Ghyll – meaning stream or ravine.

The above would seem to fit our location rather well.  We can all remember the stream and positive deluge running down the Ghyll itself following particularly heavy falls of rain.  The approximate location of Houghley Ghyll is on the left from Bramley Townend, when travelling towards Leeds City centre, and before the commencement of the parade of shops at the top of the Wyther Estate (opposite St. Bede’s Church), and follows the slope of the land down towards Raynville Road itself.

Tinted photograph of an Edwardian Lady strolling down Houghley Ghyll

The Wyther Estate is one of the oldest in Leeds, and was built in the very early nineteen-twenties (possibly commencing after the First World War had ended in 1918).  Although large parts of this estate have been demolished it is interesting to see that new domestic buildings have been erected where the old houses once stood.

In the days when the estate was first built, it was a lovely and interesting place to be.  There were lots of trees, birds and rabbits to see and wild flowers grew there in abundance too, many of which would be picked and, no doubt, taken home as presents for ‘Mam’ or Grandma or some other lucky recipient.  There were many rows of houses leading off to the side of the Ghyll, all of which had gardens which were well tended, and each of these gardens would produce their annual display of seasonal flowers, shrubs, etc.  It must have looked ‘a real picture’, to use old parlance.

The same Ghyll, but from a slightly different angle, taken during the summertime

Within the Ghyll there was an orphanage called “Cowgill House”, and when school time had finished in the afternoons, local children would go along to the orphanage and play with the children, when they used to give them sweets and apples to eat, and also books for them to read.  At the same time they would tell them of what they had been doing at school that day.

The Nuns from the convent opposite the orphanage, taught the children in their care, but as well as looking after the children, they also looked after Tramps who would congregate alongside what was called ‘the hole in the wall’.  This hole was a feature of the convent wall itself from where the Nuns would feed the Tramps with soup and a piece of bread.

Many of the local people would cut across the fields thereabouts and go through the ‘ginnel’ (a walkway between two rows of buildings or in some cases bordering farmers’ fields), which was close to the convent, and which lead to the ‘Astons’ at Bramley Town End.  Lots of houses have now been built on those fields in recent years and all the farms thereabouts have now disappeared.

2006.