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Swarcliffe, originally the Swarcliffe Estate, is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leeds city centre, and within the LS14 and LS15 Leeds postcode area. The district falls within the Cross Gates and Whinmoor ward of the Leeds Metropolitan Council.
In the 1950s, the Swarcliffe housing estate was developed, by the County Borough of Leeds, including semi detached , three-storey blocks containing Apartment, and three brick-built, nine-storey blocks of flats. Two of these were demolished in the 1990s, and the third in 2007. A private finance initiative redevelopment of Swarcliffe began in 2006.
From 1955 to 1992, the MP for Leeds East constituency, including Swarcliffe, was Denis Healey.
In 2009, over 91% of the population in Swarcliffe were "hard-pressed".
After the Norman Conquest in 1066, William the Conqueror granted the parish of Whitkirk, which included Seacroft, to Ilbert de Lacy of Pontefract, whose descendants held the title of Earl of Lincoln. The parish was subsequently leased by the de Lacys to the Somerville family. During the English Civil War in 1643, Lord Goring's Cavalier army defeated the Roundhead under Sir Thomas Fairfax at the Battle of Seacroft Moor.
In the 1820s, Swarcliffe and Stanks were part of the Barwick-in-Elmet parish. The name "Stanks" derives from a French word meaning ponds or pools of putrid water. Before the Swarcliffe Estate was built, the area contained Winmore Lodge (renamed Winn Moor Lodge in 1893), Penwell House, Hill Top, Spikeland Nook, Swarcliffe Farm,In 1997, Alan Noble, the church warden of St James' Church, Seacroft, remembered moving to a tied cottage in Taylors Yard in 1926, when his father was employed by Mr. Presious; the owner of Swarcliffe Farm. From: Memories of Seacroft as a Village 1926 to 1947, a pamphlet by Alan Noble. Published by Seacroft St James' PCC. 1998 and a parochial school on Stanks Lane South/Barwick Road, which was replaced by Windsor Terrace before 1892.
The Leeds to Halton Dial road was turnpike trust in 1751. Tolls were collected at the Penny Toll, a toll house on York Road, at the north-eastern border of the area. This road is the A64 Leeds to York road The toll house was owned by Sir Thomas Gascoigne, whose agents charged one penny per pair of wheels, which was "a considerable sum", according to the historian, Ralph Thoresby, who visited the area in 1702. In 1886, the property was owned by Colonel Frederick Trench-Gascoigne, of Parlington Hall, Aberford, who rented it out for three pounds, fourteen and sixpence a year. Gascoigne owned and rented out a number of houses, coal mines, woodland and farm land in Seacroft, Whinmoor, Barnbow, Garforth, Barwick-in-Elmet, Cross Gates, and Scholes. The toll house was situated north of a cottage and a 19th-century granite-built windmill, which is now part of the Britannia Hotels Leeds hotel. In the mid-1800s, Isaac Chippindale, who lived at Windmill Farm, started the Scholes Brick and Tile Works on Wood Lane, on the border with Scholes. The company's quarry produced high-quality bricks, which were used to build many houses in the surrounding area. Its kilns and house were demolished in the early 1980s, leaving two small fishing lakes, but the site is still known as "Chippy's Quarry".
The Leeds to Wetherby Railway had a station at Scholes and passed under the turnpike to the northeast. The line was built by the North Eastern Railway and ran past the eastern border of Swarcliffe and Stanks. It opened on 1 May 1876 and closed in 1964. Services were withdrawn as part of the Beeching Axe, an informal name for the British Government's attempt to reduce the cost of running British Railways in the 1960s.
In 1874, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners published a report that noted that two new parishes would be delineated by "an imaginary line commencing at the point where the boundary dividing the said new parish of Seacroft from the new parish of Manston aforesaid crosses the footpath leading from Seacroft through Little Swarcliffe Plantation to Wood Laith Lane"—leading from the Cock Beck to Scholes; now called Wood Lane.
In 1812, the title Squire of Seacroft was held by the Wilson family, the last member of which was Squire Darcy Bruce Wilson. According to the 1891 census, he lived at Seacroft Hall with his sister, Louisa, and five servants - a footman, cook, kitchen maid and two housemaids. He was a Master of Arts, barrister at law, justice of the peace, and captain in the Yorkshire Hussars. After his death at Seacroft Hall in 1936, his nephew sold the family estate to Leeds Corporation one year later. The hall was demolished in 1953, and its ornamental lake was filled in to make way for Parklands Girls' High School. Templar Villas, a cluster of semidetached Victorian houses, was built on Templar Lane/Barwick Road before 1893, and a row of large houses was built on Templar Lane before 1908. Between 1938 and 1952, private houses were built on the north side of Barwick Road, between Stanks Lane South and the Cock Beck.
The housing estate consisted of two and three-bedroomed semi-detached houses, and a number of three-storey blocks containing 12 flats or more, but some have been demolished. Most houses were built of brick, but a number were constructed of prefabricated cinder and concrete panels.
The 1980 right to buy scheme enabled tenants to buy their homes and in 2008, the average price for a house in Swarcliffe was £109,810. In 2010, 1,025 homes were privately owned, and 1,394 rented.
The three brick ten-storey flats were built to a T-plan with access from balconies. Each block contained 60 dwellings. The Leeds Planning Committee approved the application in 1959 and the contract to build was won by W J Simms Sons & Cooke Ltd. In 1998, Swarcliffe Towers and Manston Towers were demolished. In 2007, Elmet Towers was also demolished. An old people's home, Woodview Court, was built on the site of Swarcliffe Towers and Manston Towers, and new housing was built on the Elmet Towers site. The West Yorkshire Archaeological Service believes that the Elmet Towers site may contain the remains of medieval pottery, which was once manufactured there.
Langbar Towers, next to a shopping parade, was the first of five 15-storey H-plan tower blocks to be completed at Whinmoor. The high rise blocks had reinforced concrete frames with no-fines concrete infill panels. The planning application was approved in 1964 and the first block, Langbar Towers, completed on 24 January 1966 was officially opened on 19 February 1966 by Denis Healey. Ash Tree Court, Brayton Grange, Farndale Court, Langbar Grange, Langbar Towers and Pennwell Croft, six of seven high-rise blocks of flats built in 1966, were demolished in 2006. Sherburn Court, the remaining high-rise block, was refurbished and given a new roof, windows and lifts.
Yorkshire Transformations began a £100 million scheme to refurbish the area's housing began in 2006. This Private finance initiative is a partnership between Leeds City Council, Carillion and the Bank of Scotland. In the late 2000s, Persimmon Homes built St Gregory's, seventy-three private houses east of Stanks Drive.
Denis Healey was the Labour Party MP for Leeds East, including Swarcliffe, from 1955 to 1992, when he was succeeded by George Mudie.
The underlying rocks are coal measures towards the northern extremity of the Yorkshire coalfield containing , mudstones, and coal seams laid down in the Carboniferous period. The rock strata have a general dip towards the south and south-east.
Great Swarcliffe Wood, formerly Great Swarcliffe Plantation, which borders Swarcliffe Avenue, Eastwood Gardens, Swarcliffe Drive and Eastwood Drive, contains sycamore, oak and rowan trees, being approximately long, and wide. The Little Swarcliffe Wood, formerly Little Swarcliffe Plantation, borders Swarcliffe Drive, but can be accessed via Swarcliffe Bank. It has a collection of European trees, including sycamore, oak, Zanthoxylum, elm and Tilia. It is approximately long, and wide. Although the woods can be crossed along , there are no official public rights of way. Fed by the Grimes Dike from the north of York Road, the Cock Beck runs in a southerly direction past Swarcliffe and Stanks' eastern borders, and joins the River Wharfe to the south of Tadcaster.
In the 2001 census Swarcliffe was recorded as having 4,819 Christians, 18 Sikhs, 17 Muslims, nine Buddhists, six Hindus and six Jews. The census recorded the ethnicity of the inhabitants: 6,303 White British, forty-seven Irish, thirty-two mixed race Black Caribbean and White, three mixed race Black African and White, thirteen mixed race Asian and White, twelve Indian, eleven Pakistani, three Black Caribbean, eleven Black African, and seven Chinese.
In September 1964, St. Gregory's Catholic Primary School opened on Stanks Gardens to accommodate the overflow of children from St Theresa's Primary School in Cross Gates, which is , to the south. In 1989, the school moved to the former St. Kevin's Secondary modern school premises on Barwick Road. The school closed in 2008 and was demolished in late 2009. The old school became St Gregory's Youth & Adult Centre, offering adult education classes, older people's services, child care, a Youth Service, and the Swarcliffe Good Neighbours Scheme which was established in 1994.In 2010, 600 people signed a petition to prevent the closure of the centre. Grimes Dyke Primary School was built in the late 1960s in the north eastern part of Swarcliffe. In a 2008 census, it was reported that 1,419 children lived in the Swarcliffe area.
Swarcliffe Children's Centre is a privately owned day nursery, on Langbar Road (behind The Staging Post public house), and the Tykes Pre-School Playgroup is situated in the St Gregory's Y & A Centre, Stank Gardens.
St Gregory's Roman Catholic Church (Swarcliffe Drive, opposite Southwood Gate), formally called St Gregory the Great Church, is in the Catholic Diocese of Leeds. The land on which it stands was bought in 1954, but before building work started, Mass was held in the priest's council house, with confessions taken through the dining hatch of the kitchen. The first church on the site, a red brick hall opened on 11 October 1956, is now occupied by St Gregory's Social Club. On 12 March 1970, an octagonal church of modern design, by A. G. Pritchard Son & Partners, was opened next to the original church. It has simple bench seating for 335 worshippers, and stained glass windows designed by Jerzy Faczynski and a ceramic relief by Adam Kossowski. St Gregory's Social Club hosts meetings of the Swarcliffe and Stanks' Residents and Tenants' Association.
Built in 1973, Stanks Fire Station on Sherburn Road is manned by 24 West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service firefighters.
Policing is provided by West Yorkshire Police, operating from Killingbeck police station.
There are currently no dentists' practices or doctors' surgeries in the Swarcliffe area, although the Windmill Health Centre is just outside the north-west boundary, on Mill Green View.
Leeds City Council provides all local authority services in the area. It decided to close Swarcliffe library in 2011 and replace it with a mobile service.
In 2010, a Swarcliffe smuggler was jailed for avoiding £1.5 million duty on cigarettes hidden in shipments of plastic bags and storage shelves.
In 2011, a Swarcliffe drug dealer was jailed for bribing others to confess to her own crimes.
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