Introduction

Welcome to my Travels In Time page. The idea behind it is to share some of my exploration of historic sites. Particular favourites of mine include old railways and canals as well as industrial heritage in general.

For a taster of the sort of thing likely to come, here are some explorations I've previously contributed to other sites.

Close to home for me is the area of Holbeck in Leeds with a number of interesting mills and factories including one built to look like an Egyptian temple and the first works to build steam locomotives commercially. This page features on the leedsengine.info site I regularly write for.

http://www.leedsengine.info/leeds/holbeck.asp

Also on leedsengine.info is a similar tour covering the Hunslet area of Leeds that was once a community of locomotive builders.

http://www.leedsengine.info/leeds/hunslet.asp

Above - 2021 view of Jack Lane in Hunslet and the former engine works of Manning Wardle and Hunslet Engine Co.

Continuing around South Leeds, this time to Middleton Park where I explore the remains of some of the early mining sites to use steam power in this walk for Friends of Middleton Park.

http://fomp.co.uk/downloads/Steam_walk.pdf

In Middleton Park I also explore the various historic forms of transport in the park. The route takes in old colliery waggonways, the electric tramway to Leeds, boats on the lake, planes on the clearings and what was once the tree lined carriageways to Middleton Lodge.

http://fomp.co.uk/downloads/Transport_walk_KW.pdf

Above - Former coal waggonway in Middleton Park

Another walk around Middleton Park planned for VE Day commemorations in 2020 that didn't actually take place covers how the first and second world wars impacted the park, which itself was created in the aftermath of WW1 when the area around Middleton was extensively developed with the "homes fit for heros." The walk would also have covered the POW camp around the Hall, digging for victory and rumours of nuclear bunkers from the cold war.

http://fomp.co.uk/downloads/War_walk.pdf  

I intend to post a new walk (or occasional bike ride) every Saturday morning, I'll see how I go with that but I have plenty of material on my computer to keep that going for a while even if I don't get out somewhere every week.