Tag: Cobblestone path

The Cobblestone Path

cobblestone path

I think that you can tell how much I liked discovering this cobblestone path from my drawing. You take a fork in a path deep in Middleton Woods, cross a stream and there it is, looking like the kind of place that Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man might stride along on the look-out for ‘Lions . . . and Tigers . . . and Bears’.

Middleton Walk 1
My Middleton Woods walk from my ‘Walks in the Rhubarb Triangle’ (now out of print). Please don’t rely on the directions as I haven’t checked the route for five or six years.

You get a great sense of history walking through the Woods. The cobblestone path must go back a long way because one map shows a Borough Constituency Boundary following it.

Middleton Walk 2
As I say, please don’t rely on my directions for this walk as they’re now out of date.

Unfortunately there’s a bit of a question-mark hanging over this path as Leeds Council, the current owners intend to dispose of it so that a car park can be built (there’s more to it than that, but you get the picture. I’ve had an update from a local campaigner, below).

The constituency boundary seems to have moved, but hope that Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central since 2010, when the boundaries were last changed, will lend his support to calls to keep the path and preserve its character.

Update from a local campaigner

These are the details as I understand them, but it’s quite a complex picture, and it’s the implications of the scheme have appeared rather suddenly, so apologies if any these details are incorrect.

The council are meeting on Wednesday to discuss handing over the path to the school and 7.4 acres of greenbelt formerly South Leeds Golf Club land. The council had advised the public in March that the land was to be rewilded and incorporated into Middleton Park. The school want a new car park on their land and they propose to build a hard sports area on the rewilded land plus a new football pitch. Many mature trees will be destroyed. As they are an Academy Trust this is public green space being gifted by a local authority to a private organisation. The school already have a 3G pitch and plenty of space for sport if they didn’t build the new car park. John Charles Centre for Sport is also a short walk from the school through the wood.
We have all enjoyed walking on the rewilded area especially over lockdown so this has been a real shock to local residents. I’m not sure of the procedure after Wednesday’s meeting. Presumably the land will be transferred to the school and then maybe we will be fighting individual planning applications.