Woodhouse Moor

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Coordinates: 53°48′39″N, 1°33′40″W Woodhouse Moor, also referred to as Hyde Park, is approximately one mile (1.6 km) from Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, England. It is around 26 hectares in area [1]. The park is north-west of Leeds city centre and is bounded by Woodhouse, the University of Leeds, Burley, Hyde Park, and Headingley. On the other side of Woodhouse Lane (the A660) are Monument and Cinder Moors which are used as an occasional car park for large events such as circuses and sporting matches.

As of 2005 the park has just under 3 million visits a year and is the second most popular urban park in Leeds [2]. The park has five main paths which meet in the centre, each is tree-lined and they divide the park into different areas of usage.

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[edit] History

The land was acquired by Leeds Corporation for the sum of £3,000 on 19 May 1857 [3]. Clarendon Road, which runs alongside Woodhouse Moor, used to be Reservoir Street due to the reservoir belonging to Leeds Corporation Waterworks. The reservoir was completed early in the 1830s, after cholera epidemics which swept Leeds, and was covered over in 1863.

In 1858 Queen Victoria, in Leeds for the opening of the Town Hall, listened to 26,000 Sunday School children sing hymns as the teachers tried to control them with using placards with instructions such as 'Prepare to Cheer', 'Sing', 'Silence', and 'Dismiss'. [4]

During the English Civil War, in 1642, Parliamentary forces led by Thomas Fairfax massed on Woodhouse Moor before taking Leeds from the royalists. [5]

[edit] Statues

There are several Victorian statues in the park: near the Woodhouse Lane, Clarendon Road junction is the Victoria Monument, by George Frampton [6] it was originally placed at Leeds town hall. Near Hyde Park corner is a statue of Sir Robert Peel by William Behnes and at the opposite corner where Moorland Road meets Clarendon road is a statue of the Duke of Wellington by Carlo Marochetti. These statues are regularly the subject of pranks by mischievous students, and can often be seen with paint on them or traffic cones on their heads.

[edit] Activities

The park has playgrounds, allotments, skateboard and BMX park, formal gardens, and large areas of grassland. Unity Day is held in the park on the first Saturday of August to help unite the community following riots in the local area in 1995. There are various myths that Woodhouse Moor is the setting for multiple sexual assaults upon male students. Many students and local residents avoid the parks busy paths after dark as a precaution. These rumours appears to be an unfounded, with violent crime figures for the Hyde Park area comparatively lower than in other Leeds suburbs. 2000 saw a spate of street robberies which featured on BBC's Crimewatch, with some victims being assaulted on Chesnut Avenue (see Most Burgled Street in England in Hyde Park, Leeds article). The statue on Monument Moor, on the opposite side of the A660 to the main body of the Moor, is of Henry Rowland Marsden, a Liberal Mayor of Leeds for 1875-6.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Woodhouse Moor Park. Leeds City Council. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
  2. ^ A Parks and Green Space Strategy for Leeds (PDF) 67. Leeds City Council (2006). Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
  3. ^ Aerial View of Woodhouse Moor. Leodis. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
  4. ^ Leeds Town Hall Opening. Leeds City Council (2003-03-25). Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
  5. ^ Keith Feeney. The Civil War comes to Leeds. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
  6. ^ Public Monument and Sculpture Association. Queen Victoria Monument. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.

[edit] External links