Stone Blocks on Armley Park

Post by **chameleon** » Sat 06 Mar, 2010 7:45 pm

Cardiarms wrote: I'll have a look. These service reservoirs have probably been rebuilt three or four times in their lifetime. I wonder if the blocks are left over masonary from previous incarnations? Not sure Cardi (thanks btw) the present structure coincides with the one on the 1906 map and even the path layout seems to be as was.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Sat 06 Mar, 2010 9:43 pm

Phill_dvsn wrote: Yes i did get time The picture is here if one of the nice guys wants to put it on S.L for mehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/441033 ... etleedsThe two stone blocks are marked in the boxes. There is also a strange 'planted area' stuck in the middle of the grass. It's very out of keeping, i've marked it with an X. It doesn't look right. There's huge boulders mixed in there.You can see it's close to the underwater storage tank. These stone blocks in Harehills park have been discussed in another thread.see http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messag ... 25&#34932A couple of people think that in the 1950s there were simple drinking fountains where the blocks are. I just about remember one such fountain at the lower spot marked on the photo. My memory is of a simple stone pillar with a brass tap attached and someone else had the same recollection. Other SLers are equally convinced there were never any drinking water fountains in the park. If these stones were the foundation of a small drinking fountain they should have a hole in them for a water pipe, probably plugged now. Has anyone examined them close up?Do old OS maps show up drinking fountains?

Johnny39 · Post by **Johnny39** » Sat 06 Mar, 2010 10:54 pm

I used Harehills Park from the 40's to the middle 50's and seem to remember there being a drinking fountain on the path at the back of the downstairs toilets. I'm not altogether certain it was in working order though. I remember a drinking fountain being erected at what we called the bottom end of the park, bowling green end, just off the path in the centre. That would have been in the early 50's. Being a Brownhill lad we used the park for sports and played a lot of cricket on the concrete strip more or less centred between the two blocks. There was an ice cream hut which didn't open for many years, presumably because of the war, then suddenly did. This was near to the stone block as you came through the gates. As for the blocks themselves, we never associated them with water at all.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Sat 06 Mar, 2010 10:57 pm

I'm surprised there weren't any air raid shelters under Harehills park. Most other Leeds recs had them. You don't get a more built up area than Harehills either.

Johnny39 · Post by **Johnny39** » Sat 06 Mar, 2010 11:09 pm

Phill_dvsn wrote: I'm surprised there weren't any air raid shelters under Harehills park. Most other Leeds recs had them. You don't get a more built up area than Harehills either. I don't remember one, that's not to say there wasn't, but there was one under "Compton Ollers", at the side of the Compton Arms but I think this has been covered in another thread.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Sun 07 Mar, 2010 6:14 pm

Chrism wrote: Barrage balloon it might be as there's an air raid shelter about where the red box is. How many shelters were there on the park do you know Chris? Or anyone else?

Chrism · Post by **Chrism** » Sun 07 Mar, 2010 6:21 pm

Phill_dvsn wrote: Chrism wrote: Barrage balloon it might be as there's an air raid shelter about where the red box is. How many shelters were there on the park do you know Chris? Or anyone else? Only the one as far as I know Phill, you can't miss it really. It's the large mound at the back of the tennis courts. My nan told me about it years ago, it was the one they had to use living in the Hopes.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Sun 07 Mar, 2010 6:27 pm

Chrism wrote: Phill_dvsn wrote: Chrism wrote: Barrage balloon it might be as there's an air raid shelter about where the red box is. How many shelters were there on the park do you know Chris? Or anyone else? Only the one as far as I know Phill, you can't miss it really. It's the large mound at the back of the tennis courts. My nan told me about it years ago, it was the one they had to use living in the Hopes. Yes i know about that one Chris. I just wondered if there were more there.Cheers anyway

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Sun 07 Mar, 2010 10:08 pm

Johnny39 wrote: Phill_dvsn wrote: I'm surprised there weren't any air raid shelters under Harehills park. Most other Leeds recs had them. You don't get a more built up area than Harehills either. I don't remember one, that's not to say there wasn't, but there was one under "Compton Ollers", at the side of the Compton Arms but I think this has been covered in another thread. From the early 50's I only remember one on Harehills lane and the shelter on york road opposite the Shaftsbury - discussed on another thread. I also knew about the shelter off Compton rd from my Brownhill schoolmates.Burtons had large shelters for the workforce - which I suppose they could use in a nighttime raid?

Post by **chameleon** » Sun 07 Mar, 2010 11:14 pm

I'm still convinced there was one around here. The area has been heavily landscaped and the house to the north added but, I remember walking too and fro to school seeing an accesss being opened from time to time in the rising land as it was, resembling the top of a doorway. I can't really say that anything remains to be seen from GE.(This is off York Road above the Policce station for anyone who doesn't recognise it).