Kippax is a friendly, medium-sized village in East Leeds, West Yorkshire. The High Street forms the central point of the village with numerous local businesses, shops, library, pubs and clubs. There are three primary schools in the village and a local high school (in Allerton Bywater) as well as a leisure centre and swimming pool. There are plenty of community groups and organisations, from sports clubs to art groups.
The village is near to Garforth, Great Preston and Allerton Bywater and benefits from good motorway links.
The name "Kippax" indicates that the village was first established in a heavily wooded area of ash trees.
Kippax was a separate civil parish, in Tadcaster Rural District, until 1939, when it was annexed to Garforth. It re-acquired civil parish status, with a parish council, on June 17, 2004.
The village's historical roots are survived by the presence of an originally Anglo-Saxon church which underwent significant modification in Norman times. Typically Saxon herring-bone masonry can still be seen in the Tower. Despite being an administrative centre for hundreds of years, the population remained small and mostly agricultural until the late 1700s when coal mining began on a relatively small scale in local bell pits. The advent of deeper mining and the discovery of coal seams in Allerton Bywater saw Kippax undergo a rapid expansion in the 19th century into a typical Northern mining community. The decline in deep coal mining saw the Allerton Bywater pit finally close in the 1990s despite being in decline since the 1970s.
Without undergoing any real "transformation" Kippax has adjusted to its new status as a commuter village. Its proximity to the A1/M1/M62 and bus and rail networks means that many residents can easily commute to Leeds, Wakefield or York rather than working more locally. Its older identity as a "mining community" lives on within the village's older residents. A modest amount of housing development has occurred in Kippax in recent times but the green spaces between it and its neighbouring villages are being maintained. Today the High Street boasts a large Co-op supermarket, a range of independent local stores, public houses and places to go and eat.
Kippax is fortunate to have several wildlife-rich sites including Townclose Hills Nature Reserve (Billy Wood) (SSSI), Kippax Meadows Park (SEGI), The Lines Way and is close to Fairburn Ings Nature Reserve and St. Aiden's Nature Reserve.
Kippax still has one of the lowest crime rates in the Leeds metro area; and remains one of the most highly regarded areas in the city.
Hopefully, Kippax will remain the limit for the eastward expansion of the East Leeds conurbation and the small hamlets and villages of Ledston, Ledsham and Towton may be preserved.
There is a wide range of residential properties in the village to suit different family sizes and pockets with some detached properties in excess of £300,000.