Meanwood Beck

[JanCee]

Since there's no search facility on here "hint hint" I haven't been able to check whether this has been covered before. When I was a bairn, ooh about twenty years ago, we used to play down by Meanwood Beck at the back of the washhouse. There was some sort of a tunnel across the beck that none of us ever dared venture into. The story was that a man had once gone into it and when he came out the other end one of his arms was missing. 'Course I didn't believe it *cough* but it was enough to keep us out. Ring any bells? On a side note, I've just remembered when Fattie Jean tried to jump the beck and didn't make it. That memory will keep me amused for a couple of hours.

[rikj]

Whereabouts on the beck was this JanCee? There's quite an impressive little tunnel joins the beck at Sheepscar.

[JanCee]

Thanks but no. Facing Sugarwell Hill it would be further left than Meanwood Baths.

[Phill_d]

Hi Jancee. I've walked that section twice & never noticed it. Would it be anywhere near the Cliff tannery thats now student Flats? I can certainly have another look as i'm working about as close to the beck as possible there!

[JanCee]

Oo 'eck. Bear in mind I was under five at the time and there was no development there. It would be as you cross over Meanwood Road from the bottom of Oxford Road sort of area. I hope I'm not misleading you here. I'll email my cousin and see if he remembers and can give more info.

[rikj]

Meanwood Baths was between Jackson Road and Education Road. The beck ran along the back of the Penraevons then under the tannery. In another crime against Leeds heritage the old stone culverts there have been replaced by rectangular concrete sections. Maybe the old tunnel was bypassed then. It may have come from the mill ponds that occupied the land where the substation is now.Hill Top leather works had a couple of wells also. The mill ponds showed no surface features connecting them to the beck, so maybe they were connected by the tunnel you saw.I believe the severed arm was found during the re-routing of the beck and was it re-housed further downstream in an even older Victorian tunnel. It now lives somewhere under the bus station. On quiet days, Bank Holidays and the like, you can still hear the rattling scratch of its bony fingers as it tries to climb out of the beck!

[Phill_d]

When was the new concrete section added do you think rik? 80's maybe.. I have the pic of the entrance.

[Phill_d]

Concrete crime against heritage!

[JanCee]

Ha ha very good!That'll be like that foot that was in the old boot my Dad once kicked on Cambridge Road. They keep it inside the plinth under the Black Prince.

[simmo]

Jan, I think you are thinking about the Culvert that exited into Meanwood Beck at the rear of Yardley's transport at the bottom of Buslingthorpe Lane, just before the bridge. It was blocked off in the 70s. As previously stated in this thread you could access Meanwood Beck from the Sugerwell Hills end, or behind the Penraevons, down Jackson Road, or down the ginnel that ran from Meanwood Road next to Meanwood Road school.The tunnel You could also be thinking of was Jacko's (Jackson Street) tunnel the one that the beck ran into as it ran under North Street. The other tunnels along that way were known as, the Slants ( the sides of the culvert were on a slope and it was hard to pass along without getting your feet wet), the Egg and Bacon, affectionately called Egg and Pongo, as it smelt like bad eggs down there.A childhood mission along the course of the Meanwood Beck from Meanwood to the city, meant carrying a torch and a dustbin lid.The dustbin lid was used as a shield to protect oneself from the gauntlet of stones and empty potted meat jars, thrown down from the "battlements" by other kids along the way.As for the severed arm, we destroyed that with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!.