The buildings at the bottom of Town Street, on The Green, have been part of the Horsforth Community for many years. The pair of stone Victorian semi-detached properties started life as a gentleman’s house and a vicarage. The buildings have had several uses over the decades. One of them was even a pub for a period of time!
More recently the two buildings were knocked together and became the buildings for the Horsforth Urban District Council. It was only in 1974 when Horsforth Urban District Council was absorbed into the Leeds City Council were the buildings handed over to Leeds City Council for their use.
Number 5 is currently the home of our Village Museum and although Number 3 is currently vacant the hope is that it won’t be out of use for long.
In 2018 we wrote to everyone in Horsforth to ask if our community would support the Town Council with a proposal to purchase the leasehold of both 3 and 5 The Green together with The Stables building at the rear. The response received back was wonderful and over 95% of the responses were in favour of the Town Council committing to this special project.
The process to acquire the buildings took the Town Council longer than initially expected but in May 2022, the transfer of the three properties was completed.
The task now is to ensure that all of the buildings are externally water tight and in good repair before we embark on making significant modifications to the internal layout of Number 3. Number 3 will soon become a brand new community space with a large meeting room on the ground floor. There will be a new kitchen at the rear and new toilet facilities, one of which will be a changing places room; a disabled toilet with changing room. There will be a lift from the ground floor to the first floor which, as well a providing access to the new Town Council offices on the first floor, will also be accessible by The Museum.
Horsforth Town Council has taken out a loan in order to purchase the buildings and complete most of the internal modifications required. Although this will mean that there will be loan repayments to make each 6 months it will mean that the valuable funds we get through the precept each year won’t be eroded and the events that the Town Council already support won't have to be reduced or given up.
The proposed drawings can be found below. Please note that these are draft versions.
The Town Council has prepared the following Business Plan.
Residents' and community groups survey results
At the end of 2023 we asked Horsforth residents to provide feedback on proposals for the new facility.
Before proceeding with such a project, the Town Council wanted to consult and involve the local community in future plans. To understand the level of support, and shape what a community facility could include, we wanted to hear your ideas and feedback.
We also devised a survey to share with local community groups and non-profit organisations to gain thoughts on the new facility.
The results of both the residents' and community groups surveys are available to view via the below PDFs: