Meanwood Park in the Past
The land on the east (left) bank of Meanwood Beck, including open grassland and a narrow wooded, quarried ravine, was once part of the great estate of Kirkstall Abbey. It was farmed by the Whalley family, as tenants of the Abbey, and bought by them at the Dissolution of the monasteries, and retained into the nineteenth century. The land was bought in 1834 by Edward Oates, who developed an American Garden along the Beck. Hustler’s Row was built beside the Beck in 1847 by the quarryman John Husler. Oates’ grandson was the famous Captain Oates, who died on Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in 1912. His brother sold the estate to Kitson Clark in 1917, and it was acquired by Leeds Corporation in 1954 to create Meanwood Park.
Photographs by kind permission of Leeds Library and Information Service, the Thoresby Society, the University of Leeds, Leeds Civic Trust, Yorkshire Evening Post and Helen Pickering. The photographs are subject to copyright and should not be reproduced without the owner's permission.
There is also information on Meanwood Park in David Hall, Far Headingley, Weetwood and West Park Far Headingley Village Society, 2001
See also, Meanwood Park and History of Headingley.
For historic photos of other parks, go to Parks in the Past.
