- Joined
- Aug 19, 2015
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History shamelessly poached off the Internet .
This vast brick cathedral also stands at the centre of what was once the ancient manorial land of Leeds occupied by peasant tenant-farmers since the time of the Norman Conquest. Still visible on the river Aire from under the arches, is the mediaeval ‘High dam’, built in the 14th century, together with another dam further down river, to divert water to the manorial corn mill at Swinegate, by the Lord of the manor, whose fortified manor house stood on the site now occupied by the Scarborough hotel.
The arches themselves where the result of a decision to build a new railway station, following the merger of several small railway companies in the mid-nineteenth century, extending the line from the original station on Marsh lane, through the city centre to a new terminus that would straddle the river Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Work commenced in 1866 and was completed three years later, with over 18 million bricks making up the arches alone. Even today, standing under the arches one can only be awed by the vast engineering enterprise undertaken by our Victorian forebears.
The Chief constable of Leeds writing in 1892, in a report arguing for an expansion of the police force, cites the Dark arches, along with Swinegate, Whitehall road and the area behind the Queens hotel, as one of the places to be avoided because it was frequented by idlers, criminals, and loose women who would lure their customers into secluded spots among the workshops and small businesses, only for them to be joined by a male companion who would beat and rob the unfortunate and unwary customer.
I"ve been looking at this place for years. Always finding the normally (as it"s Yorkshire
huge torrent of water rushing underneath the bridge down into the River below the arches, and thinking Shit if you slipped in there etc etc Now fast forward numerous years, and i"m into this game, but i"d still not got round to actually getting into the arches for some reason ?
Anyway a conversation between myself & Raz suggested a meet up (one of many such conversations we"ve had over the last year) but following on from Megatron & the Mine meet last week we actually met up in Leeds along with Hydro3xploric for a relaxed mooch about......i say relaxed without including the sphincter twitching crossings across 3 of the sections where the force of the water was surprising to say the least considering it"s depth, having to force your weight down onto the slippery stones while the water tried to send us down the slope into the river Thankfully we were down there pre downpours as i think we"d have been knocking on the Hotels door lol
As i said we had a nice mooch about playing with lighting techiques & the lads did their thing while i messed about trying not to attract attention of people using the Dark Arches road too much with my Torch....easier said than done but we survived without issue although the entry/exit created interest to say the least
I"m not 100% happy with my pics so another visit will hopefully sort that out once the levels have dropped.
Thanks again to @Raz & @Hydro3xploric
My Fave"
This vast brick cathedral also stands at the centre of what was once the ancient manorial land of Leeds occupied by peasant tenant-farmers since the time of the Norman Conquest. Still visible on the river Aire from under the arches, is the mediaeval ‘High dam’, built in the 14th century, together with another dam further down river, to divert water to the manorial corn mill at Swinegate, by the Lord of the manor, whose fortified manor house stood on the site now occupied by the Scarborough hotel.
The arches themselves where the result of a decision to build a new railway station, following the merger of several small railway companies in the mid-nineteenth century, extending the line from the original station on Marsh lane, through the city centre to a new terminus that would straddle the river Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Work commenced in 1866 and was completed three years later, with over 18 million bricks making up the arches alone. Even today, standing under the arches one can only be awed by the vast engineering enterprise undertaken by our Victorian forebears.
The Chief constable of Leeds writing in 1892, in a report arguing for an expansion of the police force, cites the Dark arches, along with Swinegate, Whitehall road and the area behind the Queens hotel, as one of the places to be avoided because it was frequented by idlers, criminals, and loose women who would lure their customers into secluded spots among the workshops and small businesses, only for them to be joined by a male companion who would beat and rob the unfortunate and unwary customer.
I"ve been looking at this place for years. Always finding the normally (as it"s Yorkshire
huge torrent of water rushing underneath the bridge down into the River below the arches, and thinking Shit if you slipped in there etc etc Now fast forward numerous years, and i"m into this game, but i"d still not got round to actually getting into the arches for some reason ?Anyway a conversation between myself & Raz suggested a meet up (one of many such conversations we"ve had over the last year) but following on from Megatron & the Mine meet last week we actually met up in Leeds along with Hydro3xploric for a relaxed mooch about......i say relaxed without including the sphincter twitching crossings across 3 of the sections where the force of the water was surprising to say the least considering it"s depth, having to force your weight down onto the slippery stones while the water tried to send us down the slope into the river
Thankfully we were down there pre downpours as i think we"d have been knocking on the Hotels door lolAs i said we had a nice mooch about playing with lighting techiques & the lads did their thing while i messed about trying not to attract attention of people using the Dark Arches road too much with my Torch....easier said than done but we survived without issue although the entry/exit created interest to say the least
I"m not 100% happy with my pics so another visit will hopefully sort that out once the levels have dropped.
Thanks again to @Raz & @Hydro3xploric
My Fave"
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