THINGS TO DO, PLACES TO GO

If you’re staying in the area for a few days, or if your friends/relatives are wondering how to occupy their time, some ideas are given below.

Leeds has a vibrant shopping centre with some interesting Victorian arcades to explore, as well as having all the usual chain stores together with some London names such as “Harvey Nicks” and Vivienne Westwood.

The places mentioned below are just a small selection of the huge variety of places of interest in Leeds and Yorkshire.  If you have a specific interest, let me know and if I can think of somewhere which covers it, I’ll be happy to give you information.

If I can be of any other assistance during your visit to Leeds, please contact me and I will try to help if possible, particularly if you contact me in well in advance of the event.

Music Shops

Scheerers (Leeds)
www.scheerers.co.uk
Instruments, sheet music, accessories

Early Music Shop (12 miles, Bradford)
www.e-m-s.com
“The world’s largest single source of mediaeval, renaissance and baroque musical instruments”

Banks (27 miles, York)
www.banksmusic.co.uk
Instruments, CDs, sheet music, accessories

Parks

Golden Acre Park (c.5 miles, A660 north)
www.vrleeds.co.uk/golden-acre-park-leeds/parkmap.html

Roundhay Park (c. 3 miles, A58 north east)
www.vrleeds.co.uk/roundhaypark.html

Museums

Thackray Museum (East Leeds)
www.thackraymuseum.org
Life and health in Victorian Leeds
Kill or cure - treatments through the ages
150 years of surgery
Medical equipment - the tools of the trade
Major medical discoveries
Interactive “bodyworks”

Abbey House Museum (West Leeds)
www.leeds.gov.uk/abbeyhouse
Reconstructed Victorian streets
Childhood and costume galleries
Adjacent to Kirkstall Abbey - hear what life was like for a 12th century monk

Armley Mills Museum (West Leeds)
www.leeds.gov.uk/armleymills
Explore the history of manufacturing, including textiles, clothing, printing and engineering
Discover how wool was turned into cloth
Find out about cinema history

Royal Armouries Museum (South Leeds)
www.royalarmouries.org
Authentic re-enactments
Interactive technology
Costumed demonstrations
Jousting tournaments
Falconry displays

The National Coal Mining Museum for England (18 miles, nr Wakefield)
www.ncm.org.uk
Underground tours - cage descent 140 metres
1842 Victorian exhibition
Pit ponies and stables
Coal interface building
Pit Winding Engine House
Workshops

Bronte Parsonage Museum (27 miles Haworth)
www.bronte.info
Home of the Bronte family

Out and about

Middleton Railway (South Leeds)
www.middletonrailway.org.uk
The world’s oldest working railway - founded 1758

Magna Science Adventure Centre (34 miles, Rotherham)
www.visitmagna.co.uk
Air, earth, fire, water - all under your control
Defy gravity and explore the limits of science and technology
Water adventure - UK’s largest outdoor water play area
Interactive “Living Steel” exhibition

Harewood House (9 miles A61 north)
www.harewood.org
Stately home and gardens
Robert Adam and Thomas Chippendale interiors
Interactive displays “below stairs”
Lakeside bird garden

Temple Newsam (3 miles, A64/A63 east)
www.leeds.gov.uk/templenewsam
Tudor/Jacobean house and gardens
Home farm
Park, gardens, lake, woodland

Eden Camp (46 miles Malton)
www.edencamp.co.uk
Travel back in time to experience the sights and smells of the Second World War, 1939-45 - the Blitz, the munition factories, bomb disposal, the Bevin boys, U-boats, the Home Guard, Bomber Command and numerous other aspects of wartime Britain.

Military vehicles displayed include, amongst others, Sherman and Churchill Tanks, full size replica Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft as well as a V1 Doodlebug Flying bomb.

Adventure!!!!

Gaping Gill
www.bpc-cave.org.uk/gaping_gill.htm
Awe-inspiring opportunity if you’re fit and adventurous - a public descent for non-cavers into Britain's biggest known cave chamber is taking place in the week leading up to the concert (26 May - 1 June).

Winch descent 360 feet (105 metres) down Britain's deepest surface shaft to the Main Chamber.  Experience “pitch black” darkness and see how the cave opens up to the size of St Paul’s Cathedral as your eyes gradually become accustomed to the blackness.

Access from the slopes of Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales - please note access requires a couple of hours (at least) of steep fell-walking over rough terrrain, this is not a walk in the park!

PM Skylark for more details if you're interested!

Sport

Cricket at Headingley
www.yorkshireccc.com
If you are planning to come to Yorkshire for a week’s holiday, you might like to know that you can catch the Second Test between England and the West Indies if you come the week leading up to the concert - the event starts on Friday 25 May and ends on Monday 29 May.

Xscape (16 miles, M62 nr Castleford)
www.xscape.co.uk
170m real snow slope
Climbzone rock walls
Skyride Aerial Assault course
Skateboard park
Laserzone
Entertainment centre