Have you ever noticed this little garden in front of St. Michael’s Parish Hall? It’s actually the last surviving fragment of Headingley village green. This green was originally common land, but after many years of encroachment it was eventually enclosed as private land in 1834.

The Parish Hall itself has its origins in a Town School, built on the green in the 1780s when it was still common land. The building we see today dates from the 1840s, when the original school was rebuilt to accommodate local population growth. It became a Parish Hall when St. Michael’s School moved to Wood Lane in the 1970s – now of course known as Shire Oak School after merging with the old Bennett Road school.

You can read more about our area’s history in Eveleigh Bradford’s book, Headingley: this pleasant rural village.