artificial in the churchyard were some small clumps of snowdrops in flower. Nearly two weeks back I posted about the first snowdrops I had seen here in Leeds this year.

Censorship and the Web

2012-01-18T23:29:00.001Z

Whilst I am not generally one to leap on a bandwagon, I must declare that I agree with Wikipedia on censorship and the web.

There are currently two bill going through the US Congress Pipa and Sopa.

Now you may think that what the US government does is of no concern to us here outside the States. I disagree, imagine that your 18 year old son puts some clips taken from his favourite films and uploads them to the web. No real harm in that and I would agree, however supposing the US movie company decides to make an example of the uploader and gets an American court to agree that there is a case to answer....

The first that you might know about what your son has been up to in his bedroom is when the FBI and the local police turn up to search your house and arrest your boy. Under the current UK / USA extradition treaty the "crime" does not have to be an offence here. If the US court want you son to stand trial I would not hold out much hope of the British (for example) government backing down over the treaty.

Think the above is rather unlikely then check out the story of Richard O'Dwyer a Sheffield student.

For more about Pipa and Sopa this story from CBC in Canada gives their view.

Cottage in Meanwood

2012-01-17T23:26:00.000Z

Picture of an old stone cottage in Meanwood, Leeds.

Just along from the Bay Horse pub in Meanwood there is a row of quite old cottages.

There is a date on the stone lintel above the window of 1720. I think this cottage will look quite different in a few months when the leaves arrive with the Spring.

Bay Horse Pub Meanwood

2012-01-16T22:30:00.000Z

Picture of the Bay Horse public house in Meanwood, Leeds.

On my way back from somewhere last week my SatNav took me slightly adrift, wanted me to take a road no longer accessible by motor vehicle. Going around the block to find another route I passed this public house, the Bay Horse, in what turned out to be Meanwood.

I know nothing of the history of the Bay Horse pub, it looks old but cannot find any details. I will look it up next time I am in the Leeds Library in the city.

The slight diversion had another unforeseen benefit. Whilst parked up to get the above photo I got chatting to a man who keeps bees nearby and he said I could go and look at them at work in the Spring.

Frosty Flower

2012-01-15T21:54:00.000Z

Picture of frosty primula flower in Yorkshire.

Walking through a local park yesterday morning I passed some rather frosty flowers.

The last few mornings here in Leeds it has been pretty cold, much nicer when the sun has warmed things up a bit.

I spoke with someone I know yesterday and he said he fell off his canal boat into the canal a few days ago! He said he was fine but that the water was very cold, having lost his footing on the ice on the boat and fallen over the side.