Hi @South_Stander
I'm one of the three who take it in turns to organise the Leeds Drink and Chat events. These events attract a fairly decent hard core of attendees these days, but we are far from being a clique. We started the events up because we wanted to put faces to the names of local cachers that we were seeing in logs in the area, rather than a group of mates who wanted an easy way of getting our numbers up, so being inclusive to new cachers in the area (or in your case people coming back to it following a bit of a break) is a big part of what these events are about. Appreciate it is daunting walking into a room with a big group of people you have never met before. We usually end up split across multiple tables these days, which would probably soften that feeling. If you have work commitments, no problem, there will be another one organised at a different venue for the following month. I'll make sure one of us wears something easy to point out this time around - most likely a purple t shirt or hoodie, which I'm sure one of us could explain the relevance of at some point.
To answer your original question at least partly, there are a few cachers active in the North Leeds area that I'm aware of, although my knowledge mostly covers South Leeds. The usual suspect at Leeds Drink and Chat events cover South and North West Leeds, Wakefield, Morely, Pontefract, Halifax, Kirklees and probably a few places I've missed off. I would recommend that as a good place to start for getting back in the loop, but I am bias. There is an annual event at Yeadon (Mad March Meet) which usually encourages some of those who have been caching longer than I have out of the woodwork, possible even some people you may remember from back when you were originally caching.
I can't admit to being very active in this forum. I also am not a fan of Facebook, but a lot of the discussion does now take place on there and is my main reason for being back on there after a break of a good few years. If you don't want to get involved in that though, events are probably the way to go. I've ended up on many caching ventures due to the discussions had at events and it's a good way of finding out about what people in the area are planning and what new caches are worth a visit.