About West Ardsley
History of West Ardsley
Due to housing developments the village of West Ardsley has slowly been joining the wide area of Tingley, but if you ask residents they will clearly let you know we are West Ardsley village.
Historically, Ardsley is a derivative of ‘Erdeslau’ – under which name it appears in the Domesday Book.
In Arthur Mee’s The King’s England series, he wrote under Woodkirk, “Sometimes called ‘West Ardsley’.”
This was not correct, Woodkirk was the centre of the parish, as it had the church.
West Ardsley is home to what is believed to be the oldest horse fair in England and ‘Lee Gap Fair’ goes all the way back to 1139, it is still held but is smaller than maybe it once was. It takes place in a local field, with first Lee at the end of August and latter Lee two weeks later in September.
The controlling council is Leeds City Council, whom we pay our council tax to and we have Leeds area numbers for those with landlines but our post code and address is Wakefield which can confuse some people!
Buses and Travel
We are well situated for major road links with junctions 40 and 41 of the M1 close by and junction 28 of the M62 just a few minutes drive away.
We no longer have a train station in Ardsley as this was closed during the Beeching cutbacks in 1964. However, we still have a bus service, albeit not as good as it once was, but many of us do rely on it.
The 117 no longer runs through West Ardsley, the 203 now diverts from Leeds road to do the loop
The 205 will take us to Dewsbury in one direction and Morley and Pudsey in the other, but not on Sundays!
The 212 travels from Batley to Wakefield along Batley Road
The 425 will go to Bradford /Morley and Wakefield from the top end of the village
Sadly the bus services are changed and removed on a regular basis making access harder
You can check bus times at the WY Metro website.
Local Education
The local primary schools are Hilltop and Westerton and these are very good schools and both have a waiting list.
From primary schools our young people move on and the nearest high school to West Ardsley is Woodkirk Academy on the edge of Morley.
Rubbish
Bin (wheelie-bin) days are Mondays with alternative weeks for black bin which is general waste, and the green bin which are recyclable items only. From Spring to Autumn we have a fortnightly brown bin collection on a Tuesday for our garden rubbish. (please check as the brown bins are collected on different days through West Ardsley)
Find out all about wheelie-bins and rubbish at the Leeds City Council site. There is also a free phone app from LCC which is very handy.
Doctors Surgery
The local doctors surgery is Leigh View Medical Centre, which is a large thriving medical centre on Bradford Road.
Library Services
The nearest library is in East Ardsley just on the border of West Ardsley, Opposite Country baskets, all Leeds residents can access the service for free with a Leeds Library card.
Sadly the Library bus stopped visiting at the start of the pandemic and has not restarted