Beckhill is a small council estate in the Meanwood

Meanwood

Meanwood is a suburb and former village of north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.-Origins and History:The name Meanwood goes back to the 12th century, and is of Anglo-Saxon derivation: the Meene wude was the boundary wood of the Manor of Alreton, the woods to the east of Meanwood Beck...

 area of Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, UK, which has received negative local publicity in the past, but is now the subject of urban regeneration. The area is situated south of Stainbeck Road and north of Potternewton Lane. To the East is the Miles Hill

Miles Hill

Miles Hill is a district in Leeds. It is about north of Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, England and is situated between the Meanwood and Chapel Allerton areas of the city, next to Beck Hill....

 Estate.

Location

The area was built in the 1970s and consists mainly of brick built terrace houses. The estate has a small newsagents on Beckhill Approach. There is only one entrance to the estate via car, from Stainbeck Road, however there are ginnels linking it with Potternewton Lane from Beckhill Gate.

Schools

Miles Hill primary school was on Beckhill Approach, and had 170 pupils. The 2004 and 2007 league tables showed a challenging situation. The school was closed in 2007, and demolished in 2008. At the same time the estate children's play area in the former school grounds was closed due to maintenance costs. Beckhill is part of the intake area for St Urban's Catholic primary school

Catholic school

Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...

. Miles Hill primary was recently replaced by the new Mill Field primary school on Potternewton

Potternewton

Potternewton is a suburb and parish of north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, situated between Chapeltown and Chapel Allerton, mainly in the LS7 postcode. It is between Scott Hall Road on the West and Roundhay Road on the East, with Harehills Lane on the North...

 Mount, which led to concerns over the road crossing in Potternewton Lane, as pupils now had to walk from their estates to the new school.

Past

In 2004 there was a problem with gang behaviour in this and other estates, and in 2006 it was reported that children were committing burglaries. There used to be a public house called the Hilltop in Beckhill Grove but it was demolished in 2007, making space for a planned local regeneration development by East North East Homes Leeds. In July 2007 authorisation was given to demolish a large number of properties on Beckhill Approach and Beckhill Garth, to make way for new family housing. Beckhill became the focus of negative press attention in December 2008, following the 'Beckhill Stabbing'.

Present and future

Since 2007, the Beckhill Implementation Group (BIG) received funding from the NHS for activities to promote health and wellbeing on the estate. BIG won an Effective Partnership Working Award on 18 March 2009. Groundwork Leeds

Groundwork UK

Groundwork UK is an environmental organisation in the United Kingdom.-History:In 1980, the Countryside Commission launched an initiative known as UFEX80. This was re-branded as "Operation Groundwork" in 1981, and the first Groundwork Trust came into being at St. Helens and Knowsley that year...

 is still involved in improvement of this environment. In 2007 the average value of a house on Beckhill Chase was approximately half that of the average house in Leeds, and at least one of those houses was built in 1968.Image In Beckhill Grove there are 39 homes, built about the same time.Image

There is an active Beckhill Tenants and Residents' Association

Residents' association

Residents' associations are organisations formed by groups of people from a specific geographic community who come together to address issues within their local area and act as a voice for their local community....

. £10,000 funding was agreed by Leeds City Council

Leeds City Council

Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...

 (North East Inner Area Committee

Area committee

Many large local government councils in the United Kingdom have a system of area committees, with responsibility for services in a particular part of the area covered by the council....

) in 2008 for a study into the feasibility of providing a new community centre

Community centre

Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...

 for Beckhill. The Three Churches Project focuses on this and other nearby estates. In 2008 the group completed a four-month project with people from estates including Beckhill, and performed a play based on Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1590 or 1591. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and tropes with which he would later deal in more...

. New council housing

Council house

A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...

is planned for the estate, as a second phase of Leeds City Council's intention to build 80 properties across three sites in Leeds.

External links

• Images of Beckhill by James W. Bell: Beckhill kids | Beckhill stores | Beckhill Estate Meanwood, in black and white | Beckhill Estate Meanwood, in colour | Beckhill Estate Meanwood II | Beckhill Estate Meanwood V | Stairway to Beckhill II | Stairway to Beckhill III | Abandoned trolley | A rose will bloom