Until 1953, all of Cinder Moor was covered in grass. It had been like that since 1884 when the council levelled it to form a cricket pitch. In the 20th century, it was used for playing football on as well. Then in 1953, the council designated the site as a heliport and covered it in cinders. Although the planned heliport was never built, nobody ever played on it again. Instead the council allowed the university to use it from time to time for overflow parking for visitors to the university. The city re-designated the site as green space in 1973, but never restored the original surface. Until it was “scalped,” a process which began on the 19th December 2019, half of the site looked as shown in the above photo. Scalping removed all of the soil and grass which had accumulated over the years, and replaced it with re-cycled tarmac, in effect, doubling the site’s car parking capacity. The process of scalping could not have taken place without the agreement of the Headingley councillors, in whose ward Cinder Moor is located.