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The Development of Arthursdale


from The Barwicker No.82
June 2006



Arthur Chippindale (1866 - 1954) bought glebe land and Whinmoor Nook Farm from the church in 1900; the first step towards the development of Arthursdale. The eldest of four sons of Isaac and Clara Chippindale, Arthur was born at Seacroft, where his grandfather William had operated the corn mill. Isaac and family moved to Scholes in 1877.

Arthur was a man of many parts - farmer, property builder and manager of the Scholes Brick and Tile Works following the death of his father Isaac in 1889. He represented Scholes ward (alongside Thomas Crosland) on the Parish Council, serving as Chairman in 1896/98. He was Life President of the Arthursdale Cricket Club in 1939, the year that JT (Tommy) Horner, a market gardener, was President of the club.

In 1896, aged 30, Arthur commenced building houses on Austhorpe Road, Cross Gates, near the present Cross Gates Shopping Centre entrance, on land acquired from the Atkinson family of Manston Lodge, now the Manston Hotel. Caleb Marshall was also building houses, about this time, on Marshall Terrace and Marshall Street. Later, in the 1930s, Arthur's son Kenneth converted several of the houses on Austhorpe Road to shops. In 1901, Arthur built the first house in Arthursdale (No.24) at the east end of The Avenue, whilst living in Scholes Hall which was then composed of three separate dwellings. He and his wife Susan lived at No.24, The Avenue, until his death in 1954. Susan died three years later.

The Scholes brickworks' ledgers (donated by Nigel Chippindale to the Historical Society and preserved in the resource centre) record sales of products to Arthur Chippindale from 1894 to 1898, and 1900 to 1914, covering the construction periods of houses built on Austhorpe Road and The Avenue. The brick works ceased production in 1914, although large stocks allowed trading to continue for some time afterwards.

Building plot No.20, The Avenue, was conveyed by Arthur Chippindale to a Frances Helena Green in July 1902. Conditions of sale precluded the making or burning of bricks on the site. The payment of proportional costs was to be made for any repairs to the road marked 'approach road' on the vendor's sale plan, and of 'the gate' adjoining the bridge. The highway from Rakehill Road to The Avenue became 'The Approach' - the formal street name. 'The gate' was presumably at the end of The Approach junction with Rakehill Road (near the railway bridge) on the boundary of what would be the Chippindale land interest.

The purchaser of Plot No.20 had the right, with others, to use the soft water from the tank then built partly on each plot (the OS map shows adjoining small outbuildings on each rear garden party boundary); also the right to use water from the well on Chippindale land, subject to six months notice.

A tall slender wind pump was located in the plantation on the north side of Rake Beck, presumably raising water from the well or tank. (The wind pump is shown on the 1908 OS map, also on the a photograph shown below.)

The 1908 OS map records the properties on The Avenue, and 'Arthursdale' as a local place name. These early residences were relatively remote, being three quarters of a mile from Scholes village centre , although the railway station (built 1876) was nearby. EK Brookes' shop was built in the early 1920s.

By 1939, at the age of 73, Arthur had retired, the business being taken over by his son Arthur Kenneth (1908 - 1993), who lived, with his wife Freda, at Whinmoor Nook Farm It is likely that Nook Road derives its name from that of the farm.

Arthur Chippindale and family on the road beside Scholes Station about 1908. In the backgound is The Avenue and the wind pump.

Kenneth gave an account in 'The Barwicker' No. 37 of how he built 12 semi-detached houses at the bottom of The Boyle, Barwick, in 1937. Unable to sell them for £425/450, they were rented with a down payment of £55.

In another relevant 'Barwicker' article (No.33), Frank (Franz) Kamp describes how he, in 1946/47, as a German prisoner of war, was billeted at Whinmoor Nook Farm, working with Kenneth Chippindale on the farm and on 'the buildings', a pair of semi-detached houses under construction at the end of The Avenue, Arthursdale. Frank worked alongside Albert Berry (an Arthursdale resident), 'feeding' the bricklayer with bricks and mortar, trenching for drainage and general site works.

He developed a sound working relationship with Kenneth and, over time, was befriended by all members of the Chippindale family, a relationship that endured over the years. Electing to stay in England, Frank married Pat Goodall of Kiddal Hall in 1948. From 'pick and shovel' working to slide rule calculations, he eventually realised his true potential as a structural engineer, designing an award-winning bridge for the City of Durham.

The late Beatrice Fleetwood (whose husband, Fred, was a close friend of Kenneth Chippindale), remembered as a young girl, their family moving into No.35 Nook Road in 1934, then a Chippindale show house.

It is reckoned that the following amenities were available at this time. The LNER railway station was a few minutes walk from the new development and, in addition, to peak hour services, special trains enabled business people to be home for lunch and back within the hour. A 1940 LNER service table lists journey travel times of 20 minutes for Scholes Station to Leeds City Station.

There was the choice of regular bus services from either the Scholes terminus near the railway station or on the A64 York Road. The Scholes Village Hall, erected in 1931, catered for whist drives and dances, and the new primary school was opened in May 1923.

Sports facilities included a private golf club adjacent to Arthursdale, and the well-established Garforth Golf Club was within easy reach. Arthursdale Football and Cricket Clubs, and Scholes Hockey and Tennis Clubs were close by.

Houses Nos. 6 and 8, Nook Road, built by Arthur Chippindale c.1911, had interesting occupancies. His sister Miranda (died 1926) lived at No.6,(Plumfield) and his sister Kate resided at No.8 (Cherryfield), these house names deriving from plum and cherry trees growing in the respective front gardens.

During the war years eight children evacuees were billeted in these two properties, in the care of a matron, an opening in the dividing party wall having been created to provide through access. Later No.8 was occupied by Dennis Fisher who produced the popular 'Spirograph' toy, the making of the successful Fisher/Price business partnership. In the mid 1970s, Arthur's brother Isaac moved from the brickyard to live at No.8 Nook Road (a house that he owned), later being transferred to a nursing home where he died in 1983, a few months short of his 100th. birthday.

Nook Gardens, a cul-de-sac of ten houses, was built at the east end of The Avenue, in 1952. About that time the roads and footpaths on Nook Road and The Avenue were 'made-up' under the Private Street Works procedure to comply with County Council Highway Standards.

Following the death of his father in 1954, Kenneth, Freda and their son Nigel moved to settle in British Columbia, Canada. Kenneth built houses and developed land there, until the early 1960s, returning to England for a few years, designing and building timber framed house for a large national company.

Back again in Canada, in 1965, he continued to buy and develop land in Peachland, in the Okanagan Valley, inland from Vancouver, in British Columbia, over wintering in Arizona; finally retiring in the 1970s. Kenneth Chippindale died in 1993 aged 85, his sister Dorothy having died 3 years earlier.

Whilst living abroad, Kenneth maintained a keen interest in local affairs, receiving copies of 'The Barwicker' and the Skyrack newspaper, contributing letters and articles on topical matters, not least comparing 'then and now' house prices. In the mid 1960s the Wimpey estate of Arthursdale Grange was built off The Approach on the former Arthursdale Cricket Club ground; the club having relocated in September 1961 to a new venue on Thorner Lane.

Newer dwellings, built on the disused railway line, along The Approach as far as Rake Beck, practically consolidated the overall development of Arthursdale from Rakehill Road to Stockeld Lane. The 'dale' has thus become furnished by some 210 dwellings in a 100 year time space.

We acknowledge with our thanks the information supplied by Nigel Chippindale and Frank Kamp.



TONY COX


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