Headingley is a large and leafy suburb of Leeds, which like most suburbs started out as a village and is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Hedingelei. The name is believed to be derived from the Old English for “the clearing of Hedda’s people”. From Viking times, it became the centre of the Skyrack wapentake, a name which is recognised by The Skyrack, a public house that we shall pass on the walk. It ceased to be a village after the Industrial Revolution, when the growth of Leeds absorbed it, and it became an affluent, middle class suburb with many impressive houses that have survived to this day and have now been largely colonised by students. Perhaps most famously, it is also home to Headingley Stadium, which includes both Headingley Cricket Ground and Headingley Rugby Stadium.
Headingley Railway Station opened in 1849 and was originally named Headingley and Kirkstall Railway Station. The original station building survives, but both it and the original Platform 2 are now privately owned; a replacement Platform 2 was built slightly further along the line, giving the station a staggered configuration. From Platform 2, we leave the station past the former station building, then turn right and descends steps to Station Approach. Here, turn right again and walk under the bridge that carries the railway line, then turn left and follow a footpath that runs parallel with the railway track, shortly passing a playing field on your right. At the end of this, follow the path right around its edge, then turn left and follow a path next to Church Lane Allotments. This soon turns right and then left to skirt the edge of Morris Wood, before joining the end of Woodbridge Gardens. Follow this until it ends at Woodbridge Close, then turn right and walk to the junction with Queenswood Drive.
Cross straight over the road and follow a footpath into Queen’s Wood. At the second junction of paths, turn left and follow the path as it loops round in an elongated arc to reach Victoria Arch. This bears a legend commemorating a visit to Leeds by Queen Victoria in 1858, although the arch itself is believed to date from 1766 and may have originally been erected as an “eye-catcher” in the grounds of Kirkstall Grange.
Victoria Arch
Continue past the arch (now heading roughly south-east) and at the next junction of paths turn left. Take the next right and shortly emerge from the trees to continue straight ahead across a grassy open space to reach a tarmac track running through Beckett Park. Turn left and follow this, then take the next left turn (shortly before reaching a playground) to reach St. Chads Drive. Directly opposite is the main campus of Leeds Beckett University. A large grassy square is dominated by James Graham Hall, the main building of the University, which was originally the City of Leeds Training College. The building dates from 1911, and like most of the buildings flanking the square is Grade II-listed. To the left, the Grange can be seen, a Grade II*-listed building originally built as a country house in 1752 and now used as offices by the university; it is notable for the glass dome atop its roof.
Turn right and follow the drive, then turn left just before a pair of gates to follow a path into Church Wood. Take the next right turn, which soon leads to the churchyard of the Church of St. Chad, a Grade II*-listed church dating from 1868. Walk anticlockwise around the church, then bear right and follow the church drive to Otley Road. Turn right and follow this, shortly passing the Far Headingley War Memorial on the right, opposite which is Woodies Craft Ale House. Just past this on the left is another pub, The Three Horseshoes. Continue to the next pub on the right (the New Inn), and just before this take a short detour left down Cottage Road to see Cottage Road Cinema.
Proceed along Otley Road, and after passing Headingley Methodist Church (which dates from 1840-1845) and its associated Vestry and Sunday School on the right, take the second right turn along Bennett Road. Take the next left turn along Granby Terrace, following it as it turns right and then turn left along Granby View. Follow this to its end and then turn left again along St Michael’s Road, passing the Church of St. Michael and All Angels on the right. This is the second Grade II*-listed Anglican church on the walk, and was built in 1884-1885. In front of the church, in an island in the middle of a junction, Headingley War Memorial can be seen. At the end of St Michael’s Road, cross over and turn left along Otley Road, passing The Original Oak public house on the far side of the road, and another pub – the aforementioned Skyrack – on the left.
Turn right and follow Shire Oak Road, passing Headingley Hall on the left. Continue to follow the road until it ends at Mount St. Joseph’s, a modern purpose-built old people’s home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. Here, turn left and follow a path to the end of another road (which is actually still Shire Oak Road) and continue straight ahead until it ends at Wood Lane. Turn left and then right along Woodland Park Road and follow this downhill to Grove Lane, passing Saint Urban’s Catholic Church on the corner. Turn right and then shortly right again to follow a signed public footpath through Woodhouse Ridge. This is a strip of native woodland running along the side of Headingley Hill and was originally laid out as a public park in 1870; at times, we are surrounded by trees as we follow the path and can imagine being miles from any houses, whilst at others the path affords fine views across the heavily populated valley on the left. Continue along the path through the trees, ignoring any turn offs and remaining at the top of the hillside, until the path reaches a fork. Take the left-hand path and then look out for a steep path on the right running uphill – eventually via steps – to the upper path. Cross straight over and follow a short alleyway to the end of Cumberland Road.
Follow Cumberland Road until it ends at Headingley Lane, passing first Devonshire Hall and then (at the junction) the former Headingley Hill United Reformed Church, both on the right. Devonshire Hall is a hall of residence built in a Scottish Baronial style for the University of Leeds in 1928, whilst the church was built in 1864 and has now been converted into offices. Turn right along Headingley Lane, then just after passing The Golden Beam public house (originally built in 1912 as a First Church of Christ the Scientist for Leeds Girls’ High School), turn left down Richmond Road. Take right along Manor Avenue then left down Manor Drive, continuing straight ahead at a crossroads until it ends at Victoria Road. Turn right and walk to Cardigan Road, then turn right again and follow this as it climbs gently uphill, looking out for Headingley Bear Pit on the right. The Bear Pit is one of those delightful architectural curiosities that are dotted all across Britain and the most striking of the very few surviving relics of the Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens, which opened in 1840 but were sadly divided into building plots and sold off in 1869.
Headingley Bear Pit
Cardigan Road ends at North Lane, where the impressive Cornerstone Baptist Church (dating from 1925) and former Sunday School can be seen directly opposite. Just down the road on the left, the famous Headingley Stadium is located. Turn right and follow North Lane to the junction with Ash Lane on the left; on the right, the Headingley Taps – another public house – can be seen. The Headingley Taps was originally built as a pumping station in 1879-1980, a fact that informed its current name. Turn left down Ash Lane, then immediately right along Ash Avenue, which quickly becomes a footpath running between houses to St Anne’s Road. Here, turn left and follow it until it bends sharp right; here, continue straight ahead past a vehicle barrier and then immediately bear left to follow a path through Batcliffe Wood. When the path ends at Queenswood Drive, we turn right and then opposite the junction with Queenswood Road, turn left along a signed public footpath to return to the railway station and conclude our walk.
From Headingley, we have one more stop to make along the Harrogate Line, although we will explore it in the future when he have completed our tour of the West Riding and head into the North Riding. For now, our limit is Horsforth, another leafy suburb…
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