St John's & Roundhay History

Foreward

When designing the St John's Church Website, I was very keen to include some history both of the church, and the surrounding area. I expected that some information would already exist on the internet and I would have the simple task of linking to the various sites. I was very disappointed to find very little information on the internet - however this has presented an opportunity for this site to be the internet place to come to for historical information on the area. What other sites of interest I come across, I will of course link to.

My main source of documentation is therefore books. I will scan and faithfully re-create whatever the authors will allow me to copy. If anyone has any material they want including on this site, please contact me and I'll see what I can do.

Peter Oldfield.


Articles

A (Short) History of Methodism in Roundhay
Thanks to Barbara Worthington for providing the source document for this article

Edward & Robert Hudson and St John's
Thanks to James Hudson for the information on his family in the 19th Century.

St John's Baptism Records 1826-1890   St John's Baptism Records 1890-1903
Yet again we are indebted to June Underwood for transcribing another of our registers from microfiche. Please note that the transcription has not been checked - however given the state of some of the handwriting, it is likely that the transcription won't be improved on. The records are also available from 1903-1950 however as people named may still be alive, it has been decided to hold these back - if anyone wants information on this period, please contact Peter Oldfield

Alice, John & George Backhouse - The New Zealand Connection!
An interesting email was received recently - from New Zealand!. Helen Smith was researching her ancestors and, through our website, found burial & grave details of her gr gr gr grandparents Alice and John Backhouse and their son George.

St John's Burial Records 1827-1921
We are indebted to June Underwood for providing the register. I'm not sure how long it took June to transcribe the 1177 burial records from February 1827 (presumably the 1st burial at St John's) and February 1921 - however I did have a look at the records which are stored on microfiche at Sheepscar - and they are very hard to read. June has done a fantastic job!.

Now that we have the list of memorials and burials on 2 electronic registers, it should be possible to match them up - to see what incriptions we are missing e.g. unmarked graves - and where they are likely to be.

St John's Memorial Inscriptions

Please Note - due to safety concerns the South graveyard has been cordoned off and should not be entered by anyone until further notice.

The Oakwood & District Historical Society undertook the Herculean task of transcribing all memorial inscription from both inside and outside the church. Initially published as a booklet, this is now available through the link above to the website of Neville Hurworth - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nev.hurworth.

Cadmans at St John the Evanglist Roundhay
This article was written specially for the St John's website by Celia Moss, a direct descendant of the Cadman family, some of whom are buried in the crypt of St John's Church. Besides taking an in depth look at the Cadman family, Celia has also linked in the other major families of the time - Rhodes, Oastler, Nicholson and Lupton. Celia has spent a considerable amount of time preparing this material and we are very grateful to her. If anyone would like to contact Celia to comment on her work or perhaps to supply her with more material, please contact her at CeliaMoss@compuserve.com. Celia would particilarly like to know if anyone knows the whereabouts of the original family portrait - a photograph of which appears in her article.

Soldiers of St John's
A list of all Soldiers commemorated at St John's - with links to the Commonwealth Graves Commission website (giving details of battlegrounds etc). To be added - links to regimental websites.

A History of St John's Church Roundhay (including St John's School)
This book was published in 1967 by Mr Jack Dickinson and Mr Gilbert Webster (now deceased). It is testimony to the authors (as the reader will see) the level of research that has gone into this book. Gilbert, who died in 1992, was Headmaster of the school from 1950 until 1975, was involved in both the church drama group and choir, and was the last President of the Leeds Schools Athletics Association in 1964. Jack, who was also in the drama group, was Churchwarden at St John's in 1974 until 1982, served on the PCC for 20 years and was scout leader in the 1960's. It is with the kind permission of Jack, and Gilbert's daughters - Elaine Hargreaves (whose husband Terry provided the photographs in the book) and Joan Hollingworth, that I am able to replicate the book here.

Apologies that some of the book had to be scanned in - it was taking too long to transcribe every page. Hopefully one day I will catch up!

It is hoped that, in another article, this history can be added to - from 1967 to the present day.

St John's Church Roundhay Centenary Souvenir 1826-1926
This booklet was published in 1926 by William Herbert Scott. Not much is known about William, other than he was a Churchwarden from 1917-20 and died on July 17th 1932 in his 71st year. William is buried in the graveyard at St John's, along with his wife Constance, who died on April 2nd 1936, also in her 71st year. If anyone knows anymore about William, Constance or their descendants, please let us know - I'm sure their relatives would be interested to know about this article.

Sports at St. John's
This article was written by John Brook - dedicated member of the choir and permanent sidesperson (holidays & choir notwithstanding) at the 8am Sunday service. If anyone else would like to contribute small articles about life at St John's in years gone by, please pass them to Peter Oldfield or Peter Haddleton.

Oakwood & District Historical Society
About eight years ago, a small group of local oakwood residents started meeting to talk anout th history of the district. More recently the group have published 4 booklets containing articles that the group themselves have researched and written. For the index of contents and information on where to obtain the booklets, click on the link.

St John's Organ
This article is written by Organist and Choirmaster Colin Briggs


Links

Friends of Roundhay Park
The Friends of Roundhay Park are an organisation dedicated to the care of the park, so that it's many benefits can be enhanced and enjoyed by the general public. There are links from this site to the vrleeds site which shows many 360 degree panoramic views of Leeds.

Mary Gordon
Site dedicated to the boat that sailed on Waterloo Lake from 1899

Leeds City Library
Part of the Leeds City Council site. Gives links to local history and organisations.

Leeds City Tourism
Part of the Leeds City Council site. Gives links to tourist attractions including parks and museums

Elmet Heritage Site
Parts of this area of Leeds were once part of the old Kingdom of Elmet

Seacroft History
Local History

Leeds Photographs
10,000 photographs, some with comment.

Leeds History
Site contains lots of historical articles.

Thoresby - Leeds Historical Society
More history of Leeds

Local Genealogical Data
Including St John's - lots of local historical links

Leeds Indexers
More local historical links