Historic Headingley Hill

Headingley Hill was part of the vast Kirkstall Abbey estate, until the Dissolution of the monasteries.  It passed through the hands of the Savile and Brudenell families, until it was bought by John Walker in 1673.  It remained farmland (the last of Headda’s people’s fields survives here), until Walker’s descendants early in the nineteenth century sold the land for building plots.  Four roads were laid (North Grange, North Hill, Cumberland and Grosvenor) and villas built – and now the Hill has the greatest number of suburban listed buildings in Leeds, some thirty altogether.

For a brief general description of the area, go to Headingley Hill, see also, Listed Buildings.  For the Victorian domestication of the Ridge, see Woodhouse Ridge in the Past.

Acknowledgements: Leeds Library and Information Service, University of Leeds Library Special Collections: Godfrey Bingley Collection, The Thoresby Society, Leeds Transport Historical Society, Francis Frith and Company and Helen Pickering. Some of these photos are copyright and should not be reproduced without the owner's permission. Every effort has been made to contact all copyright owners. We would be pleased to rectify at the earliest opportunity any omissions and errors brought to our notice.


For the area now, see Headingley Hill Gallery. For photos of other areas in the past, go to Historic Headingley.