Beeston is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, located on a hill about 2 miles (3 km) south of the city centre.
The origins of Beeston can be traced back to the medieval period. It remained a small settlement until the latter part of the Victorian era when it became a primarily residential area for people working in Leeds and surrounding industrial areas like Holbeck and Hunslet.
At the time of the 2011 Census, Beeston had a population of 22,187 (which included Holbeck). Some parts of the area, around Cross Flatts Park, suffer from relatively high levels of deprivation, while areas to the centre and south are generally considered more affluent. Beeston is home to the Leeds United football club stadium on Elland Road and Hunslet rugby league club.
Etymology The name Beeston is first attested in the Domesday Book, in the form Bestone. The name seems to come from Old English *bēos 'bent-grass' (L. Agrostis) and tūn 'estate, village'. Thus it once meant 'estate characterised by bent-grass'.A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, English Place-Names Society, 30–37, 8 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961–63), III 217; cf. The Vocabulary of English Place-Names (Á-BOX), ed. by David Parsons and Tania Styles with Carole Hough (Nottingham: Centre for Name Studies, 1997), s.v. *bēos.
The northern area of Beeston, situated on a hillside facing north to the centre of Leeds, came in the nineteenth century to be called Beeston Hill. This area was formerly called Cat Beeston (and variant spellings), a name first attested in 1398 as Catbeston and Cattbeston. The Cat element is also found in a local field-name, Cadtheweit (whose second element comes from Old Norse þveit, meaning 'clearing'), attested in 1202. The Cat element could come from the Old English word catt ('cat, wild-cat') or from a personal name Cada. Recent scholarship prefers the latter interpretation, in which case Cat Beeston once meant 'Cada's estate characterised by bent-gress', while Cadtheweit meant 'Cada's clearing'.
To the west of Beeston lies Beeston Royds, whose name is first attested (as Beyston Royds) in 1633. The royds element comes from the Old English word rod ('clearing').Harry Parkin, Your City's Place-Names: Leeds, English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Names Society, 2017).
Another district of Beeston is the Cross Flatts area. This name is first attested in 1636, as Crossflatts and other spellings. The Middle English word flat meant 'piece of level ground, field', but the precise significance of 'cross' is unclear. It is thought to refer to some cross-shaped pattern of field divisions.
History The origin of the settlement is likely to be Anglo-Saxon. Beeston is first mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book, when it had recently been granted to Ilbert de Lacy (1045–93); in 1066 it had been worth 40 shillings (£2), but in 1086 it was considered waste, presumably because of the Harrying of the North.David Thornton, Leeds: A Historical Dictionary of People, Places and Events (Huddersfield: Northern Heritage Publications, 2013), s.v. BEESTON. It was one of the ten 'out-townships' of the Parish of Leeds until the parish was broken up in the 1840s–50s.
In the medieval period, Beeston was associated with sheep-farming: the monks of Kirkstall Abbey grazed 240 sheep there. Founding Drax Priory in the 1130s, William Paynel granted it land in Beeston. A small hospital seems to have been founded in the township around 1233, and a chapel dedicated to St Mary the Virgin may also have been founded in the 13th century.
The oldest buildings in Beeston today date to the 15th century. Cad Beeston (also Cad-Beeston, Cat Beeston, Cat-Beeston) manor house has been dated by dendrochronology to about 1420, and is a grade II* listed building; recently used as private offices, it is now a private dwelling, with no public access. Parts of Stank Hall Barn, a grade II* listed scheduled ancient monument originally built for the storage of crops, have been dated to between 1448 and 1490.
By the early 17th century the area had a reputation for manufacturing bone lace, and by the middle of the century, coal-mining was underway in the area. According to David Thornton, in December 1688 rumours abounded in the town [of Leeds] that an army of Roman Catholics were ravaging the surrounding area. Ralph Thoresby recorded, 'Beeston is actually burnt, and only some escaped to bring the doleful tidings! The drums beat, the bells rang backward, the women shrieked, and some doleful consternation seized upon all persons ... (B)lessed be God! The terror disappeared, it being a false alarm, taken from some drunken people.'
Between 1740 and 1820, the Leeds-Elland and Dewsbury-Leeds turnpike roads were built through Beeston; nationalised in the 1870s these roads remain as Elland Road and Dewsbury Road respectively. By 1822, Beeston had a population of 1,670.
Until the 19th century, Beeston had been a small mining village situated on a hill overlooking Leeds. However, during the Industrial Revolution, land that had been occupied by open pits, as well as land formerly utilised for farming, was snapped up for high density residential development. By 1872, Beeston is recorded as having a population of 2,547 with 537 houses, a railway station and a post office, and 'by the end of the 19th century Beeston was predominantly a working class community living in back-to-backs'. Beeston was formerly a township and chapelry in the parish of Leeds, in 1866 Beeston became a separate civil parish, on 26 March 1904 the parish was abolished and merged with Holbeck and became part of Leeds in 1925. In 1901 the parish had a population of 3323.
On the night of 14 March and early hours of 15 March 1941, during the Second World War, Leeds received its worst night of German aerial bombing. Beeston had more bombs dropped on it than any other district of the city and although Flaxton Terrace was damaged during the night time air raid, escaped with the less damage than most other areas of Leeds with nearly all the other bombs landing on Cross Flatts Park. In his 2005 poem "Shrapnel", Tony Harrison, who was in Beeston on the night of the raid, speculates whether this was an act of heroism by the German pilot, a theory that has been explored ever since the raid. Holbeck Cemetery, in Beeston, also features prominently in Harrison's 1985 poem "V".
In 2006, the district was the setting for much of the film Mischief Night, directed by Penny Woolcock.
Geography and demographics
Beeston is an inner-city area located close to Leeds city centre. It is severed from the areas to the north by the M621 motorway, separated from Middleton by Middleton Park and from Cottingley by the Leeds Outer Ring Road.
Beeston can be described as three distinct areas. Beeston – Parkside and Cross Flatts area and Beeston Hill are separated by Cross Flatts Park which runs between Dewsbury Road and Town Street: Beeston Hill to the east, and Parkside and Cross Flatts to the west. The distinction between these two areas has probably existed since medieval times when they were two separate manors. Beeston – Elland Road and Millshaw is primarily industrial and centred on Elland Road to the west of the area.
Beeston – Parkside and Cross Flatts area The Parkside and Cross Flatts area of Beeston, sometimes locally known as Beeston Village, is centred on a shopping centre comprising a Morrisons Daily food store and a number of smaller shops. Housing in this part of Beeston is made up of almost equal proportions of late Victorian and early-20th-century terraced housing to the east of Old Lane, and newer semi-detached family and housing association properties to the west. To the south side of Dewsbury Road, there are significant areas of industrial premises.
Indicators for health, economic activity and community safety in this area are broadly consistent with averages for the City of Leeds as a whole.
Beeston Hill area
Beeston Hill is largely made up of areas of older Victoria terraces and newer social housing, which comprises around a third of the housing stock in the area. In April 2008, a £93 million PFI scheme to build 700 private and housing association dwellings and regenerate some existing stock was announced. As a particularly deprived area, Beeston Hill along with Holbeck was the beneficiary of Objective 2 European funding. Beeston Hill has a relatively high level of empty housing as well as a number of significant unoccupied commercial premises. Beeston Hill has a significant ethnic minority population, with around 40% of the population from BME Communities.
The area suffers from a high level of deprivation, with indicators for health, economic activity and community safety substantially worse than for the City of Leeds as a whole.
Beeston – Elland Road and Millshaw Area The west of Beeston around Elland Road has significant amounts of industrial estates, with a substantial amount of mainly semi-detached and terraced housing to the western edge of the Parkside and Cross Flatts area. This also forms much of the Old Village side of Beeston, as can be seen in many of the houses along Town Street/Milshaw.
Transport Railway
Beeston has a main-line railway line running along its western edge along which all services between Leeds and London King's Cross and London St Pancras run; however, there are no stations along it, as Beeston station closed to passengers in 1953.
The nearest railway station is Cottingley, which is just under a mile away from the Town Street end of Beeston. Services between Leeds and Huddersfield are operated by TransPennine Express, stopping at Morley, Batley, Dewsbury, Ravensthorpe, Mirfield and Deighton.
Buses Beeston is served by a number of bus services along Dewsbury Road, Elland Road and Town Street, operated primarily by First Leeds and Arriva Yorkshire; these include: A Park and Ride site to Leeds has been built opposite Elland Road police station First services 2, 12, 75 and 86 link much of Beeston with Middleton, Belle Isle and Hunslet Service 65 links much of Beeston with Morley and Gildersome Services 51 and 52 link areas close to Elland Road with Morley Services 200 and 201 link the Dewsbury Road/White Rose side of Beeston to Morley The frequent No. 1 bus service largely follows the route of the former Leeds Tramway route 5 through Beeston; it continues beyond Leeds to Lawnswood/West Park.
Roads Beeston Hill and Beeston are severed from Leeds by the M621 and therefore benefit from very good links with the M621 motorway, as well as the M62 which runs close to Beeston to the south of Morley.
Economy
Much of Beeston's traditional heavy industry and fabrication works have closed throughout the last forty years. However, there are substantial areas of industrial and commercial development around Elland Road and to the south of Dewsbury Road and Beeston is surrounded by areas which have become popular with businesses, such as Leeds city centre, Tingley and many of the business districts along the south side of the River Aire. The neighbouring White Rose Shopping Centre contributes £300m to the local economy and supports 6,000 jobs in 2025.
Education Beeston is home to the Beeston Centre of the Leeds City College (formerly Joseph Priestley College) and Elliott Hudson College. Beeston has one secondary school, Cockburn School which is a specialist arts college.
Matthew Murray High School situated between Beeston and Holbeck closed down in 2004 and was merged with Merlyn Rees High School in Belle Isle, to form South Leeds High School in Belle Isle. In September 2009 South Leeds High School was reopened as the South Leeds Academy.
In September 2017, South Leeds Academy was renamed and rebranded as Cockburn John Charles Academy, as the Cockburn MAT opened a new school. There are seven primary schools in the area.
Local facilities and attractions