“We’re on the road to ‘nowhere'” feels like the Anthem for Leeds’ Local Plan when you take a look at it for our area.   So,  it is up to the Neighbourhood Development Plan to help turn that around and put us back on the ‘road to somewhere’.  For that we need your help.

The journey has started in some of the work the Forum has done already:  the Aireborough Festival, that looked at ‘honouring the past, valuing the present, and imagining the future’,  the photography of Darren Sanderson as he captures the local landscapes,  and the work that has been done by Leeds Conservation Officers who, with the help of local people like Aireborough Civic Society, Tricia Restroick, and Nigel Wilson,  have captured forgotten or unknown treasures like Nether Yeadon, or why Tranmere Park is there.

In addition,  we have people striving to put Aireborough on the map now;  Guiseley Football Club,  the Chevin Chase, and Guiseley Music Festival;  the hidden volunteers in local charities and friends groups who are building and restoring civic assets, such as Engine Fields, High Royds Memorial Chapel, Rawdon Library and Parkinson’s Park.

Distinctiveness Map of the South Pennines

Then, there is the past, which could be in danger of being forgotten, if it were not for the work of groups like Aireborough Historical Society who remind us of what has gone, but importantly what still remains.   The hidden becks,  the industrial remains,  the early medieval landscapes.

Aireborough is not ‘nowhere’,  it is ‘somewhere’ – and we want to  capture its distinctiveness on a map.   If Bradshaw were to write his railway guide today, what would he say on a visit here?   We have taken inspiration from the much admired map of the South Pennines, produced in the last few years, for similar reasons, and local designer Briony Sloan is putting pen to paper to translate ideas into reality.

So,  we need your help – we need you to brainstorm ideas of local distinctiveness and send them to us for consideration as features on the map.  Here is a ‘starter for ten’ to get you thinking, there is loads, loads more.   Please send your thoughts to aireboroughnp@gmail.com

Annual Events
Rawdon Fun Day
Yeadon Carnival
Guiseley Music Festival
Chevin Chase
Rombalds Stride
Parkinson’s Park Children’s Gala
Clipping the Church – St Oswalds

Quarters
Conservation area names eg Guiseley Mill Town
Nether Yeadon, preindustrial settlement
Queensway – post war housing development
Tranmere Park – Garden Village
The Steep in Yeadon
Football, Yeadon
Moorland Crescent, Menston
Rawdon Littlemoor

Past Fame
Home of Fish and Chips
Home of Royal Prams
Home of Methodism
Home of whatever they built at the airport during the second world war
Home of Guiseley Agricultural Show
Site of Yeadon Strike
Home of XXX worsted (there was a specific name for local cloth)

Current Skills
Guiseley AFC
Yeadon Sailing Club
Yorkshire Countrywomen
Pigeon racing club
Aireborough Gun club
Victory Allotments

Secret Aireborough
High Royds Hall
Roman Road
Bull Stone
Kelcliffe Tannery
Site of Esholt train crash
Millenium Stone on the Odda
Pre-historic Stones on Hawksworth Moor
Turnpike milestones in various places
Engine Fields
Nether Yeadon Green
Ango/Viking crosses in Guiseley Church
There are lots of interesting names left in street names
Low Hall
Some of Rawdon’s Quaker Associations
Bronte association
Longfellow association

Iconic Aireborough
Trees on Whale Jaws Hill
Trees on Rawdon Billing
Harry Ramsdens
Crompton Parkinson clock
Airport,
The Stoop
Yeadon Town Hall
Yeadon Tarn/Dam
High Royds
The Royalty

Natural Aireborough
Newts at Naylor Jennings
Guiseley Ings
Chevin climbing rock
Engine Fields