Back Roads |
Richard Bell's Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Monday, 22nd October, 2007 |
WE’RE ON OUR WAY to East Ardsley, but, rather than zip up one junction of the motorway, we take the back roads through New Park, Low Laithes and Kirkhamgate.
The
New Park was the deer park of the medieval lords of the manor
of Wakefield. The Old Park lay to the east of the city. Palings on an earthen
bank surrounded
the park, a fact remembered in the place name Paleside, an outlying
district
of
the township of Ossett. You can still find stretches of the ditch and bank (right) that
enclosed the park.
Low
Laithes golf club have their headquarters in a building that, beneath its outer
layers, is constructed from timber. It dates from 1550.
Lindale
Hill, overlooking the motorway at Kirkhamgate, was once enclosed and protected
as a rabbit warren.
The design of Melbourne
House, near Carr Gate, is said to have been inspired by Melbourne
town hall. It was built for ‘Prophet’ John Wroe (1782-1863)
of the Christian Israelite Church.
Lawns village, a little further north along
the motorway corridor, gets its name because it was originally a clearing at
the edge of a wooded area – Wakefield’s
Outwood.