Tag Archives: The Buck Stone

Saturday, 12th July 2025: litterpicking and clearing the Buck Stone, a local landmark

Posted on July 12, 2025 | Leave a comment

A beautiful morning, and even though the forecast was for extremely hot sun, we still had an excellent turnout of fifteen volunteers – including four new Friends!

We met on Buckstone Avenue at 9.55 am with two tasks on the agenda: litterpicking and clearing away scrub from around the Buck Stone.

Litterpicking

Five people and Coco the collie chose to go litterpicking.

A group of four litterpicked as they made their way to the Village Green and around the play area and the Village Green carpark. Between them they picked up two full bags of litter including litter from Nanny Beck.

The fifth litter picker and Coco walked through the woods from the Buck Stone to the Village Green, returning to the Buck Stone by a different route. She collected one bag of litter, mainly from the Village Green.

The Buck Stone

The Buck Stone is a well-known landmark in Alwoodley and the Buckstone estate is named after it. The earliest known reference to it on a map dates back to the 1770’s when the local landowners, the Lane Fox family, had the map prepared in relation to a property dispute.

In the 1960’s, the Buck Stone was a popular place for children to play, but by 2012 the stone was completely obscured by an oak tree. In March of that year, Friends of Adel Woods removed the bulk of the tree and have subsequently removed the scrub – bracken, rosebay willow herb, saplings and Himalayan balsam – from around the stone several times.

Friends of Adel Woods: bindweed growing counter-clockwise up a bracken stem — **Bindweed growing counter-clockwise up a bracken stem.**

Today the main plants we removed were bracken, Himalayan balsam and bindweed.

Friends of Adel Woods clearing the footpath behind Buckstone Avenue — ***The path behind Buckstone Avenue at 10.30 am***

We also took the opportunity to clear the path that leads from the Buck Stone to Adel Moor along the back of the houses on Buck Stone Avenue.

Friends of Adel Woods and the cleared footpath along the back of Buckstone Avenue. — ***The path behind Buckstone Avenue at 12 noon***

Fortunately, though very warm, the weather did not live up to the inferno predicted in the press! No one called upon our supplies of cold water and sunscreen, and we all enjoyed our morning’s exercise and socialising.

Friends of Adel Woods at the Buck Stone on the 12th July 2025 — ***The north face of the Buck Stone at 12 noon***

Join Friends of Adel Woods

We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.

We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods, and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, keep an eye on our Home Page and come along to one of our work parties. Our next work party is on the Saturday the 9th August and our local ranger will be leading a batwalk for us the evening of Thursday the 14th August.

If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.

Friends of Adel Woods and the Buck Stone on the 12th July 2025 — ***The Buck Stone 12th July 2025***

Saturday, 20th July 2024: titivating the Buck Stone

Posted on July 20, 2024 | Leave a comment

Friends of Adel Woods, the Buck Stone, Adel Woods, Leeds — ***The Buck Stone in all its glory in November 2023***

The Buck Stone is a local landmark from which the local housing estate gets its name. It has appeared on local maps for at least two hundred years. Until about twenty years ago it was a place where children could play, and where you could sit and enjoy nature, but over the years it became concealed under the spreading branches of an oak tree.

In 2012, responding to requests from local residents, Friends of Adel Woods restored it to its former glory, and we have carried out further maintenance work in the years since. You can find out more in our entries for 18th March 2012 and the 30th March 2012.

As you can see from the photograph below taken on the 6th July 2024, nature moves in quickly! So today it was time to do some further tidying up!

Friends of Adel Woods: the Buck Stone on 6th July 2024 — ***The Buck Stone on 6th July 2024***

If you don’t know where the Buck Stone is, it is in Adel Woods just behind the houses on Buck Stone Avenue. About twenty yards from the junction with Buck Stone Way, there is a ginnel marked by a public footpath sign between two bungalows. Go down the ginnel and follow the path to your right, and you will find the Buck Stone.

Friends of Adel Woods clearing Himalayan balsam and bracken from around the Buck Stone in Adel Wood, Leeds

A small but international group of us met in Buck Stone Avenue at 10 am. International because one of our number, Jen, a former stalwart of Friends of Adel Woods, had flown in from her home in Australia, just to help Friends of Adel Woods!

Friends of Adel Woods clearing bracken and Himalayan balsam from around the Buck Stone in Adel Woods

As can be seen in the photographs, the bracken and Himalayan balsam surrounding the Buck Stone and on either side of the path was very thick and as much as eight to ten feet tall. We started by clearing bracken and Himalayan balsam from around the Buck Stone and then cleared it from the paths. Disappointingly, a dog owner had used a small area in front of the Buck Stone as a dog toilet, so we had to start work by removing as much as we could and covering the rest with a layer of bracken and balsam.

Deep among the Himalayan balsam we found this perfect nest – no longer in use, so we assume that its occupants had successfully fledged. It was a very small nest – the inside of the cup was about 5-6 cm across – so our guess is that it was a robin’s nest. If anyone has any other suggestions, please let us know!

The path running along the back of the houses on Buck Stone Avenue had been overgrown until it was almost invisible. We opened it up again as can be seen in the following photographs.

Friends of Adel Woods clearing bracken and Himalayan balsam from the path behind Buck Stone Avenue, Leeds. — ***Looking eastwards along the path behind Buck Stone Avenue on the 6th July***

Friends of Adel Woods clearing Himalayan Balsam and bracken from the path behind Buck Stone Avenue, Leeds — ***The same path at 11.44 on the 20th July***

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers for the work they did this morning – and to Jen for joining us from Australia!

Friends of Adel Woods and the Buck Stone, 20th July 2024 — ***Friends of Adel Woods***

ABOUT FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS

Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.

Our next events

Our next work party is on Sunday the 18th August 2024 when we will be litterpicking and working on our orchid meadow (also known as the cricket meadow).

Our next educational event will be on Wednesday the 28th August 2024 from 7.15 to 9 pm when our local countryside ranger, David Preston, will be leading a bat walk.

Further details will be given on our homepage and sent out via our mailing list.

Saturday, 16th September 2023: litter picking, and clearing around the Buck Stone

Posted on September 16, 2023 | 1 comment

The Buck Stone, Adel Woods 7th September 2023 — ***Looking southwards towards the Buck Stone on Thursday the 7th September 2023***

A cool and Autumnal day. And also the day of the Meanwood Valley Trail Race organised by the Meanwood Valley Striders running club, so there were lots of runners in Adel Woods this morning.

Today we had two tasks: litterpicking and clearing scrub from around the Buck Stone.

The Buck Stone is a large outcrop of rock in the woods behind Buckstone Avenue. It has been recorded as a landmark on maps for over two hundred and fifty years and – you are ahead of me! – the Buckstone estate is named after it.

It has been a popular feature in the woods for many years, and members of FOAW can remember playing on it as children over fifty years ago!

Litterpicking

Unusually, we only had one litter picker, Sue, today.

She picked up three bags of rubbish, one of which was a bag of rubbish thrown into the bushes near the Buckstone Road entrance to the woods. She also found gas canisters and balloons in the Stairfoot Lane car park, and a disposable barbecue and box of raw bacon at Adel Crag!

The Buck Stone

Friends of Adel Woods first worked on the Buck Stone in March 2012 at the request of local residents. At that time, it was almost completely covered and hidden from view in the Summer by a large oak tree growing into the eastern end of the rock. We cut back most of the tree and cleared scrub under the guidance of our local ranger, Steve Joul, and restored the landmark to its former glory.

Since then, we have worked on the Buck Stone on 21 March 2015, 24th April 2016, and 8th April 2017. However, we have not worked on it since 2017 and this morning it was once more largely obscured from view by the oak tree, brambles, himalayan balsam and bracken. In fact, we had not seen such tall bracken and himalayan balsam – some plants were seven to eight feet high.

Friends of Adel Woods: view of the southern aspect of the Buck Stone: 10.25 on 16th September 2023 — ***The southern face of the Buck Stone at 10.25 am this morning***

The task looked daunting and the plan was to start from the Buck Stone and move outwards, to get the maximum bang for our Buck! But to begin we had to clear a way through to even reach the Buck Stone! And we also had to clear a space for a compost heap where we could put all the vegetation we removed. This in itself was a big job.

We started with a team of seven volunteers, but thankfully numbers gradually increased till there were twelve of us.

It was hard work, but as usual there was lots of interesting conversation and laughter – each of the Friends working on different parts of the project.

Friends of Adel Woods and the Buck Stone on Saturday 16th September 2023 — ***The northern face of the Buck Stone: 11.55 am on Saturday 16th September 2023***

We finished at noon, and we achieved far more than we thought we could. Once more, the Buck Stone is a feature of Adel Woods and a place where people can sit, relax and dream, and young children can climb and play and use their imagination.

Thank you to all our volunteers. It is not just the Buck Stone that rocks. You rock too!

Friends of Adel Woods: working on the Buck Stone, Saturday 16th September 2023 — ***The southern face of the Buck Stone, noon on Saturday the 16th September***

Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events. If you would like to take part in our activities, get in touch by leaving a comment on our website.