Cross Gates

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Cross Gates
Cross Gates Roundabout 5 26 August 2017.jpg
Welcome to Cross Gates roundabout with Cross Gates Sculpture
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Cross Gates
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Cross Gates
Location within West Yorkshire
Population7,770 
OS grid reference SE362345
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LEEDS
Postcode district LS15
Dialling code 0113
Police West Yorkshire
Fire West Yorkshire
Ambulance Yorkshire
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire
53°48′23″N1°27′02″W / 53.806346°N 1.450575°W / 53.806346; -1.450575

Cross Gates (often spelled Crossgates) [1] is a suburb in east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

Contents

The area sits between Seacroft and Swarcliffe to the north, Whitkirk and Colton to the south, Killingbeck to the west and Austhorpe to the south east. Manston and Pendas Fields are also generally regarded as part of Cross Gates. It serves as an important transport hub for the nearby large housing estates of Seacroft, Whinmoor and Gipton.

At the 2011 census, Cross Gates had a population of 7,770, situated in the Cross Gates & Whinmoor ward of Leeds City Council with a population of 22,099. [2] [3]

Location

The suburb is 4 miles (6 km) to the east of Leeds city centre and lies in the LS15 Leeds postcode area.

Etymology

According to the English Place-Name Society, the name Cross Gates is first reliably attested in 1771 and is therefore unlikely to be an old name. (A 1457 list of the assets of one Sir John Darcey mentions a "cross gate" near Whitkirk: 'unde mete eiusdem ville [Colton] incipiunt apud le Crosyate stans apud le Gildwell'. But this seems simply to denote a crossroads rather than being a place-name). [4] [5] In the Society's analysis, the word gates appears here in the dialect meaning 'roads', and so Cross Gates originally meant 'crossroads'. [6] [7] This interpretation supersedes earlier explanations which supposed that the place-name referred to a gate across the road. [5]

History

The first references in the Whitkirk St. Marys Parish Register are from the 1630s:

The earliest references in the Barwick in Elmet All Saints Parish Registers are from 1679 & 1680 [8]

Historically, Cross Gates was located at the boundary of the ancient Parishes of Barwick in Elmet and Whitkirk. The line was roughly where Station Road lies today with everything to the north east in Barwick in Elmet and the south west in Whitkirk. For hundreds of years it comprised no more than 1 or 2 cottages on the southern edge of the wastes of Whinmoor in an area called Low Moor or Hirst Moor. When Whinmoor was enclosed under the 1796 Barwick in Elmet Enclosure Act of Parliament regular sized fields were created and access roads built. The long straight Austhorpe Road was constructed in 1804 under this enclosure act. [9] According to Platt and Morkhill, [10] writing in the nineteenth century, "At the commencement of this century Cross Gates consisted only of some sixteen cottages, built near a gate which crossed the road leading from Whitkirk to Seacroft, then merely a by-lane, about fifty yard north of the small piece of ground now called Cross Gates Green. The use of this gate, we believe, was to prevent the cattle pastured on the adjacent common from straying down the lane. By the side of the gate stood a small cottage for the gatekeeper".

The Waud family started coal mining along old Manston Lane in 1811 and in 1827 in the area by Cross Gates Shopping Centre. Further pits were built on Church Lane and the area now occupied by the Marshall's. The Leeds and Selby Railway was constructed in 1834 passing through Cross Gates and trackways were built from the railway along Church Lane to the pits. The district was then rapidly expanding. The Traveller's Rest Public House (then on the corner of Station Road and Austhorpe Road) opened in the 1860s. [11] The first Manston St. James C of E church was built in 1848 saving local residents the long trek to either Barwick in Elmet or Whitkirk. The first school was built in 1857 on Austhorpe Road in the area now occupied by "The Arcade". A Methodist Chapel opened in 1882 again on Austhorpe Road.

The local coal pits closed in 1882 and Cross Gates started to turn into a 'commuter village'. At this time Cross Gates was 'well removed' from the Leeds city centre and the factories and so Cross Gates began to attract Leeds' more affluent residents who could use the railway to quickly access the city.

In the twentieth century Cross Gates effectively became a suburb of Leeds, with the open fields in between being developed into housing. This also led to much development around Cross Gates, including the building of the Cross Gates estate, a development of council housing and private development around Austhorpe, Whitkirk and Manston.

Barnbow Tragedy

Memorial plaque in Manston Park Barnbow Lasses park memorial 3 26 August 2017.jpg
Memorial plaque in Manston Park

The worst tragedy ever to happen within Leeds (in terms of fatalities) was the Barnbow tragedy of 5 December 1916. 35 workers (all women aged 14 or over) were killed in the Barnbow Munitions Factory, which later became ROF Barnbow. The plant employed 16,000 workers, from Leeds, Selby, Wakefield, Tadcaster and Wetherby and had its own railway station to cope with the daily influx of workers. The railway station had an 850-foot (260 m) platform and 38 special trains from surrounding towns and cities. An explosion from Hall 42 killed 35 workers and mutilated many more. Mechanic William Parking was presented with an engraved silver watch for his bravery in saving factory workers during the incident. [12] There are two memorials: one in Manston Park and one on Cross Gates Road by the roundabout with the Ring Road.

Housing

The area's housing includes detached houses, semi-detached houses and terraced houses. A block of new low-rise flats has been built opposite the Crossgates Shopping Centre[ when? ], and apartments are being sold and rented at very high prices. Austhorpe Road and the areas surrounding Marshall Street are made up largely of Victorian through terraces. There are some upmarket Victorian villas around Tranquility Avenue.

Manston Park

Manston Park. Manston Park tree 26 August 2017.jpg
Manston Park.

Manston Park is a large park in Cross Gates with football pitches, a bowling green, tennis courts and a playground. It is owned and managed by Leeds City Council and was opened in August 1925.

Transport

Cross Gates railway station is on the Leeds to Selby line, now part of the York and Selby Lines in the timetables. It is a well used stop for residents commuting to Leeds or York city centres. In June 2006 Cross Gates won the award for "Best Kept Railway Station" in all of Yorkshire, having made major strides in the refurbishment of the station.

Cross Gates is also close to the A64 dual carriageway and the M1. The A6120 Leeds Outer Ring Road "Station Road" is the main road through the area. The 650 metre "Manston Lane Link Road" (MLLR), which forms part of the East Leeds Orbital Road (ELOR), is intended to connect a new area of Leeds called the "East Leeds Extension" (ELE), through a new commercial development at Thorpe Park to the M1 over the Leeds/York railway line. [13] [14]

Industry

Vickers factory (closed) Vickers Cross Gates March 2017.jpg
Vickers factory (closed)

A Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Leeds, was built at Barnbow, off Manston Lane, producing guns and ammunition for the army and navy. The building was bought by Vickers Defence Systems and produced the Challenger 2 tank before it closed in 2004. After several years of being used for storage, the building was demolished in 2018.

Bus manufacturer Optare, formerly Charles H Roe, also had a factory on Manston Lane before it closed in 2011 and production was moved to Sherburn in Elmet.

The haulage company J Long & Sons are based on Sandleas Way.

Major printer and direct mail company Communisis has its main site on Manston Lane.

'Gates' sculpture

Cross Gates sculpture Cross Gates Gates 1 26 August 2017.jpg
Cross Gates sculpture

In 2009 the council developed the roundabout on the Leeds Ring Road on the north side with 3 stone signs saying "Welcome to Cross Gates" and a sculpture composed of 3 large metal gates by architect John Thorp, at a cost of £143,000. [15] They were originally painted red, black and white, but this was changed to the present red, blue and silver, as the original colours are those of Manchester United. [15] The sculpture is meant to represent Cross Gates metaphorically, each gate having a large 'X' in steel in its design to reflect the history of the town's name. Local residents have expressed different views on the structure, some finding it an asset to the area, others finding it an eyesore. [ citation needed ]

Comparison

Cross Gates lies in the LS15 postcode area. Here is a population breakdown of the postcode area in comparison with the UK population.

CategoryLS15UK average
Population density (people/sq mi)43.224.9
Gender split (female/male)1.051.05
Average commute6.1 miles8.73 miles
Average age3839
Home ownership16%16.9%
Student population2.4%4.4%
People in good health69%69%

Location grid

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitkirk</span> Human settlement in England

Whitkirk is a suburb of east Leeds, England. It is situated between Cross Gates to the north, Austhorpe to the east, Killingbeck to the west, Colton to the south-east and Halton to the south-west. The Temple Newsam estate lies directly south of the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austhorpe</span> Civil parish and suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Austhorpe is a civil parish and residential suburb of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is 5 miles (8 km) to the east of city centre and close to the A6120 dual carriageway and the M1 motorway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seacroft</span> Suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Seacroft is an outer-city suburb/township consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies in the LS14 Leeds postcode area, around 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Leeds city centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gipton</span> Human settlement in England

Gipton is a suburb of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whinmoor</span> Suburb in England

Whinmoor is a residential area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barwick-in-Elmet</span> Village in West Yorkshire, England

Barwick-in-Elmet is a village in West Yorkshire, 7 miles (11 km) east of Leeds city centre. It is one of only three places in the area to be explicitly associated with the ancient Romano-British kingdom of Elmet, the others being Scholes-in-Elmet and Sherburn-in-Elmet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scholes, Leeds</span> Village in West Yorkshire, England

Scholes-in-Elmet is a village in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Its name is a plural of Old Norse skáli meaning "temporary shed".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pendas Fields</span>

Pendas Fields, or Penda's Fields is a private, suburban housing estate in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is considered part of Cross Gates, as is Manston. Swarcliffe is close, and Cock Beck runs nearby. The area falls within the Cross Gates and Whinmoor wards of the Leeds Metropolitan Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeds East (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom

Leeds East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Richard Burgon of the Labour Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colton, Leeds</span> District of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Colton is a district of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, situated between Cross Gates to the north, Halton and Halton Moor to the west, Whitkirk to the north-west and Austhorpe to the north-east. Temple Newsam lies directly south of the estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manston, Leeds</span> Human settlement in England

Manston is a suburb and former village to the east of Cross Gates, Leeds, England, situated 4 miles (6 km) east of Leeds city centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swillington</span> Village and civil parish in West Yorkshire, England

Swillington is a village and civil parish near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. It is situated 5 miles (8 km) east from Leeds city centre, north of the River Aire, and is surrounded by streams including Fleakingley Beck. In 2001, Swillington had a population of about 3,530, reducing to 3,381 at the 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richmond Hill, Leeds</span> Human settlement in England

Richmond Hill is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The district lies a mile to the east of the city centre between York Road, East End Park and Cross Green. The appropriate City of Leeds ward is Burmantofts and Richmond Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killingbeck</span> District of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Killingbeck is a district of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England named after the Killingbeck family, historic local landowners, and is situated between Seacroft to the north, Cross Gates and Whitkirk to the east, Gipton to the west, Halton Moor to the south, Halton to the south-east and Osmondthorpe to the south-west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swarcliffe</span> Area of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Swarcliffe, originally the Swarcliffe Estate, is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is 4.9 miles (8 km) east of Leeds city centre, and within the LS14 and LS15 Leeds postcode area. The district falls within the Cross Gates and Whinmoor ward of the Leeds Metropolitan Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown Moor</span> Human settlement in England

Brown Moor is an area in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, east of Austhorpe and north of Colton. The M1 motorway and the A63 road pass it on its eastern flank and the A6120 road in the south. The area is named after a nearby hill. A colliery operated here in the 19th century and was accessed by a spur off the Leeds and Selby Railway, but was already disused in the early 20th century. At that time, some cottages had been erected nearby. Those had been sold by 2002 when Thorpe Park was established in the area.

Barnbow was a small settlement situated near the city of Leeds in the township and parish of Barwick in Elmet. The site is noted as the location of a munitions factory founded during the First World War. It was officially known as National Filling Factory No. 1. In 1916 a massive explosion killed 35 of the women who worked there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Seacroft</span>

Seacroft pre-dates the Domesday book, with evidence of a settlement in the area from the Neolithic Age. Seacroft remained largely unchanged for centuries as a small Yorkshire village, until in the 1950s the area was developed into Leeds' largest council estate. In the 1960s and 1970s the building of Whinmoor and Swarcliffe enclosed Seacroft within other suburbs.

Cross Gates and Whinmoor is a ward in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It contains nine listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The ward is a suburb to the east of the centre of Leeds, and is mainly residential. Most of the listed buildings are on the eastern rural edge of the ward, and consist of houses and associated structures, a farmhouse, and two railway bridges.

References

  1. "Crossgates library". Leeds City Council. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  2. 29 output areas make up Cross Gates, all in the Cross Gates & Whinmoor ward: http://ukcensusdata.com/cross-gates-and-whinmoor-e00057504#sthash.UrSyITWQ.dpbs
  3. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Cross Gates and Whinmoor Ward (as of 2011) (1237321077)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics . Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  4. "National Archives London Document Reference".
  5. 1 2 George Moreton Platt and John William Morkhill, Records of the Parish of Whitkirk (Jackson: Leeds, 1892), p. 50.
  6. Harry Parkin, Your City's Place-Names: Leeds, English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Name Society, 2017), p. 41.
  7. A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, English Place-Name Society, 30–37, 8 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961–63), vol. 33, under Skyrack (Seacroft).
  8. George Denison Lumb, Wills, Registers and Monumental Inscriptions of the Parish of Barwick-in-Elmet, Co. York (Privately Printed: Leeds, 1908), p. 170 & 151.
  9. "West Yorkshire Archives Service".
  10. Records of the Parish of Whitkirk. OCLC   5023557.
  11. "Barwick-in-Elmet Historical Society - The History of the "Old" Travellers' Rest, Cross Gates".
  12. "East Leeds History & Archaeology Society".
  13. Leeds City Council, Manston Lane Area, accessed 22 April 2019
  14. Leeds City Council.Application 17/04055/FU: Detailed Application for the Manston Lane Link Road (East – West Route), Thorpe Park, Leeds, Leeds City Plans Panel, 21 September 2017, accessed 22 April 2019
  15. 1 2 "£143,000 Cross Gates sculptures row". Yorkshire Evening Post. 13 August 2009.