HOW LEEDS HAS BENEFITED BY BUSES.
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A Correspondent Gives His Views on Phases of the City's Transport Facilities.
" °ME three miles out of Leeds
one finds Kirkstall Abbey in the shallow valley of the Aire, full of dignity and rigid beauty, speaking oddly of long past days of solitude and meditation here. . . . It is easy to see how pretty this wide and open valley must have been, and how sweetly the Aire once wandered through the buttercup meadows which lie on every side of Kirkstall ; poor, pretty river, how changed and soiled! Just below the abbey it still sparkles, because it falls over a weir, and the sun will dance even oa the inkiest stream when it is broken into foam. Elsewhere I do not care to look at it. . . ,"
So writes Mr. A. H. Norway, in "Highways and Byways of Yorkshire,"
and, although I can fully appreciate the truth and charm of the passage, I think that he must have looked at the Aire a little too closely. If be were to-day to write a similar book it might be better for him to go to Kirkstall by bus. The tram route passes close to the abbey; in the bottom of the valley, 'but the buses take a-parallel road higher up the slope. They go over Kirkstall Hill and, then along Morris' Lane, where suddenly a view of abbey and river opens
out. Many of the residents on the HawksworthEstate, farther along, must have obtained from the bus their introduction to this view. , It is probable that Leeds Corporation started this service mainly for Hawksworth residents, but people living on Burley Hill and around Kirk stall Church have also found the new buses very useful. These vehicles climb the -steep hills and put them down near their houses at the top. This service (which has since been extended) is typical of many around Leeds. Passenger travel in this city is still thought of as being mainly concerned with tramways, and the bus services as of a somewhat supplementary nature.
Even so, the usefulness Of the bus has brought into being routes which may now be considered as independent of the trams. The Hawksworth route is one of these, as is the long run out to New Fernley. Trolley-buses used to work the New Farnley route, but these were taken off some years ago and, amongst their successors, are some sixwheeled double-deckers with covered tops.
One of the grumbles that I heard many years ago, on my first visit to Leeds, was that in order to travel from a western district to, say, a northwestern suburb, one had first to go to town and then take another tram for one's destination. • That has,: for a
long time, not been necessary. You may now go by bus from York Road, on the east side, to .Stanningley or Whingate,, on the west. This most demonstrative -of all the local bus services takes 'in Harehiljs, Bleanwood, Chspeltewn' Headingley,. Kirkstall, Bramley and Armley—a string of suburbs in
the northern half of the town. •
I began these notes with the mention of Kirkstall Abbey. Perhaps I May end with, a' note about another landmark which is quite as well known to Leeds people.'' This is the Oak, ileadingleya fine old. tree trunk, railed around, yet stillshoiving a--brave face to the changes going_. on -all about it., 'How long it has stood there I do not profess to know ; atter ill, .what does a -mere date matter, as_ one looks upon this picture of age and beauty? Now it receives special attention. on Saturday and Sunday afternoons (when fine), for it is here that people travelling to Roundbay Park wait for the bus. After standing sentinel to generations of .Headingley families; it has become a landmark.