Armley Rocks
I love the graveyard up t'road, and view from it to a part of Leeds that I do not know, I love the inexplicably wide Yorkshire flagstone pavement on one side of the road on the way up to it, I like the look of St Mary's hospital though a friend who had her baby there in nineteencanteen said it was ghastly and grim though its NHS offices now but maybe things haven't changed. I am scared of the Barleycorn, and I don't even know the names of the other pubs except for the White Horse on the other side of the road which I have been for a lunchtime drink in the dim and distant past and it was er.... ok(ish). I love the canal. I love Armley Mills Industrial Museum and the fact that we seem to be the only visitors each time I go, outnumbered by the staff. I love the fact that you can cycle to work in about 5 minutes from St Ives Mount along the canal (if you work in town) but then it takes about 50 mins to come home and as it's up hill all the way it nearly kills you. I love the melancholic horses on the 'moor' and I don't understand them. I don't even like horses. But I love not understanding the melancholic horses on the 'moor'. I wonder who Charlie Cake was and why there is a little triangular park named after him and what are the brick wall things in the top corner of the park, surely not the entrance to an underground public toilet? I am very very curious about the demarkation (sp?) line where the right hand side as you walk back from the shops of Armley Town Street goes 'nice' just after the moor up to Hollywell Lane/that new church/that row of houses with very very flowery gardens (does one of the residents work in the parks department?) and then goes very very downhill for a few Edingburghs, and then by the time you get to our street (or maybe the one just before) it picks up so that by the time you get to opposite that pub on the top of the hill it's well posh (and yes, I work in social regeneration and I don't know how one locality works and another doesn't right next to each other)....... You can probably tell, I could go on.
Anon.
Anon.
posted by Armley Tourist Board at 2:14 AM
4 Comments:
I'b be interested to hear why it got it's name charlie cake too, does anybody have any ideas?
The story of Charlie Cake.
Charlie Cake is the most fantastic name. When we first moved here i thought that there was cake factory nearby and that it was the name of its car park. Needless to say on polling day i wandred around aimlessly searching for Armley's answer to Mr Kipling. But Charlie Cake is, infact, much more interesting than some overly manufactured bakewell tart (I'm beginning to sound scarily like my step-grandfather Derek but stay with me).
Once upon a time in Armley there lived a peddler, called Charlie Cake. Charlie was a peddler who sold the finest patisseries and petits gateaux throughout armley - and , no doubt, as far across the valley as kirkstall and beyond, maybe even Bramley. On these journeys through the vales and villages of Leodis, Charlie could always rely on his trusty old horse (not sure of her name but lets call her Cupcake) to carry his wares and share a joke or two along the way. Armley Town Street always proved to be a bit of an up hill struggle for poor old Cupcake, what with all the joy riders on their penny farthings and such like. So it was something of a relief for them to stop at the strange triangular shaped green belonging to the Gotts Family at the top of the road. Here Cupcake would have a well deserved break after lugging around the weighty batenburgs and victoria sponges and Charlie Cake would also take the opportunity to sell his delicious creations to the gentile residents of Upper Armley. During one if these regular stops at the triangular green Charlie was blessed with a flash of marketing genius and decided to create his own signature shortbread cake in the shape of a triangle. Over the years Charlie Cake's Shortbread was famed accross the town of Leodis and was even presented to the Queen of England at the opening of Leodis Town Hall in 1853. After his death Charlie Cake was posthumously hounoured by the good people of Armley, and the Gotts Family rightly renamed the triangular green Charlie Cake Park. The End.
An abridged version of this text can be found at (including pictures of Charlie Cake Park itself)
http://www.leodis.org/display.asp?resourceIdentifier=20041216_48165530&num_to_display=10
Posted By Armley Cat
I lived just a few streets down from Charley Cake Park so I enjoyed seeing this and reading the story of how it came about and its nice to know its not forgotten ..... speaking of not forgotten I know the answer to that Horse on the Moor question .... they were rested there to graze and chase and bite poor unsuspecting kids like me who were walkin home from school ... it dead yet ?
Anyone that remembers me can email me @ allytude@tampabay.rr.com
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