Gipton is a suburb of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south. It is in the Gipton and Harehills ward of Leeds City Council and the Leeds East parliamentary constituency. The separate area and woodland of Gipton Wood is in Oakwood, north of Harehills and part of the Roundhay ward. Gipton’s residents are known as Giptonites. Etymology The name of Gipton comes from Old English, and is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086 in the forms Chipetun, Cipetun and Chiperton. The first element is a personal name, Gippe, and the second is the word tūn ('village, estate, farm'). Thus the name once meant 'Gippe's estate'. The name Coldcotes appears in many street names in the area and derives from the ancient Anglo-Saxon settlement of the same name that was likely destroyed in the Harrying of the North. The estate has been light-heartedly referred to by people in Leeds as Corned Beef Island. History The 1817 village was west of the place now called Gipton and contained the Gipton Spa, a bathhouse in what is now Gledhow Valley Woods. Gipton Pit The area of east Leeds from Burmantofts and Harehills to Killingbeck, Seacroft, Manston and Crossgates has a history of mining for coal, ironstone and fireclay, with a large number of pits. Gipton Pit and the railway serving it opened around 1891/92. It was owned by the Low Moor Coal and Iron Company of Bradford who held extensive mineral leases in the Harehills area. The original lease was for 40 years and covered the extraction of coal and ironstone under land at Potter Newton and Coldcotes. In 1896, the lease was renewed for another 40 years. The pit was sunk in wooded farmland between Harehills Lane and Oakwood Lane. The Low Moor Colliery Railway that linked Gipton Pit with the coal staithes on Harehills Lane can be traced for much of its original length. At the eastern end of the railway, the pit head buildings, with winding gear, two shafts and railway sidings were just north of where Thorn Mount and Thorn Walk meet. The pit was taken over by the Harehills Colliery Company in circa 1898 and closed in 1921. Much of the spoil heaps have been removed. The only remaining heap has recently been levelled and a new housing estate built. Gipton Estate The creation of the