GIPTON

'Gipton' is an early twentieth-century council estate between Harehills and Seacroft in north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
It suffers from serious social problems and has long been considered one of the city's worst estates, although never being treated as a no-go area by the police or other services.

Contents

Housing

Etymology of place-name

General information

Housing

Gipton is comprised of semi-detached houses, with some terraced houses and some high-rise flats: these are common around this area of Leeds, as they are in Seacroft and Swarcliffe.

Etymology of place-name

Gipton derives from Old English: the first element is a personal name: in this case, it is Gippa (same as in Ipswich, although almost certainly not the same man!) and ''tun'' "village, settlement, farm" (here, it refers to a village).
The town's name was recorded as ''Cepetun'', suggesting village with a market, suggesting a trading-town, or residence of the traders, as with Market Weighton. The first element of the name in the Domesday Book record wrongly suggests Old English'' ceap'' "market, trading-place", but it was a corruption of the personal name, Gippa. However, a record from 1018 as ''Gipentune'' proves that the first element is a personal name, not a noun.

General information

In local parlance, those that live in or originate from Gipton are known as Giptoners, or more recently, youths have adopted the term 'Giptonites' [Like Kryptonite]
The large Church of the Epiphany located on Beech Lane was constructed in 1936-1938 by NF Cachemaille-Day, and is a Grade I listed building.
St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Primary School on St Wilfrid's Circus was opened in 1975 after the old school off Harehills Road ran into a dilapidated state. The first Headteacher at the new school was Mrs. Fleming. The school was once again re-built in 1993 after a fire destroyed the whole building early one morning in 1990.