Collected stories as research for projections around the city in 2007

Leeds Reminiscent Group

Your M&S

In t’market there were two guys who had a stall, one was a foreigner called Marks and the other was a local lad called Spencer, together they developed a successful chain of shops which is now nationwide.


Mucky Jonny

Now it was said that mucky Jonny got his name by being so filthy, and used to wait outside the pubs in Rodley before they opened,  the landlords of these establishments used to go out before the pub opened and pay Jonny a shilling to wander down to the next pub.

I t was said the when in his house he used to go to the toilet by doing his business in a sheet of newspaper then he’d wrap it up and throw it into his attic, this he did for years.

It was only when his house caught fire and the fire brigade went to his house that they found the evidence of his ways!


Quarry Hill Camp

Just after Dunkirk all the soldiers were stationed at up at Quarry Hill you could tell em when they walked round town as they all had the same suit, my husband didn’t stay there tho, no he came home and stayed at his house in Armley


Whitecote and Redcote

The two places above were where soldiers in the civil war were stationed. The places got their names from the colour of the coats the soldiers use to wear.


Black Death moves market

In the times of the plague the market was moved from Leeds city centre to Bramley town.


City Variety’s Haunting

The City Variety’s in Leeds has three reported ghost sightings

There is a guardsman in a long top hat – who patrols inside the stalls, people believe that this could be Edward the VII who was reported to take his fancy women there in secret. The other two are believed to be actors who used to work at the variety’s.


Yorkshire Witch

The Yorkshire Witch was known as Mary Bateman and plundered the money from towns folk for charms and potions.  She was convicted of murder, tried at the local court and then hung by the neck till death then chopped into pieces.  People came to see her body and raised £30 for the Infirmary.


Leeds Theatre Royal haunted by actors

The dressing rooms in the Theatre Royal at Hunslet lane  was reported to be haunted  by the actors who had previously took the stage in years gone by.


Civic Hall Haunting in the turrets

It is said that turrets of the Civic Hall are haunted by some one who died in the maintenance of the building.


Bramley haunting on town street

Somebody was shot on Town street in Bramley, one of the shops where the shooting took place is said to be haunted by the receiver of the bullet.


Meanwood Mental Hospital

Now it only shut down a few years back, i think the government closed it, but some of the people who came out of there were wrongfully in there to begin with.

One story that comes to mind is that of some women who were in there and the reason, the mental disability they had was to have an illegitimate child! now this was almost 60 years ago since they were admitted and now they were so institutionalised, they found it near most impossible to re-integrate back into society.