Welcome To Our Website
Garforth is Home to England’s 1st World Peace Flame Monument
Our Mission
Is to inspire and encourage others to live peaceful, kind and happy lives by offering them ideas and tools to help them become the change they wish to see in their community, world and future.
Our Work
We are a very small community volunteer group passionate about promoting the ethos of the World Peace Flame within our community and beyond.
We are dedicated to engaging with all our schools with peace projects and promotion of peaceful conflict resolution as we truly believe our young peacemakers of the future can be the change we wish to see and make a huge difference for peace.
Garforth, Leeds, West Yorkshire
The Garforth World Peace Flame was created on 28th April 2017 and is housed within the Diamond Jubilee Garden, Aberford Road, Garforth, it is the first public world peace flame monument in England.
It is the only only World Peace Flame monument where you can take a small candle lit from the flame to use and pass on.
Garforth World Peace Flame - Candle Lighting
The energy of the World Peace Flame is retained within the wick of each candle/lamp. Once re-lit it can be passed on to create further World Peace Flames. On the left below are small World Peace Flame tea light candles pre-lit from the World Peace Flame. On the right below the lighting of the Garforth World Peace Flame by our community representatives.
Latest News & Upcoming Events
April 2026
We are very excited to announce, this year, on the 28th April England’s 1st World Peace Flame Monument here in Garforth, Leeds, will be 9 years old. Last year we converted our Miners Lamp housing the W.P.F. to solar, an LED within the wick of this precious flame of peace, (the energy of the W.P.F. is contained in the wick of the miners lamp and therefore always present). However, unfortunately the current housing is too restricted for the solar system to be housed adequately.
Therefore, on the 9th Anniversary in April, our current Lord Mayor, Cllr. Dan Cohen, Local Councillors and local schools will unveil a new updated monument. To help fund the new monument we are having two fund raising events. On Saturday 25th April, 2026 we are having a Schools Peace Cake Bake Off, at Barley Hill Working Men’s Club, Garforth, please see flyer details below.
Also in the evening of Saturday 25th April, 2026 Garforth Community Choir along with Garforth Ukulele Players are holding a fund raising concert, at the same venue, please see preliminary flyer above.
(The flyer for the concert has a photo of our lovely friend Fred, who represented Garforth Peace Project at the King’s Garden Party last year, and handed a small W.P.F. tea light and leaflet to HRH Prince William). We hope you are able to come along and support us, thank you so much.
Paying Peace Forward
As we continue with our current ongoing project, we are eternally grateful to our local schools, teachers, staff and children.
They are continuing to make more World Peace Flame Tea Light candles to pass on the message of peace. As the energy of the W.P.F. is contained in the wick of the candles, it is ever present and every candle lit from these becomes another W.P.F.
Also as part of this ongoing project we have, to date, presented 5 of our 6 schools with new hand made (by a local craftsman) individually designed, battery/solar (optional) World Peace Flame lamps to be used in school to help promote peaceful conflict resolution.
U.N. International Day of Peace 21st September
This has now been designated an annual event, at the Leeds World Peace Flame, by the Lord Mayor’s Office and the Leeds City Council Events Team.
The 2025 event was attended by amongst others, The King’s Representative Dr Kuldip Kaur Bharj OBE DL, The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Dan Cohen and the Leeds Children’s Mayor, Esosa.
Other Latest News
We were incredibly grateful and honoured to have been invited to events by the Lord Lieutenancy of West Yorkshire in 2025.
Firstly, for the second time, we had 3 of our volunteers present at the King’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in May. Our wonderful friend Fred was able to hand HRH Prince William, a small World Peace Flame tealight and an information leaflet about Garforth Peace Project.
The 2025 event was attended by amongst others, The King’s Representative Dr Kuldip Kaur Bharj OBE DL, The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Dan Cohen and the Leeds Children’s Mayor, Esosa.
Light For Leeds
In November 2025, we attended the Light for Leeds event at Kirkstall Abbey Museum. This is a part of the annual Interfaith Week and something we have been involved in for many years now.
The W.P.F. was lit by the King’s Representative Dr. Kuldip Kaur Bharj OBE DL and the Deputy Lord Mayor of Leeds.
Remembrance Day
The World Peace Flame has now been present at Remembrance Day Services in Garforth for the last 4 years and Kippax for the last 2 years and in Bramley, Leeds, placed on the War Memorial since 2018.
The Leeds Civic Interfaith Chanukah Candle Lighting Event
On December 17th 2025, we were deeply honoured to be invited to the above event by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr. Dan Cohen. This event was held at the Banqueting Suite in the Leeds Civic Hall.
It was attended by representatives by many faith groups, together with civic dignatories and community representatives from all over the city. All 85 candles were lit from the World Peace Flame.
Recent School Projects
-
We are currently working with our schools on our ongoing project ‘Paying Peace Forward’. Our children are helping to create more W.P.F. tea light candles to pass on the message of peace.
- The Coronation Peace Tree Project 2023 dedicated to H.M. King Charles III. We are delighted to announce that in May, the then Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leeds, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant and Councillors Field and McCormack planted and unveiled trees and plaques in each of our 6 schools.
-
Creation of the Garforth Schools’ Peace Flag 2022, which has also been presented to the then Lord Mayor, Cllr. Bob Gettings JP and the Lady Mayoress Cllr. Lesley Gettings, who has granted permission for it to be displayed in the Leeds Civic Hall.
-
Creation of the Garforth Schools’ World Peace Trail 2021.
- Peace Art Project 2020.
-
Keepers of the Peace Flame to be re-introduced following installation of the updated Garforth W.P.F. Monument.
-
Annual Peace Lantern Walk (Remembrance Week).
-
United Nations International Day of Peace event at Leeds W.P.F. Monument each year.
The World Peace Flame Monuments in Leeds
Following the installation of the Kippax W.P.F. Monument on 14th June 2025 Leeds is now home to England’s 1st 4 World Peace Flame Monuments.
England’s 1st World Peace Flame Monument! Garforth, Leeds, 28th April 2017.
The 2nd World Peace Flame Monument, Scholes, Leeds, 15th December 2018.
Leeds is proud to be home to the first 4 public WPF monuments in England. Leeds is a very multi-cultural city. We truly hope that by having these monuments in such special places, people will be encouraged to come together, with a focus for peace within their communities and to help them live more peaceful, kind and happy lives. People can collect WPF tea light candles and information leaflets from Leeds Central Library. Also at the Garforth W.P.F. there is a small compartment in the monument to take also take a WPF tea light with leaflets in the local library.
The 1st World Peace Flame monument, was installed in The Diamond Jubilee Garden, Garforth on 28th April 2017. The 2nd monument is in the nearby village of Scholes, in the Peace Garden, this was installed by their Parish Council on 15th December 2018.
On 21st March 2024, Leeds became home to the first city centre WPF monument in the UK (the 3rd monument in Leeds), situated in the wonderful Park Square. This was made possible by the then Lord Mayor, Cllr Al Garthwaite, together with Leeds City Council Parks team, Leeds Peace Link/Mayors for Peace and Garforth Peace Project.
The 4th monument in this wonderful city was installed in the village of Kippax in June 2025 by their Parish Council. It is sited in The Remembrance Garden in the village.
The World Peace Flame
In July 1999, 7 flames of peace were lit on the continents of the world and flown to the UK to be united into one and become the World Peace Flame. It is a universal symbol for global peace and unity.
World Monuments
In April 2002 the first World Peace Flame Monument in the world was installed outside the Peace Palace, The Hague in The Netherlands, home of the International Court of Justice. There are now many World Peace Flame Monuments around the world. In 2003 the first UK monument was created in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales (pictured below).
Garforth Peace Project… Activities
The Coronation Peace Tree Project 2023
In 2023 we set the schools the task of creating an indoor eco-peace tree made of up/re-cycled materials and invited every pupil to make a leaf with words to represent peace and/or what the King meant to them. The results, as always, were astounding! Such wisdom from our young people. We had a leaf exchange event where all the schools attended and gifted Peace leaves to each other, so every school has a link with all the others.
We gifted each school a tree to plant in their grounds, they chose either oak or silver birch trees. All the trees were unveiled in a ceremony at each school over 2 days. We were honoured to have the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leeds attend to carry out one ceremony, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant another and 2 of our ever supportive Local Councillors to do the other 4. Both days were enjoyed by pupils and staff at each school as well as the dignitaries, who were all kind enough to spend time with pupils after each ceremony.
The final stage of the project has been to set the children the challenge of planting as many trees as they can within the community, with their families or groups they are involved with. We will be adding them all up at the end of the year!
The Project is dedicated to H.M. King Charles III in his Coronation Year.
Peace Art Project (2019/2020)
Children drew around their hands and stated what peace means to them in one hand and what they can do to contribute to that peace, in the other. Over 500 pieces of inspiring and thought provoking art were put on display for our community to enjoy.
Garforth Schools' Peace Flag (2022)
Over 700 pupils at our 6 schools created a flag representing what peace and their school meant to them. These were displayed for the public to vote for their favourite from each school. The winning 6 were joined together to create the Garforth Schools’ Peace Flag.
On the 31st July 2022 it was unveiled by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant for West Yorkshire (the Queen’s representative in the County) & one of our local Councillors. It is dedicated to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in her Platinum Jubilee Year.
The Lord Mayor’s Visit 2023
The Lord Mayor and her consort visited in July to celebrate the 2nd Anniversary of the Garforth Schools’ World Peace Trail, the 1st anniversary of the Garforth Schools’ Peace Flag and the 24th Anniversary of the world Peace Flame. They joined members of the community in walking the Peace Trail, ending at the Garforth Peace Flame monument where quotes for peace were read out. They were very impressed with the whole project and how the community, particularly our schools are involved. They were entertained by Garforth Community Choir and Garforth Ukulele Players and both thoroughly enjoyed their visit.
ANNIVERSARY WALK OF THE GARFORTH SCHOOLS’ WORLD PEACE TRAIL JULY 2024
We were delighted to welcome our new Lord Mayor Cllr. Abigail Marshall Katung for this special anniversary walk to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the World Peace Flame, the 3rd Anniversary of the Garforth Schools’ World Peace Trail and the 2nd Anniversary of the Garforth Schools’ Peace Flag. Our schools were represented and some of our children read poems of peace and presented our Lord Mayor with the Garforth Schools’ Peace Flag. We were also entertained by Garforth Community Choir and Garforth Ukeule Players with dedications for peace at the Garforth World Peace Flame Monument were made. Our Lord Mayor made time for everyone and helped make the occasion a very special one along with everyone else, thank you all.
The Garforth Schools' World Peace Trail (2021)
All our schools were involved and children painted a peace stone with a flag to represent every country of the world. They also researched interesting and fun facts about each country and created a fact sheet. The peace stones are now set in an 8 stage trail starting at Garforth Academy, ending at the Garforth World Peace Flame Monument.
On the 31st July 2021, the Garforth Schools World Peace Trail was officially opened to the public by our 3 dedicated Local Councillors, and walked by our community. It is dedicated to HRH Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh.
The Kindness Box
Shortly after the Garforth World Peace Flame was installed a beautiful wooden box (a kindness box) was placed near it by a young girl. She had placed small gifts inside together with a note asking people to take and if possible leave a small gift for others. Two further kindness boxes were added by other children and we now have a larger combined Kindness Box to accommodate the constant exchange of gifts. This is regularly used by our children and the community.
Presentation of the Garforth Schools' Peace Flag
On the 18th November 2022 some of the children who created the Garforth Schools’ World Peace Flag presented it to the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leeds (see picture).
Peace Cake Bake-off 2023
Peace Cake Bake off 2023…The !st Peace Cake Bake off was a wonderful success. After the competition the cakes were sold and raised £120 for charities chosen by the winners.
The Second Peace Cake Bake-off 2024
What an incredibly high standard of cakes, buns and cookies again. Our 3 judges had a very difficult task choosing a winner and two runners up. After the competition the cakes were sold and raised £104 for the three charities chosen by our winners. These were The Alzheimers Society, R.S.P.C.A. and Garforth Peace Project, thank you so much. It was a lovely fun morning enjoyed by everyone Thank you to everyone who made cakes and came along to buy them.
Other Projects & Events We Have Been Involved In
Over the years we have been involved in many projects and events around Leeds and Yorkshire and continue to be so. We have gifted over 100,000 World Peace Flame tea lights to members of the public, that’s a lot of peace!
The Annual Interfaith Peace Service
We are part of Concord Leeds Interfaith Fellowship, where we have been involved with the Annual Interfaith Peace Service for over 20 years. At the service a candle is lit by representatives of every faith in the city, from the World Peace Flame and for all the people of Leeds by the current Lord Mayor.
Holocaust Memorial Day (H.M.D)
The World Peace Flame is present at the annual Holocaust Memorial Day.
Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial Day
We are part of Leeds City Council Peacelink group, including Mayors for Peace and the annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki Memorial Service.
The World Peace Flame On Display Locally
The World Peace Flame has been on public display in various prominent locations, including York Minster, Leeds Museum, Royal Armouries, (Leeds and The Tower of London), Leeds Discovery Centre and Leeds Metropolitan University (now Leeds Beckett University).
Beacon Lighting
On the 2nd June 2022 the Platinum Jubilee Beacon in Millennium Square, was lit by the Lord Mayor of Leeds from the World Peace Flame, to honour H.M. The Queen in her Platinum Jubilee Year. It was the only beacon in the Commonwealth to become a World Peace Flame. A very fitting tribute to our now, sadly late, beautiful Queen and her devoted, unwavering life of service to love, peace, unity and kindness for all.
In 2012 the Wakefied Beacon for H.M. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations was lit by the Queen’s representative for West Yorkshire along with Cynthia Dickenson from Concord Leeds Interfaith Fellowship.
Happy Kids Resources
♥ Kids Book
How To Feel Good... Even When I Don't
♥ YouTube
Fear To Love Videos
These videos were born out of the desire to help people recognise their emotions as they experience them and empower them to change how they feel in the moment through a series of 90 second videos to calm, settle and balance.
♥ Coaching
Communication For Kids with Beth Turner
Children’s lives happen one conversation at a time and in ‘The Comms Hub’ my mission is to help children learn how to be clear and confident communicators so they can thrive in every single one of them.
Location of the Garforth World Peace Flame
The Diamond Jubilee Garden, Junction of Aberford Road & Oak Road, Garforth LS25 1PX.