OUIL505 - Undiscovered Leeds

I recently had a minor encounter with the police for public urination. I was given the option of having a fine or doing a small amount of 'community work', being a poor student I couldn't afford the fine. 'Community work' turned out to be a few hours of litter picking. The supervisor for my small group of people who'd also been caught short was a charismatic guy called Nick.

As we walked through Leeds city centre and a little beyond he had a lot too say about certain places, having lived here all his life. I've lived here for nearly two years and it seems theres a lot more for me to learn about Leeds. Working for the city council most of his life Nick seemed to have a story for most streets we walked, even unsolved murders were mentioned as well as the 'Yorkshire rippers' activities during the 1970s/1980s.

One anecdote that caught my attention concerned a graveyard. Specifically St Peters graveyard on Kirkgate. Nick explained that in the past he'd traced his families roots back to this grave yard. His great great Jamaican grandfather being buried here. According to Nick they had a challenge finding the grave as in the late 1800s it was relocated. The original grave yard was dug up and stones moved to make way for a road and to also support the train line running above. The graveyard now exists on a bizarre incline supporting the railway.

It really shocked me that around two-hundred years ago this whole graveyard was moved and even put to a practical use. The bones of the dead being very much disturbed. This put some very unoriginal ideas in my mind to begin with, mostly consisting of angered zombies and skeletons running a ghost train. Later I thought that I might be able to use this as a more wholesome starting point from which to explore a multitude of unfamiliar Leeds locations, possibly looking at the industrial revolution and it's negative affects on the city, this being the cause for the graveyards' relocation.