This carefully curated collection of photos charts two decades in the life of Colton and its residents. The gallery of memories turns back the clock to the 1980s and 1990s and brings into focus a range of stories making the local news headlines during the 20 years. The main photo from the 1990s shows villagers who had joined forces to fight a plan for a retail park on a field near their homes. Leeds City Council’s draft Unitary Development Plan envisaged a supermarket, garage and DIY superstore on a field between School Lane and Selby Road. But action group ACRES, the Austhorpe and Colton Residents' Environmental Society, claimed the last thing the area needed was a retail park. Life around the community during the 1980s had also witnessed its fair share of controversy with new access roads built for a proposed multi million pound housing development. The images featured have never been seen before having being digitised for the first time using photos from the Yorkshire Evening Post archive. READ MORE: Unseen photos chart of a golden age of Leeds pub culture LOVE LEEDS? LOVE NOSTALGIA? Join Leeds Retro on facebook YEP RETRO NEWSLETTER: Sign up for our free monthly email digest of Leeds nostalgia
1. Colton in the 1990s
Austhorpe and Colton Residents' Environmental Society pictured in September 1992. | YPN Photo: YPN
2. Colton in the 1990s
March 1993 and residents feared their quiet country lane would be sliced up by a new juggernaut carrying highway. The new road would be built to serve a supermarket which was being mooted at the junction of School Lane and Selby Road. Pictured are alarmed locals George and Nancy Backhouse. | YPN Photo: YPN
3. Colton in the 1990s
March 1993 and the design for a proposed nursing home was described by neighbours as "like something from Dallas." The home, an extension to a house on Park Road, was due to accommodate 24 residents. | YPN Photo: YPN
4. Colton in the 1990s
Lone vigil. A small boy sleeps through protests for a new school at the Colton Lane polling station in May 1990. | YPN Photo: YPN
6. Colton in the 1980s
A road which goes nowhere in July 1981. The road which leads off the Whitkirk roundabout and comes to an abrupt half at School Lane was described as a "ghastly charade" by former county councillor Margaret Suttenstall. It had been built as the first phase of a new access road to the proposed multi million pound housing development at Colton and would eventually link up with Bullerthorpe Lane. | YPN Photo: YPN