Horsforth is a town and civil parish in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, five miles north-west of Leeds city centre. Historically a village within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 18,895 at the 2011 Census.
History
Horsforth was recorded in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as
Horseford,
Horseforde,
Hoseforde; but late-ninth-century coins with the legend
ORSNA FORD and
OHSNA FORD may have come from Horsforth. The name derives from Old English
hors or, to judge from the coins, *
horsa ('horse') in the genitive plural form
horsa/
horsna +
ford 'ford', thus meaning 'horses' ford'.
This refers to a river crossing on the
River Aire (possibly at
Newlay), that was subsequently used to transport woollen goods to and from
Pudsey, Shipley and
Bradford. The original ford was situated off Calverley Lane, but was replaced by a stone footbridge at the turn of the 19th century.
The three unnamed Anglo-Saxons thegns who held the land at the Norman Conquest gave way to the king who granted it to lesser Normans nobles,
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, Horsforth was partitioned and sold to five families, one of them – the Stanhopes – achieved supremacy and controlled the village for the next 300 years. The estate record of the Stanhopes is regarded as one of the most extensive and important collections of its kind, complementing the extensive medieval record associated with Kirkstall Abbey.
Until the mid 19th century, Horsforth was an agricultural community but it expanded rapidly with the growth of the nearby industrial centre of Leeds. A tannery business was founded at Woodside in about 1820 by the Watson family. It was on the eastern edge of their small farm, and memorialised by Tanhouse Hill Lane. The business became a soap manufacturer and moved to Whitehall Road in Leeds in 1861 and under the chairmanship of Joseph Watson junior, created Baron Manton in 1922, as Joseph Watson & Sons Ltd, became the largest soap supplier to the northeast of England, second in size nationally only to Lever Brothers.[Wilson, Charles. History of Unilever, London, 1954. Vol.1] Industrially, Horsforth has a history of producing high-quality stone from its quarries. Not only did it supply Kirkstall Abbey with building materials and millstones in the medieval period, it provided the stone for Scarborough's seafront and sent sandstone from Golden Bank Quarry as far afield as Egypt. Situated on Horsforth Beck (Oil Mill Beck) were mills serving the textile trade.
Between 1861 and 1862, there was an outbreak of typhoid.
Horsforth was historically a township in the parish of Guiseley. It became a separate civil parish in 1866.
Horsforth Village Museum
During the Second World War the £241,000 required to build the corvette HMS Aubrietia was raised entirely by the people of Horsforth. In 2000 the US President Bill Clinton acknowledged Horsforth's contribution to the war effort in a letter sent to MP Paul Truswell.
In October 2020 Horsforth was named the most musical village in Britain as it was revealed that 22 home-grown acts were in the running for the charts with their latest singles.
Transport
Rail
Horsforth railway station is on the
Harrogate line between Harrogate and Leeds. The station is just outside the Horsforth parish boundary, on the
Cookridge side of Moseley Beck.
Kirkstall Forge railway station is located in Kirkstall near the boundary with Horsforth, around two miles from Horsforth station. It is on the Leeds to Bradford Line between Leeds City and Shipley and was opened on 19 June 2016, near the site of an earlier station with the same name.
Newlay station, which was built by the Midland Railway, was renamed Newlay & Horsforth station in 1889. It was situated south of the River Aire and was accessible from Horsforth on Pollard Lane which connects Horsforth to Bramley.
Bus
The town is served by several bus routes:
-
23 (formerly 6) – Holt Park to Leeds city centre via Horsforth
-
8 – Pudsey to Cross Gates via Horsforth
-
9 – Seacroft to Holt Park via Rothwell Rodley and Pudsey evenings and Sundays
-
19A – Yeadon to East Garforth via Horsforth, Cookridge, Headingley, Burley, Leeds city centre & Halton
-
27 (formerly 97) – Leeds city centre to Guiseley via Headingley, Horsforth & Yeadon
-
31, 32 – Horsforth Town Circular
-
33, 34 – Leeds city centre to Guiseley/Otley via Kirkstall, New Road Side, Guiseley & Menston
-
50, 50A – Horsforth (The Green) to Seacroft via Burley city centre & Harehills
-
A1 – Leeds to Otley via New Road Side, Leeds Bradford Airport
Airport
The nearest airport is Leeds Bradford Airport, in neighbouring Yeadon approximately 2.6 miles away.
Education
Leeds Trinity University, formerly Leeds Trinity University College, is an independent university after a period as an accredited college of the University of Leeds. The residential campus is located off Brownberrie Lane, Horsforth.
The further education college Leeds City College has a former site in Horsforth which was called the Horsforth Campus which has lain redundant since it closed in June 2017. Housing has now been built on the site.
The main secondary school is Horsforth School.
Featherbank School opened in 1911 as a primary school, replacing the Grove Day School. The school's Infant school was moved to the Grove Methodist Church on Stanhope Drive in 1933, but in 1960 transferred to the Featherbank School annexe. In 1972 Featherbank juniors (7–11 years) were allocated places at the newly built Newlaithes Junior School, at which point Featherbank became purely an infants' school (4–7 years).
There is a private primary school, The Froebelian School, providing independent preparatory education.
Architecture
Horsforth has a large percentage of sandstone buildings sourced from local quarries, more than any other part of Leeds. A draft
design statement[ "Horsforth Design Statement" , requires Pdf download. Retrieved 10 January 2012] was produced in 2010, which summarises much of the architectural and historical character.
Churches
The main churches in Horsforth are;
-
Lister Hill Baptist Church
-
Cragg Hill Baptist Church
-
St Margaret's Church of England
-
St James Woodside Church of England
-
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses
[ "The Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, Calverley Lane, Horsforth" , GENUKI.org.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2012]
-
Central Methodist Church, Town Street
[ "Central Methodist Church, Town Street, Horsforth, Leeds", Geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2012]
-
Grove Methodist Church
-
Woodside Methodist Church
[Thomson, Richard; "Woodside Methodist Church, Outwood Lane, Horsforth, Leeds" , Genuki.org.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2012]
-
Willow Green Christian Fellowship Pentecostal
[ Horsforth Churches Together, Grovemethodist.org.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2012]
-
St Mary's Roman Catholic Church
[ "St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Horsforth" , Genuki.org.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2012]
-
Leeds Trinity University campus chapel
[ "History of the Chapel" , Leedstrinity.ac.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2012]
-
Comboni Missionaries, Brownberrie Lane
[ Comboni Missionaries , Comboni.org.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2012]
-
Emmanuel Baptist Church
[[9], Ebcleeds.org.uk. Retrieved 7 August 2018]
-
Mosaic Church
[[10], mosaic-church.org.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2020]
Sports clubs and facilities
-
AFC Horsforth; Based at The Old Ball
-
AFC Horsforth Junior Club; Trinity and All Saints College.
-
Yarnbury Rugby Club
-
Horsforth Saints FC
-
Horsforth St Margaret's AFC
-
Horsforth Cricket Club
-
Horsforth Hall Park Cricket Club
-
Horsforth Harriers running club
-
Horsforth Fellandale running club
-
Horsforth Golf Club
-
Old Ball Football Pitches (Home of Horsforth St Margaret's FC)
-
Cragg Hill Football Pitches (Home of Horsforth St Margaret's FC and AFC Horsforth Reserves)
-
The Rec football pitch (Home of Horsforth Ringway)
-
Horsforth School Astroturf (Owned by Horsforth School)
-
Horsforth School Football and Rugby Pitches (Owned by Horsforth School and Home of AFC Horsforth Firsts)
-
Horsforth Ladies Hockey Club
-
West Yorkshire Wolves Junior Rugby League Club
-
Horsforth Tennis Club
-
LS18 Rocks Music School
Nightlife
Given its size, Horsforth has a relatively high number of bars and
of varying types from traditional pubs going back to the 17th century to more modern café bars and lounges. Horsforth Town Street has the highest concentration of these with several bars and pubs within a short distance of each other. Other popular night life areas include Station Road and New Road Side.
Notable people
-
Although originally from London, in the 1970s the former leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband attended Featherbank Primary School,
[ "'Once a Featherbanker...' Ed Miliband returns to the Horsforth school that fostered his love of Leeds United", Yorkshire Post, 14 October 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2012] and his brother David Miliband attended Newlaithes Primary School,[McIntyre, Annette ". . . and that he would never be a professional footballer", Telegraph & Argus, 24 June 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2012] when their father Ralph Miliband was a professor at the University of Leeds
-
The footballer James Milner who attended Horsforth School and used to play for Leeds United, Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Liverpool. He currently plays for Brighton and Hove Albion and was an English International Footballer.
-
The actors Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film series), Patric Knowles and Frazer Hines
-
The keyboard player Nick Baines, from the Kaiser Chiefs
-
The singer Marc Almond, who was educated at Featherbank Primary School
-
David Oxtoby, artist
-
Actor Malcolm McDowell, famous for his film roles including If...., A Clockwork Orange and O Lucky Man!.
-
Alistair and Jonny Brownlee (triathlon)
-
Paralympic gold medallist David Stone
-
Olympic cycling bronze medallist Jon Clay
-
Sean Conlon who was in the boyband Five, grew up in Horsforth and attended St Mary's RC Primary School.
-
BTCC racing driver Sam Tordoff
-
Kathryn Apanowicz (1960–2025), a British actress notable for appearing in EastEnders.
-
Stanley Metcalfe (1932–2017), first-class cricketer
-
Frank Kershaw (1879–1959), first-class cricketer
-
Belinda O'Hooley, folk musician, born in Horsforth
-
Nia Archives, DJ, record producer, singer and songwriter
==Gallery==
See also
-
Listed buildings in Horsforth
External links
