Volunteers across West Leeds are once again taking part in a UK-wide event where heritage sites open their doors to help people discover the buildings and cultural background of their communities.
It’s your annual chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences as part of Heritage Open Days, all of which are FREE to explore.
An interactive map of all events across Leeds and the UK can be found here.
Here’s our guide to events specifically in West Leeds. It’s worth double checking to see if you need to book in advance, although most are entry on the day:
Armley
Benjamin Gott – the man and his mansion
The Mansion House, Gotts Park Golf Club, Armley Ridge Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 2QX
Discover the history of this well known Leeds mansion, its stunning parkland setting and its original owner Benjamin Gott.
Gotts Park Mansion was the home of Benjamin Gott, owner of Armley Mills and a leading figure in the Industrial Revolution. The Mansion is set in stunning parkland designed by Humphry Repton and is now the clubhouse for an independent golf course. Your guides will be Clive Walton who is head greenkeeper, secretary and director of Gotts Park Golf Club and Dr Patrick Eyres author of ‘The Yorkshire Red Books of Humphry Repton’.
Saturday 10 September: 2.30pm, booking required. Details here.
Leeds Industrial Museum – Free museum entry and film screenings from Hyde Park Picture House
Leeds Industrial Museum, Armley Mills, Canal Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 2QF
Join the Hyde Park Picture House team as they take up residence in the Palace Picture House cinema in the Leeds Industrial Museum for two days of screenings exploring our favourite astounding invention, film! Museum admission free for the weekend.
Saturday, 10 September: admission between 12pm-4pm.
Sunday, 11 September: admission between 12pm-4pm.
More details, events and timings here.
Mahogany to Melamine: Aviary House, Armley – A survivor of 136 years of home improvement
Aviary House, 2 Aviary Road, Armley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 2NS
Built in 1886, this Leeds red-brick end terrace house retains a surprising number of original features. Visitors will get a glimpse of how this wedge shaped house was originally decorated, and how it has survived subsequent attempts at modernisation.
Sunday, 11 September: 2pm & 4pm
Sunday, 18 September: 2pm & 4pm
Booking required, details here.
St Bartholomew’s Church
St. Bartholomew’s Church, Wesley Road, Armley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 1SR
Grade II* listed building of Victorian splendour, completed in 1877. Huge edifice. Restored in 2001 with Heritage Lottery funding.
Inside, one is amazed by the size and admires the Font, the Lectern, the Pulpit and Reredos. You might be fortunate to hear the magnificent Schulze organ, renowned throughout the world.
Saturday, 10 September: 10am-4pm.
Sunday, 11 September: 9.30-1pm.
Saturday, 17 September: 10am-4pm.
Sunday, 18 September: 9.30-1pm.
Bramley
Bramley – the village that disappeared.
Bramley Community Centre, Waterloo Lane, Bramley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS13 2JB
Bramley History Society brings back memories with its archive display of over 400 photographs and 50 maps of old Bramley.
Thursday, 15 September: 9.45am-11.45am.
No booking required. Further details here.
Calverley
St Wilfrid’s Church Organ Recital
St Wilfrid’s Church, Town Gate, Calverley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS28 5NF
St Wilfrid’s is opening the church on Sunday, 11th September 2022 for a Songs of Praise organ recital, preceded by a short talk and display on the recent organ restoration, followed by tea, coffee and cake and a Songs of Praise organ recital.
Sunday, 11 September: 3.30pm talk; 4.30pm refreshments; 6pm organ recital. Booking details here.
St Wilfrid’s Church Heritage activity afternoon
St Wilfrid’s Church, Town Gate, Calverley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS28 5NF
Adults and children (children’s costumes available to borrow for dressing up) can join a guided Heritage Trail or follow their own path around the church and take part in stained glass-style activities, using acetates, glass paints and pens.
Sunday, 18 September: 2.30pm-6pm.
Calverley Methodist Church
Carr Road, Calverley, Pudsey, West Yorkshire, LS28 5PS
This year is the 150th year of the church, a Grade II listed building with many fine features. Organisers will be mixing Harvest with the Heritage open days- there will be window displays of “harvest home” featuring food storage from year dot.
Saturday, 17 September: 10am-3.30pm.
Sunday 18 September: 10.30am-3pm.
Farnley
Never a Square! The invention of Leeds’ best known landmark.
The Lancasterian School Room, Low Moorside Road, New Farnley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 5HY
Former Leeds West MP Michael Meadowcroft tells the curious story and shares the varied history of City Square, probably the best known landmark of central Leeds.
Thursday 15 September: 2pm-3pm. Details here.
Farsley
Farsley Rehoboth Burial Ground Tour
7 Coal Hill Lane, Farsley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS28 5NA
You are invited to tour a 200-year-old burial ground that for years was neglected and untended. It is now being reclaimed as a community asset to share its history, war graves, nature and ecology.
The Farsley Rehoboth Baptist Burial Ground was a place of internment from 1785 to 2000 and reflected the growth of Farsley, in particular its textile industry with many prominent residents buried there.
Sunday, 18 September: Open 11am-4pm. Tours will be held hourly. Booking is required. More details here.
Friends of St John’s Farsley History Day
St John’s Church, New Street, Farsley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS28 5DJ
Pictorial display of local history along with artefacts from everyday life.
Saturday, 17 September: 10am-4pm. More details here.
Sunny Bank Mills & Archive – Fancies, Feelers and Fents
Sunny Bank Mills Archive and Gallery, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS28 5UJ
What did a Twaddell Measure, measure? Why might a mender wear goggles? How does a Crockmeter work? Discover the intriguing inventions, large and small, involved in the making of Woodhouse’s fine worsted cloth and in the running of Sunny Bank Mills.
Friday, 9 September: Archive open 10am-4pm. Tours: 10am, 12pm & 2pm.
Saturday, 10 September: Archive open 10am-4pm. Tours: 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm & 3pm.
Sunday, 11 September: Archive open 10am-4pm. Tours: 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm & 3pm.
Hawksworth Wood
St Mary’s Church, Hawksworth Wood – at the heart of the community.
St Mary’s Church, 61 Hawkswood Crescent, Hawksworth, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS5 3PT
You will receive a warm welcome at this beautiful and unusual listed church as you discover how it has quite remarkably reinvented itself to meet the diverse needs of the community it serves.
Thursday, 15 September: 9am-3pm. Details here.
Kirkstall
Hollybush: A Place to Grow
Hollybush Conservation, Hollybush Conservation Centre, Broad Lane, Kirkstall, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS5 3BP
From rhubarb to radishes, things have been growing at Hollybush for centuries. Drop in to learn more about the history of Hollybush, enjoy the garden, and sample some produce.
From a rhubarb farm that supplied the Ritz, to a home for canal lock keepers, Hollybush in Kirkstall, Leeds has had a long a varied history that dates back to the 1700s. The latest chapter of its life is as a Conservation Centre, run by the Conservation Volunteers, providing green space and a place to grow in what is now a busy urban part of the city. Join us for a heritage open day to explore the building and gardens and enjoy what has been a very special place in the community for hundreds of years.
Sunday, 11 September: 11am-3pm.
Sunday, 18 September: 11am-3pm. Details here.
Kirkstall Forge – The Home of Innovation
Kirkstall Forge, 1 Great Exhibition Way, Kirkstall, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS5 3BF
Kirkstall Forge was the oldest continuously used industrial site in England. Join us to explore how this unique site became a cradle of innovation which fuelled the industrial revolution in the North of England. Tuesday, 13 September: 7pm-9pm. Booking details here.
Event TimesTuesday 13 September: 1900-2100.Booking details here.
Walk Around Kirkstall – Kirkstall Forge
Kirkstall Forge, 1 Great Exhibition Way, Kirkstall, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS5 3BF
Join our curatorial team and volunteers on a whistlestop tour starting at Kirkstall Forge. A good chance to learn something new or reminisce about Kirkstall past and present. This event links with the Kirkstall Lives exhibition at Abbey House Museum
The walk will begin at Butler’s, Number One, Kirkstall Forge (formerly one of the oldest most continuously used industrialised sites in England) and will take in the surrounding area.
Thursday, 15 September: 1pm-3pm. Full booking details here.
Welcome to St Stephen’s, Kirkstall
St Stephen’s Church, Morris Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS5 3HB
An opportunity to visit Chantrell’s grade II listed gothic revival church with strong links to the Butler family of Kirkstall Forge. ‘A church whose blessings have been appreciated by past and present communities’.
Thursday, 15 September: 10am-3pm. More details here.
New Wortley
Women of Westminster: The MPs who changed politics
New Wortley Community Centre, 40 Tong Road, Armley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 1LZ
Rachel Reeves MP will give a talk based on her book – ‘Women of Westminster’ at New Wortley Community Centre in her Leeds West constituency.
Friday, 16 September: 3.30pm-4.30pm. Booking details here.
Pudsey
Pudsey Masonic Hall
Church Lane, Pudsey, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS28 7RF
Discover Pudsey Masonic Hall – a hidden gem in the town.
Saturday, 10 September: 10.30am-4pm.
Saturday 17 September: 10.30am-4pm. Details here.
Imagination, Innovation, Invention in Fulneck
Fulneck, Pudsey, West Yorkshire, LS 28 8NT
Visit this unique historic village with an elegant Georgian church. Enjoy discovering the unusual characters who have made their contribution through their innovative ideas. Take a look at the heritage museum which has six rooms of amazing artefacts!
Saturday, 17 September: 10.30am-4pm. More details here.
Stanningley
St Thomas’ Church, Stanningley
The Rectory, Stanningley Road, Stanningley, Pudsey, West Yorkshire, LS28 6NB
Early Victorian church in Norman style with two aisles, a barrel-vaulted ceiling and links to local iron founding and woollen cloth manufacturing heritage. A stained glass window recalls the deaths by lightning strikes of two young friends in 1869.
Saturday, 10 September: 10am-4pm. Further details here.
Wortley
St John’s: Parish Church of Wortley & Farnley
St John’s Church, Dixon Lane Road, Wortley , Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 4RU
Explore the Parish Church hunting mice while you find out more about the church and its history. There’ll be a rare opportunity to view archived documents and registers for Wortley & Farnley. Then you can sit back and relax in our pop up cafe.
Saturday, 10 September: 10am-4pm.
Sunday, 11 September: 12pm-4pm.
Wortley Local History Group
Whingate Methodist Church & Community Centre, Whingate, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 3EJ
Come and discover our Archive Collection of areas of Wortley. Folders of our collections will be available to sit at tables and look through.
Saturday, 10 September: 10.30am-3pm. More details here.
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