Chris Baines' Story
I was born in St James and I have lived in Seacroft all my life. I went to Beechwood Primary, John Smeaton’s Middle School, and then John Smeaton High School. I loved school. I have lived on East Dean Drive all my life. I grew up in this house with my Grandma and Grandad and Mother and her brothers and sisters. My grandma was the first person to live in the house. She lived in the house for over 60 years. She was the first tenant. The opposite side of the road wasn’t even built yet. There was just a field. I remember
The Seacroft Centre in the mid 80’s: I remember all the shops and designs. There was a bustling market every weekend. Fish shop on the front with a cafe and loads of old people sat outside on benches. I think we’ve lost that sense of community now they have built Tesco’s there. My favourite was the hot dogs and boiled burger stand in the middle. When you came from upstairs to downstairs on the ramp, when you got to the bottom, in the middle there used to be one of those boiled burger and little hot dog stands right in the middle in between the chemist and Low cost.
I remember Patel’s Toy Store, we used to go there when we played truant from school. We were always outside there playing on the arcade games. They had a band stand in the middle of the centre and every Christmas up until 1992 they had a band and they used to put the tree and everything on there and it was brilliant. It was a fantastic place. All it needed was doing up a little. They had a full array of shops. Everything you needed under one roof.
It was missed when they took it down. Most of my memories were playing in the underground car parks. We used to go in there with the skate boards and bikes and radio controlled cars.
We used to play in Ramshead woods a lot on the bikes because they was nothing to do really apart from the local adventure playground that we used to have down on Kentmeres. And we used to have the Civic Youth Club at the back of Tescos but you were only allowed in there if you were a certain age. Whenever we didn’t have anything to do we used to go up into the woods with the push bikes and play in there all the time.
When I left school I went straight into work and I started working for an engineering company that all of my family worked for. I used to come home on a weekend and go out drinking with my mates, we used to go into the Pathfinder, Lion and Lamb and The Cricketers Arms. When I was growing up there was a lot of pubs still open around here. There were 6 pubs in the vicinity of
Seacroft that you could go to. When I left school I didn’t muck around like any kid did then. My family was strict. When you left school you either stayed on or you found work through family. Luckly for me I fell straight into work and I did pretty well on that bit.
Now The Seacroft Centre has closed there is nothing for you to do. Kids around here nowadays have nothing to do.
Health and Safety stepped in and Council stepped in and they just got rid of everything. The Civics been demolished, they’ve done nothing with land where it was. The adventure playground has gone demolished and they’ve done nothing with the land.
You can’t go in the woods and play anymore because park patrol on their motor bike come and kick you out. You can’t get into the woods anymore because it’s over grown from the entrance we used to go in and basically nowadays you can’t be kids anymore. Nothing’s changed for the better.
It’s always been a clean estate that’s not changed its never been a scruffy estate. I see the North/South divide but not when I was growing up I think it’s the younger generation that’s brought this. I think the reputation about it being crime ridden is a load of garbage. A lot of people think it’s a crime ridden area but it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong there are partsof Seacroft that are bad but that goes for everywhere. Seacroft is not a crime ridden estate and it never has been.
I remember going to the Seacroft Hospital to have my tonsils out but apart from that I very rarely went there. I have seen it change over the years. Now you’ve got Asda and the flats where Killingbeck Hospital used to be and now they are actually building on the Seacroft hospital site at the back. It’s ridiculous! We are losing everything now to private housing. It’s getting ridiculous!
We have a lot of greenery but there is nothing on them except for instance you’ve got The Rein. It’s a massive. The rein was football pitches when I was growing up. The Gate pub we used to use as football pitches. There was a park and everything there. Now there’s just grass and a footpath straight through the middle of it. It needs a park. Somewhere the kids can go and do something. There’s a football pitch there. Coal Road park has gone. When I was growing up there, there was swings and slides and everything, tennis courts and now there’s the bowling thing there. The tennis court has now turned to a basket ball court with tennis courts and the parks have gone. The parks just flat space. The Rein used to have a park on it with swings and roundabouts that got destroyed over the years. They have done nothing to replace it all.
I personally would like to see some of these things you see in countries abroad like exercise machines fixed in. Our Lady of Good Counsel have got them in their playground. Why not put some of them in? Cross Trainers and ski machines and things like that. Put some of them in.
The Seacroft Centre in the mid 80’s: I remember all the shops and designs. There was a bustling market every weekend. Fish shop on the front with a cafe and loads of old people sat outside on benches. I think we’ve lost that sense of community now they have built Tesco’s there. My favourite was the hot dogs and boiled burger stand in the middle. When you came from upstairs to downstairs on the ramp, when you got to the bottom, in the middle there used to be one of those boiled burger and little hot dog stands right in the middle in between the chemist and Low cost.
I remember Patel’s Toy Store, we used to go there when we played truant from school. We were always outside there playing on the arcade games. They had a band stand in the middle of the centre and every Christmas up until 1992 they had a band and they used to put the tree and everything on there and it was brilliant. It was a fantastic place. All it needed was doing up a little. They had a full array of shops. Everything you needed under one roof.
It was missed when they took it down. Most of my memories were playing in the underground car parks. We used to go in there with the skate boards and bikes and radio controlled cars.
We used to play in Ramshead woods a lot on the bikes because they was nothing to do really apart from the local adventure playground that we used to have down on Kentmeres. And we used to have the Civic Youth Club at the back of Tescos but you were only allowed in there if you were a certain age. Whenever we didn’t have anything to do we used to go up into the woods with the push bikes and play in there all the time.
When I left school I went straight into work and I started working for an engineering company that all of my family worked for. I used to come home on a weekend and go out drinking with my mates, we used to go into the Pathfinder, Lion and Lamb and The Cricketers Arms. When I was growing up there was a lot of pubs still open around here. There were 6 pubs in the vicinity of
Seacroft that you could go to. When I left school I didn’t muck around like any kid did then. My family was strict. When you left school you either stayed on or you found work through family. Luckly for me I fell straight into work and I did pretty well on that bit.
Now The Seacroft Centre has closed there is nothing for you to do. Kids around here nowadays have nothing to do.
Health and Safety stepped in and Council stepped in and they just got rid of everything. The Civics been demolished, they’ve done nothing with land where it was. The adventure playground has gone demolished and they’ve done nothing with the land.
You can’t go in the woods and play anymore because park patrol on their motor bike come and kick you out. You can’t get into the woods anymore because it’s over grown from the entrance we used to go in and basically nowadays you can’t be kids anymore. Nothing’s changed for the better.
It’s always been a clean estate that’s not changed its never been a scruffy estate. I see the North/South divide but not when I was growing up I think it’s the younger generation that’s brought this. I think the reputation about it being crime ridden is a load of garbage. A lot of people think it’s a crime ridden area but it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong there are partsof Seacroft that are bad but that goes for everywhere. Seacroft is not a crime ridden estate and it never has been.
I remember going to the Seacroft Hospital to have my tonsils out but apart from that I very rarely went there. I have seen it change over the years. Now you’ve got Asda and the flats where Killingbeck Hospital used to be and now they are actually building on the Seacroft hospital site at the back. It’s ridiculous! We are losing everything now to private housing. It’s getting ridiculous!
We have a lot of greenery but there is nothing on them except for instance you’ve got The Rein. It’s a massive. The rein was football pitches when I was growing up. The Gate pub we used to use as football pitches. There was a park and everything there. Now there’s just grass and a footpath straight through the middle of it. It needs a park. Somewhere the kids can go and do something. There’s a football pitch there. Coal Road park has gone. When I was growing up there, there was swings and slides and everything, tennis courts and now there’s the bowling thing there. The tennis court has now turned to a basket ball court with tennis courts and the parks have gone. The parks just flat space. The Rein used to have a park on it with swings and roundabouts that got destroyed over the years. They have done nothing to replace it all.
I personally would like to see some of these things you see in countries abroad like exercise machines fixed in. Our Lady of Good Counsel have got them in their playground. Why not put some of them in? Cross Trainers and ski machines and things like that. Put some of them in.