By Jill Stocks
Cragg Hill and Woodside Residents’ Group in Horsforth have started 2026 with a renewed sense of purpose after being awarded a Heart of Horsforth Award in December.
The group was founded in 2009 in response to proposed development work in the area and was presented with the Environmental Award at the Christmas light switch on event in the town in December.
The award was given to honour “their amazing work in helping improve the local area including footpath repairs, improvements to the green spaces throughout Woodside and their assistance involving Cygnet assisted living residence on Outwood Lane.”
The group arranged a number of events in 2025, including bulb planting, action days and improvement days in the area keeping everywhere looking tidy, a Dawn Chorus walk, providing an opportunity to enjoy a walk whilst identifying birds and their song, and a path repair event, greatly improving accessibility in the area.
Perhaps the biggest project in 2025 was the repairing of the dry stone wall on Cragg Hill, next to the Recreation Ground. Having raised concerns in 2024 the project went ahead in 2025 with the help of Cllr John Garvani, who arranged for Otley Dry Stone Wallers to assist.
Alongside other local councillors, and with the assistance of Leeds City Council and group volunteers, the project was a great success in repairing the damage to the wall, improving access and making the area safe again.
Members of the group also keep a close eye on grit bins, drain clearing and any other issues that impact on the area and its residents.
Helen Jeavons, secretary of the group, told us more about the history of the group and its work in the community.
“It all happened because St Joseph’s nursing home on Outwood Lane closed and the order of nuns who owned it wanted to redevelop the site as an enormous care home,” she said. “They demolished the old Victorian buildings that were there, two lovely big Victorian houses, overnight, one night without any knowledge of locals or the council.
“The council said to us that ‘it’s not a conservation area so we have no powers to stop them so they can demolish their own houses if they want’.
“So in response to that we set up a local residents group in order to try to make sure that whatever happened on that site was appropriate. That was when we campaigned against this enormous care home, like a mini hospital, that they wanted to build.
“And then one of the other things that we started to do was apply for the area to have conservation area status, so eventually in time that came through and it’s now a conservation area. That’s enabled us over the years to challenge other inappropriate developments using the conservation area status.
“But also we do support developments that we like and we think are right. So what they’ve built on that site now, the houses and the apartments, we’re very happy with.
“Because of this conservation area they had to build good quality using appropriate materials. They’ve done that. Fabulous.
“Then the next step was that I was walking through the woods one day a number of years ago and saw a poster up, Leeds City Council Parks and Countryside, saying they were holding an activity day.And I thought we should start doing that as well. We should be doing positive things for the environment, not just campaigning against inappropriate development.
“So we made contact with Parks and Countryside and we now run regular events and it was the work we had done over the last year or two in our green spaces which got us the award because we’d applied for a grant a few years ago and we used that grant to improve some paths, to put up interpretation boards, to put up public footpath signs.
“Since then we hold events where we clear footpaths etc and we used to pick litter quite a lot but there’s more litter pickers going round independently now and it isn’t really an issue now.”
Marion Simpson is on the steering group and told us about the other activities the group lead.
“We also did a guided walk round the area which there’s a leaflet of. One of the particular rangers we had from the council and one member of the conservation group got together and produced this leaflet and it is very popular actually.
“We did that as part of the heritage walks in Autumn. We led a walk around that guided walk as part of Leeds Heritage Weekend.”
Helen added: “It came into its own during Covid and a lot of people were walking and a lot of people from the rest of Horsforth had never come down to our area. Just didn’t know it existed.”
So what does the future hold for Cragg Hill and Woodside Residents Group?
“We’re going to review what we do next about what we do about the old quarry land [adjacent to the Rec/Brodway, which has been the subject of rejected planning applications over many years]. So we need to know what we’re going to do next.”
The first group event of the year will be the Woodside Green and Conker Alley Action Day, taking place at 10am on Saturday 21st February.
Everyone is welcome to join in the event clearing the path from Conker Alley to the lower kissing gate, as well as give the orchard a spruce with some weeding and other tasks, and the event will be overseen by one of the new rangers Toby Hunt.
Gloves and equipment are provided but sturdy footwear is recommended, as is an expectation to get muddy, and under 16’s must be accompanied by an adult.
You can find more information about the groups activities throughout the year on their facebook page.
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