History of Seacroft - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Seacroft is an outer-city suburb consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leeds city centre and lies in the LS14 Leeds postcode area....

pre-dates the Domesday book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

, with evidence of a settlement in the area from the Neolithic Age. Seacroft remained largely unchanged for centuries as a small Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

village, until in the 1950s the area was developed into Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

' largest council estate. In the 1960s and 1970s the building of Whinmoor

Whinmoor

Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

and Swarcliffe

Swarcliffe

Swarcliffe, originally the Swarcliffe Estate, is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leeds city centre, and within the LS14 Leeds postcode area....

enclosed Seacroft within other suburbs. Seacroft now has a reputation for crime and deprivation.

Seacroft Village

Seacroft has a history dating back beyond the publication of the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

(1086). However there is evidence of inhabitation prior to that, during construction of the estate in the 1950s, a stone axe dating from the Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

age (3500)-(2100)BC was found on Kentmere Avenue, while two silver roman coins were found on Seacroft Green in the 1850s.

The Venerable Bede records the battle of Winwaed between King Oswy's forces and the, unsuccessful, invading Mercia

Mercia

Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...

ns under King Penda. Bede gives this as taking place near Seacroft on the 15th November 655AD. The name (originally Saecroft) is of Saxon origin - sae meaning pool or lake and croft meaning enclosure or farm.

In 1643 a minor battle between Royalists for Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

and a small group of Roundheads under Thomas Fairfax

Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron

Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a general and parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War...

, who were en-route from Tadcaster

Tadcaster

Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England. Lying on the Great North Road approximately east of Leeds and west of York. It is the last town on the River Wharfe before it joins the River Ouse about downstream...

to Leeds

Leeds

, took place at Seacroft. Fairfax was obliged to retreat across Bramham moor.

Seacroft Village is the original part of Seacroft, around the Green and Cricketers Arms (pictured top), it is often still talked about today. Seacroft Village is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Seacroft Hall was built in the sixteenth century by the Shiletto family and extensively refurbished in the seventeenth century and incorporated extensive landscaping and parkland. Despite being a listed building the hall was demolished in the 1950s, the original entrance lodge still stands on York Road with Parklands School on South Parkway now occupying the location of the hall. There is one shop in the area that would have originally been Seacroft Village, a small village off licence, which has been built since the building of the estate.

See also The Seacroft Village Preservation Society.

There is an old non-operating windmill, that pre-dates the estate, which has been incorporated into a hotel (now known as the Ramada

Ramada Jarvis

Ramada Jarvis was a chain of 42 3 star and 4 star hotels located throughout the mainland of the United Kingdom . The Elcot Park Hotel in Newbury was one of the hotels in this chain, along with multiple others in large locations such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Manchester and...

Leeds North).

Seacroft Village was surrounded by several farms, the largest being Pigeon Cote Farm which was demolished in 1954 to make way for the building of the estate, unusually for estates of the time, the farms were not noted in the names of streets or buildings.

Satellite Town Within The City Boundary

The Village developed slowly over the centuries, and saw very little change until the post war years. Work on the estate began in the 1950s. Many of the older houses on the estate are more traditional red-brick semis built around the Beechwood area, to the North of the estate. In the 1960s many prefabricated housing and high rise flats were constructed on the estate. Two main roads were built through the estate, these being North Parkway and South Parkway. North Parkway was built as a dual carriageway, in a similar way as had been done to Oak Tree Drive, Coldcotes Drive and Gipton Approach in neighbouring Gipton.

In 1934, Leeds City Council bought 1000 acres (4 km²) for municipal housing and after World War II the majority of houses and blocks of flats were built. The council had planned for Seacroft to be a "satellite town within the city boundary"

In addition to this vision, other areas surrounding Seacroft were built using the same principle, in the early 1950s work started on building the Swarcliffe

Swarcliffe

Swarcliffe, originally the Swarcliffe Estate, is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leeds city centre, and within the LS14 Leeds postcode area....

and Stanks areas and in the 1960s work began on building Whinmoor

Whinmoor

Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

, none of these were however as large or ambitious as Seacroft, the intention being that these areas will use many of the amenities built along with the Seacroft Estate such as the Civic Centre and Seacroft's secondary schools. As such amenities were at a minimum in Swarcliffe and Whinmoor, with the estates only having parades of small local shops, public housing and primary schools. Seacroft also has the main central bus interchange for North East Leeds, although the nearest railway station is in Cross Gates.

Whether Seacroft ever achieved being a 'satellite town within the city boundary' is debatable, the success of such a claim may be measured by the self sufficiency of the area. While the estate offered many amenities in the original civic centre and now offers modernised facilities in the Seacroft Green shopping centre, the estate lacked amenities such as a leisure centre

Leisure centre

A leisure centre in the UK and Canada is a purpose built building or site, usually owned and operated by the city, borough council or municipal district council, where people go to keep fit or relax through using the facilities.- Typical Facilities :...

. The area also offered very little in the way of employment, besides that provided by the shops and the few office blocks in the civic centre, there was only a small industrial estate, most of the major tenants (Cable and Wireless, Transco

Transco

Transco may refer to:*National Grid plc, formerly known as National Grid Transco*National Transmission Corporation , Power grid operator of the Philippines*Transcontinental Pipeline, US natural gas company...

and many Leeds City Council

Leeds City Council

Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...

facilities) have vacated the estate. Neighbouring Whinmoor

Whinmoor

Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

contains major plants operated by Agfa and Unilever

Unilever

Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....

The Building of the estate

The architecture of Seacroft varied throughout the construction of the estate. The earlier houses dating back to the 1950s are a mixture of concrete houses and red brick traditional terraces and semis. In the late 1960s and 1970s the prefabricated housing built towards the South West of the estate was constructed. The build quality of these houses was considerably poor and most are now uninhabited. The older council houses were generally built to a higher quality and are still in good condition. The northern parts of the estate were generally built first (with the exception of pockets of temporary prefabs), leaving undeveloped land between Seacroft and Gipton

Gipton

Gipton is a suburb of East Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south. It is joined with Harehills as a City Council Ward...

and Killingbeck

Killingbeck

Killingbeck is a district of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England that 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. It blends in to the Cross Gates and...

to the South and West in the early years.

Much of Seacroft was built twice, high demand for houses lead to many temporary prefabs being built in Seacroft shortly after the war. These were generally known as the 'war houses'. In the late 1960s and early 1970s these were replaced by the Cedarwood Corporation Houses (or 5M as they were referred to in council records). These were a quick and cheapm option of replacing the older prefabs. Like their predecessors they were also prefabricated houses, however were intended to last longer. Local people often refer to these as the 'gas houses' in comparison with the 'war houses' and in note of them having natural gas. The exact same style of building was used around Coal Road in Whinmoor

Whinmoor

Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

and Queenswood Drive in Beckett Park

Beckett Park

Beckett Park is an area of and a large park in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It borders on to Headingley, West Park and Kirkstall.Queenswood Drive, the main thoroughfare through the district, runs from the south at Kirkstall Lane and continues right up to Spen Lane on the edge of West Park, The...

.

During the 1960s

1960s

The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

and 1970s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

, a variety of styles of high rise flats were built. These were concentrated close to the civic centre, in the Bogart Hill and Ramshead areas of the estate and along the southern edge of the estate. Lower rise flats were also built around the civic centre in the 1960s. The Queensview flats were converted into sheltered accommodation in the 1990s.

Since the last of the prefabs (or gas houses) were finished in the early 1970s there was no further development of residencial properties in Seacroft until after the Millennium. Newer houses are now starting to be built around the Eastern end of South Parkway, most will be owned by a housing association

Housing association

Housing associations in the United Kingdom are independent not-for-profit bodies that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in housing need. Any trading surplus is used to maintain existing homes and to help finance new ones...

The 1960s also saw the construction of the Seacroft Civic Centre, which was at the time a novel way of building an outdoor purpose built town centre. The centre was opened by the Queen in 1965. The Civic Centre had a Grandways supermarket and a Woolworths

Woolworths Group

Woolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books...

as well as many other smaller shops, banks, pubs, an open market (which was converted into a car park in the 1980s) and a library.

It was hoped that the centre's proximity to the A58, A64 and outer ring road would attract people to the centre from further afield, however the 1970s saw the redevelopment of other regional commercial centres. The building of the Arndale Centre in neighbouring Cross Gates threatened the centre, unlike the Seacroft Civic Centre, the Arndale Centre was fully indoors, climate controlled and adjoined a busy railway station. As the number of chain shops in the Seacroft Centre dwindled and the centre housed more down market retailers, the Cross Gates Centre attracted national retailers such as Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

, Boots the Chemist, Wilkinson

Wilkinson (shop)

Wilkinson or Wilko is a British high-street discount chain with over 300 stores, selling primarily homewares and household goods.Founded in 1930 Wilkinson Cash Stores by James Kemsey Wilkinson, the company has remained largely in the hands of the founding family since...

and Woolworths

Woolworths Group

(perhaps killing off the Seacroft Woolworths).

In the 1990s it had become apparent that the condition of the Civic Centre had deteriorated significantly in the 30 years since its construction. Talks were held with Leeds City Council

Leeds City Council

, and Tesco

Tesco

were found as the preferred bidder to rebuild the Seacroft Civic Centre.

Seacroft Green Shopping Centre

In 1999, work began clearing the site and in the 2000s the new 'Seacroft Green Shopping Centre' opened. The Tesco

Tesco

was cited at the time to be the largest supermarket in Europe, a claim which may not have been true. It was however still an enormous supermarket spread over two levels (the second being a large mezzanine level). The car park was also enlarged and other shop units were built along the side of the supermarket, making the centre a crescent shape. The huge supermarket as well as the other shops promised to create hundreds more jobs then would be lost through the loss of trade in the Civic Centre, this was no doubt one factor which made the redevelopment favourable with many Seacroft residents.

The Seacroft Green Shopping Centre is also the main transport interchange in Seacroft, with the main bus station for Seacroft and the surrounding areas being centred there. Many taxi drivers also use it as a pick up and drop off point to avoid having to drive into the estate after dark. From here buses run out through the estate as well as to the city centre

Leeds City Centre

Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, England. It is within the Leeds Central parliamentary constituency, represented by Hilary Benn as MP since a by-election in 1999...

, Wetherby

Wetherby

Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

and Harrogate

Harrogate

Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...

. Seacroft bus station

Seacroft bus station

Seacroft bus station serves the district of Seacroft in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.Seacroft's bus station was rebuilt as part of the Seacroft Green Shopping Centre in 2000 and is maintained by them...

has five stands and an average daily footfall of 2,687. (See Transport)

The centre was not entirely popular with the local residents with many saying they had lost their town centre to a Tesco supermarket. To an extent this is true. Although there are shops besides Tesco, there are far fewer than there were; the precinct area has been lost, the pubs in the centre have been lost and there are no offices. Until the building of the new centre, and since the closure of Grandways, it was said that Seacroft suffered from 'food poverty' and fresh produce could not be bought on the estate. This was probably not true as there was still a Co-op on South Parkway.

The rebuilding of the Civic Centre did not however alter the deprivation on the estate. Throughout the 2000s the condition of many of the houses on the estate deteriorated, particularly amongst the prefabricated housing to the South West of the estate. Many houses were vacated and either condition or lack of demand dictated that the council boarded them up. The estate's high rise flats are seen as a refuge as they are harder to break into and in better condition then the houses, as such they have largely been allocated to older residents. Some (including Queensview) have become sheltered housing.

Decline

While the estate enjoyed some popularity in its early years, offering residents modern houses and a more spacious community then the terraces the estate replaced, the estate was one of the first in Leeds to decline in popularity. Crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

rose consistently throughout each decade and the housing stock, in particular the prefabricated housing around South Parkway began to deteriorate. In the 2000s many of the prefabricated houses were boarded up as tenants vacated them. By the Millennium

Millennium

A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....

, the estate had a reputation for being one of the worst in Leeds. The poor reputation Seacroft developed was shared with neighbouring Gipton

Gipton

Gipton is a suburb of East Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south. It is joined with Harehills as a City Council Ward...

. In 2007, there was a minor riot in the Hawkshead area of Seacroft. Racial motives were cited. Despite the run down looks of the estate, the Seacroft Green Shopping Centre is still in good condition, with Tesco and other retailers making a particular effort to keep the centre tidy. The estate suffers from high unemployment

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

as well as high illiteracy rates.

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