The Meanwood Road Project

Hello from The Meanwood Road Project

We are neighbours, Lizzie and Katy, and over the past year, we have collaborated on over 30 pop-up portrait studios, run community walks and residencies and created six postcards. We aimed to initiate connections and conversations with the many wonderful people, pets and communities who live, work, commute and visit across Meanwood Valley. To mark the year, we’ve produced a magazine to share and celebrate the journey so far. We hope you enjoy it.

When COVID-19 happened, the road became silent for a very different reason. There weren't people running up the road; there was no race. No one gathered outside eating breakfast and drinking cups of tea, and as neighbours, we could only chat from our doorsteps. Suddenly our worlds shrank, and the communities around our homes became incredibly important. We weren't driving anywhere. The feel of the road was extraordinary, the smell of it, the sound, you could hear the birds, and we spent time looking after our neighbours. Things shifted, the communities and the space changed, and people’s priorities felt different, and it felt important to explore that. A poem written by a neighbour sums this up.

IntroductionMeanwood Road is a busy thoroughfare that leads north out of Leeds, slicing up Meanwood Valley. For many, our road is seen as a means of getting from A to B, a liminal space where cars feel they have priority over people, but it is also a street. People live and work here, and it is our community. Behind the morning rush hour, horses, deer, and sheep can be seen and heard along the green valley sides. At the same time, Meanwood beck is home to crayfish and kingfishers as it flows across the valley floor and filters into the city uninterrupted and often unseen.

Geoff Dyer asks an intriguing question in his book The Ongoing Moment (2005), what is the difference between a road and a street? He suggests that streets must have houses on either side to be streets, concluding, ‘The best streets urge you to stay; the road is an endless incentive to leave.'

Meanwood Road limits the community within the valley, and the area's identity is disproportionately determined by it. The road hosts approximately 21,000 motor journeys a day, and while many view it as a road, it is also a street. It has houses on either side. We wanted to work within the communities around us to help change this and explore how a long commuter road develops a sense of belonging, identity, and community well-being. How can it have the feel of a street instead of a road?

Once a year, the road goes quiet; you can lie down in the middle of it. It goes quiet before the Leeds half marathon goes past our front doors. People come out. They cook breakfast and sit on the side of the road in deck chairs, enjoying the silence and talking with neighbours. Some of us even run it!

Like a receding reservoir in a drought the pause of 2020 drew back the water and revealed a community beneath, Dog walkers, Posties, Families, Chats & smiles, Conversations, And a road that binds them rather than dividing.

The Journey

As part of the research and development program, My World, My City, My Neighbourhood, Leeds 2023 called for artists to look at the neighbourhoods they lived or worked in. We applied and were successful.

The Meanwood Road Project started with hand delivering ‘Welcome to Meanwood Valley’ postcards through the letterboxes of every house facing onto Meanwood Road. On the back was an invitation for a series of walks.

“Got your little postcard through the letterbox. And I’d been thinking about how my street could sort of meet one another. And we’ve had chats about, like maybe doing a little street party. So I thought it’d be nice to meet everybody around the area because I’ve lived here for just a year.”

- Quote from someone on the first walk - Nov 2021

- Rob Dale -

Walks

Over 8 walks we have talked, taken photos, connected & made friends, recorded stories, memories & created new ideas.

‘Exercise, fresh air and some nice pictures’

‘It made a huge difference being able to communicate with people across the road. The only time we’ve experienced it being that quiet is when the road closes for races’

‘I’d quite like to follow the beck, I’m interested in where it leads. I’ve done quite a bit of research around the history of it and taken lots of photographs of it’

‘It’s just been great to speak to other people that live around here’

‘My fondest memories is looking out of my kitchen window onto the back of the valley and seeing the deer’

‘I live in a house on Meanwood Road and I always say that I had the town at the front and the countryside at the back’

Quotes from people during the walks - 2021

Photographs taken by people during the walks

Workshops & Sharings

In the first six months, the project held workshops at Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, where people were encouraged to write and draw onto a ‘map of possibilities’ for Meanwood Road. What would people like to see on the road? What changes?

At a sharing event in April 2022, people walked to ‘the best bench in the world’ at the top of Sugarwell Hill, where story teller Matthew Bellwood presented these ideas into a vision for the valley in 2053. This included zip wires, fox bridges, hedgehog tunnels, along with wider pavements and cycle lanes. It was a lovely way to talk about what was possible while looking at the valley.

In May 2022, the project received a Leeds Inspired main grant to strengthen and develop the connections already made. Building on what had been achieved so far the project hosted further workshops, walks, and pop-up portrait studios. This increased the projects’ visibility and provided further opportunities for participation to residents, workers, commuters and visitors. We proposed to host an exhibition along Meanwood Road in September 2022 that featured the portraits taken and showcased our communities’ creativity. We also wanted to make a publication that could be delivered to everyone on the road.

The PortraitPop-UpStudios Locations

The project used the pop-up portrait studios as a tool to connect with the varied communities along the road. We placed it by the road at rush hour. We took it to a pub, a bar and a club. We attended community events, festivals, woodland speakeasies and the Meanwood Olympics. We created studios in a charity shop, a church, and an industrial estate. It was set up in the winter and the summer, in the rain and the sun, and just as a storm was about to hit.

Placing it in all these spaces enabled different people, pets and communities to come along for a chat and a portrait.

The thin white backdrop framed people in their photographs, creating a performance space and acting as a veil through which we still see the road and the edges, showing where we are. Being outdoors has also created a portrait of the weather and the light in the valley. You can see this in the images where the backdrop becomes a sail blowing behind.

Placing the exhibition along Meanwood Road, publicly showcases the portraits, making them visible and accessible to everyone who uses the space. We hope they celebrate our communities by putting people (and pets) at the heart of Meanwood Road.

The exhibition will launch on September 24th 2022 and will feature 476 portraits at various locations along Meanwood Road and Valley.

Bandstand Allotments *

Leeds Bread Co-op *

Njoy Accomodation @ Carr Mills * Woodhouse Cricket Club * Sugarwell Hill

Meanwood Urban Valley Farm * Stainbeck Church Marveland *

Meanwood Community Centre

The Barn Cafe

Meanwood Road * Woodhouse Ridge

The Primrose Salvation Army Charity Shop Neighbours Doorsteps Springwell Brewery

Exhibition Locations

Art Works

Meanwood Road

We are the sun rising each morning which gradually draws back the curtain up on Sugarwell Hill,

The eyes that turn and look upon the ever changing carpets of greens & browns that roughly blanket the slopes, The trees and grass that fills the gaps between the scattered few old factories, chapels and mills, The rows of redbricks and roof-tiles. We are the air that rushes up the valley side, The busy hazy breath of the valley's back and forth,

An unreal rural peacefulness ruffled by steeples, towers & flats, Our urban countryside. The world between two ridges.

The sound of sheep in summer, The screech of a loser's thunder rattling down the road, The pleasing crash of glass from the bottle banks, Families at the farm, Hippies at the bandstand, The rolling rumble of a lorry as it rattles a drain cover, The cheers from the cricket, The gravelled purr of an overhead plane, And the clapping of hands and feet at the marathon.

We are the tributaries and ginnels that bring you back, As we spill home from Springwell, The Primmy or the village up the way, From work, a trip, or an adventure to a neighbouring valley, Decending to the asphalt river which will guide us home, Lined by the streetlights that stitch a neat line against the night sky.

We are here, This is our little country, Our road.

- Rob Dale -

The following pages feature drawings, writing, paintings, embroidary & photography submitted to the project for the exhibition along Meanwood Road.

We are an independent artisan bakery & workers’ co-operative, with a passion for making slowly fermented sourdough bread with simple, high-quality ingredients, in an ethical and empowering workplace. At the moment we’re celebrating Sourdough September, so we’re really happy to be involved in the Meanwood Road Project. Part of the exhibition will be displayed outside of our shop!

We are open 8am - 4pm every Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, and from 9am - 1pm on Saturdays. With plenty of bread, pastries & focaccia, as well as coffee, tea, fresh fruit & veg, & pantry items.

As part of Sourdough September, we asked a customer of ours to write a little bit about the bakery...

Like Bread from Heaven

As a fan of Talking Heads who produced the song Heaven. I need to be careful when using the word.

Their song“Heaven, Heaven is a place

A place where nothing Nothing ever happens” - reflects on the nature of perfection.

However, breads, cakes and pastries from Leeds Bread Coop are always tasty and yummy. They are exciting and a lot of fun for the weekend extended breakfast.

Some years ago I came from Heidelberg in Germany. I felt that I had to say good-bye to the excellent German bread of the Heidelberg Bread Coop called Malzahn. However then I discovered Leeds Bread Coop. First I found an ad asking to support the Coop, then I found the bread in some organic shops in the city and the Green Shop at the University.

Finally I discovered the bakery near Meanwood Road. Since then I have become a healthy and joyful addict to this vegan friendly bakery. The German-style Vollkornbrot is as good as the German version.

There are many other delicious varieties such as Yorkshire Sourdough, Baguette and Ciabatta. This organic bakery in the heart of Yorkshire offers a truly international range of products with an important additional social and environmental value.

The Coop also sells organic fruits and vegetables, jams and many other good food items.

A lot of good things happen at the Leeds Bread Coop including baking classes and a pizza party for their tenth anniversary celebration. Above all the people at the Coop are always very friendly, courteous and helpful.

I wish them success and many repeats of their anniversary celebrations.

-Reinhard Huss-

Artwork byAndrew Tessyman

Bethany Vargeson Bill Miller Caroline Ibberson Caroloine Sanders Catherine Wallis Charlene Whitley David Keighly Georgia Cooper Gracie Cotrell Jane Tessyman Leia Gurnhill

Liliya Lawson Maia Harvey Owen Findley Peggy Dell-Hayley Peter Spafford Union Leeds

Next Steps

Since starting the Meanwood Road Project, we have met many people who love the wildlife on our doorsteps, from expert ecologists to dog walkers and backyard gardeners.

One of our next projects will tap into this enthusiasm and give everyone the chance to be a citizen scientist by learning something about the wildlife where we live.

Anyone with a smartphone can get involved, and you need no expertise whatsoever. The plan is to map the wildlife in our valley over a year.

How many species do you think we will find? 100? 200? 300? We’ve been talking to local experts who reckon there might be around 50 regular bird species and approximately 10 different butterflies. But how many other insects, spiders, plants, lichens, fish, and mammals? Which is our most common bird? What’s that beautiful flower? Do people still see deer in the valley?

We will use a website and App called iNaturalist to help us answer these questions and more.

It is straightforward to use, and as well as mapping things you see, iNaturalist will identify them for you. It will compare your photos to some of the 115 million observations of plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms in its database. If that doesn’t work, the community of users will quickly come to your aid to help.

During the year, we will organise some in person get-togethers to share experiences, connect with experts and learn more about the different sorts of wildlife. We can also help people with tips and tricks to use the cameras on their phones.

All the observations together will create a picture of the wildlife living around us, and after a year, we will share the results celebrating everyone’s work.

You can either download iNaturalist from your App Store or go to www.inaturalist.org. It’s got around 350,000 active users across the globe.

The guide to setting up an account, (via iPhone, Android or computer) and the basics of sharing your observations are here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started

Once you have signed in to iNaturalist, you can go to the tab at the top of the website labelled ‘community’ and click on ‘projects’ from the drop-down list. On the App, the ‘projects’ tab is at the bottom of the screen.

If you search for ‘Meanwood Valley Bioblitz’, the name we use for our project, you can join in all the fun.

If you are interested in getting involved and would like us to inform you of future events, then please email us at: meanwoodroadproject@gmail.com

- Photographs by resident Cluny Macpherson

- Photographs by resident Haiko Muller

I have lived on Meanwood Road for 22 years and any community initiatives I have been involved in before now were to do with things like speed limits and resident parking; basically what we often think of as the downsides to living on a busy main road. This project feels different because it is given us a chance to showcase and celebrate the beautiful, interesting and sometimes surprising places tucked away along Meanwood Road.

One of my favourite community walks was held on a cold and blustery winter’s day where we toured some of the hidden industrial buildings and landmarks that have played their part in forming the character of our road.

The project has also enabled us to connect with the people who live and work on or near the road. Coming so soon after Covid lock downs it has been joyful to turn up to events and see your neighbours there, as well as meet new people who have since become familiar faces to chat with when out and about.

On all of our get togethers we have sometimes shared our moans - like trying to cross from one side to the other during rush hourbut we actually spend far more time enthusing about living in this ‘urban oasis’ just one mile from the city centre.

- Jo Bishop -

Portraits of the people who live, work , commute & visit

The Meanwood Road Project would like to thank -

This ex hibition is create d from over 30 pop-up po rtrait studios that have taken place in the last year. The studios were set up to develop connec tions & conversations around Meanwood Road. The portraits highlight the many people & communities who live, work, commute & visit this special & diverse plac e.

All the neighbours, co-creators, participants, volunteers, artists, writers & photographers / Individuals, communities & businesses who have hosted the project / Adam & the staff & volunteers at Meanwood Urban Valley Farm / Andrew & the staff at the Barn Cafe / Jane & Tess at Est Display / Leeds 2023 & Leeds Inspired / Everyone who took time to stop & have their portraits taken.

Jo’s Thought’s Photography (unless otherwise credited) & Design by LizzieCoombes & Katy Hayley © 2022 1 of 1000 copies

meanwoodroadproject@gmail.com

@The Meanwood Road Projec t

@The.MeanwoodRoadProjec t

@MeanwoodRoad