From Swinegate to Kirkgate in Leeds

 

Leeds Kirkgate Market

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Leeds, having walked from City Square to Briggate, where at Queens Court I had encountered one of the many yards that had developed on the sites of old burgage plots, I continued down Lower Briggate to Swinegate. 

 

The former premises of Charles Walker and Co. Ltd.

 

Here, the premises of Charles Walker and Co. Ltd. - established in 1887 and described as mill furnishers - caught my eye. It is built in red brick with sandstone dressings and has a clock that was installed in 1935 by the renowned Leeds based clock maker, Charles H. Potts and Co. Ltd. 

 

The former regional headquarters of Leeds City Tramways

 

Surprisingly, along with the neighbouring former regional headquarters of Leeds City Tramways (1915), now the Malmaison hotel, it is not a listed building. Both of these buildings are survivors in a city where much of its industrial heritage has been swept away, with it being replaced with soulless towers and massive blocks of apartments that overshadow its historic buildings. 

A detail of the former regional headquarters of Leeds City Tramways

Returning to Call Lane, I continued up to No. 48, a rendered brick mid C18 house that later included a warehouse, which extends westwards for a distance of approximately 34m along the passage to Queen’s Court on its south side and has an open yard to the north. 

 

Views of No. 48 Call Lane

While photographing its south elevation, I discovered the east ends of the north and south ranges of Queen’s Court and, after taking a few photos of these brick buildings that are Grade II listed mainly for their historical significance rather than their architectural merit, I continued up Call Lane until I reached Hirsts Yard. 

 

The east end of Queen's Court

Next on my Photo Challenge was the early C19 Nos. 11-13 Hirsts Yard, which are just one of a series of two storied brick workshops that run alongside the yard. Historic England (HE) describe them as a “Rare survival of the type of warehousing and workshops built within the confines of yards to rear of the important market street frontage of Briggate in the C18 and C19, but very many are now used as bars and nightclubs. 

 

Views of Nos. 11-13 Hirsts Yard

 

Returning to Call Lane and continuing up to the junction with Duncan Street and Cloth Hall Street, although not part of my Photo Challenge, I stopped to take a single photograph of the magnificent Grade I listed Corn Exchange (1863) This was designed by Cuthbert Broderick – the architect of Leeds Town Hall (1853-1858) – and built with the coarse grained and frequently pebbly Rough Rock, which has been used at Kirkstall Abbey and in many of the historic buildings in Leeds since. 

 

The Corn Exchange

 

As mentioned in my previous post, although the principal public buildings are built with the locally quarried Upper Carboniferous gritstone and sandstone, such as the Rough Rock and Elland Flags – with others brought in to Leeds by the well established railway network – brick and terracotta have been used in very many of the finest buildings in Leeds. 

 

No. 22 New Market Street

 

No. 22 New Market Street (c.1900), also known as Dackawell House, is a shop and offices built using a brick clad steel frame, which HE suggests may be by S.E. Smith and J. Tweedale but they also refer to “Percy Robinson's corner building, Nos. 2 & 4 Duncan Street, 1904 (qv). No. 26 Lands Lane is similar in design, single bay (qv)”. 

 

No. 22 Market Street

 

Nos. 14-34 Central Road (c.1900) is a block of shops, workshops and offices that is built in a Queen Anne Revival style. The materials used are dark red wirecut bricks, typical of those made from Coal Measures shales and mudstones. For the window arches and jambs a brighter coloured brick is used, which reminds me of the red rubber bricks used in the south of England. 

 

View of Nos. 14-34 Central Road

 

At ground floor level, the original shop fronts are separated by giant pilasters with maroon faience tiles, which have brackets surmounted by obelisks between the first floor windows. Burmantofts of Leeds were a renowned manufacturer of architectural faience at this time and it is therefore very probable that they were the suppliers of these. 

 

Leeds Kirkgate Market

 

Stopping briefly to take a couple of photos of the south end of the Grade I listed Leeds Kirkgate Market (1904), which was designed by John and Joseph Leeming and, according to the Building Stones Heritage of Leeds, is built in Eccleshill stone from the Elland Flags near Bradford. 

 

The former White Cloth Hall

Continuing to Crown Street to photograph the late C18 Nos. 5 and 7, which is of no interest to this Language of Stone Blog, the remains of the Grade II* listed former White Cloth Hall provides evidence of the importance of woollen cloth in the prosperity of Leeds and, retracing my step to Kirkgate, the former First White Cloth Hall (1711) is a further example.

The former First White Cloth Hall

From City Square to Briggate in Leeds

 

Old Father Time on the Time Ball Buildings

Just under 4 weeks after I had spent a long day out to Batley and Birstall, having briefly revisited various churches in South Yorkshire during the intervening period, I returned to West Yorkshire again – this time to undertake another British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge in Leeds, comprising 39 buildings in the eastern part of the Leeds City Centre Central Conservation Area. 

 

The Leeds City Centre Central Conservation Area

Having set off from Treeton at 9:30, I arrived in Leeds at 11:15 and, leaving the railway station, I stopped to take a couple of photos of the former General Post Office (1894) by Sir Henry Tanner, the chief architect at H.M. Office of Works in London, who appears to have been best known for designing large post office buildings, but I had not heard of him before. 

 

The former General Post Office

I have never looked closely at the fabric, partly because the front has usually been obscured by the tables and chairs from the various bars that have occupied the building over the years and also because I have been mainly interested in the various statues in City Square. 

 

The statue of James Watts on City Square

 

According to the Building Stones Heritage of Leeds (BSHL), Haworth Stone from the Brandon Grit in the Millstone Grit Group was obtained from a quarry on Penistone Hill, to the south of Haworth, which was facilitated by the well established railway network in the region. 

 

The quarries on Penistone Hill

Heading along Boar Lane, I stopped very briefly to photograph the Grade I listed Holy Trinity Church (1721-1727), built with very coarse grained and often pebbly Rough Rock, which BSHL states was quarried from the Meanwood Quarries in north Leeds.  

 

Holy Trinity Church

On the opposite side of the road, the first building on my Photo Challenge was Nos. 1-13 Boar Lane - a large former Temperance hotel, shops, offices and warehouse (1869-72) - which are designed in both the Italianate and Gothic Revival styles by Thomas Ambler for Alderman John Barran and built in brick with yellowish sandstone dressings, which looks like the Elland Flags. 

 

Views of Nos. 1-16 Boar Lane

Although the prominent civic and public buildings, by George Corson and Cuthbert Broderick in particular, are built in stone - as I had discovered during my last trip to Leeds - very many of its finest buildings are built with brick, terracotta or faience tiles made from the mudstones from the local Coal Measures strata. 

 

A detail of Nos. 1-16 Boar Lane

 

This Language of Stone Blog is mainly about geology, stone built architecture, memorials, monuments and sculpture but, given that my time spent in the building restoration industry in London has provided me with a great appreciation of historic architecture that is built with a wide variety of materials, I will diverge from this strict subject. 

 

Time Ball Buildings

Turning down Briggate, the stuccoed early C19 Grade II* Time Ball Buildings, which was further elaborated by the watchmaker John Dyson c.1872 and c.1900, is one of the most interesting buildings that I have seen in Leeds. 

 

A detail of Time Ball Buildings

 

The gilded time ball mechanism was linked to Greenwich and dropped at exactly 1pm each day and the large clock, which is cantilevered from the front of a bay in a frame, is surmounted by a sculpture of Old Father Time. This is the work of the renowned Leeds sculptor, John Wormald Appleyard, whose fine stone carving in Caen stone is seen in Leeds Central Library. 

 

An information panel on Briggate

When I explored Granary Wharf, Holbeck Urban Village and Wellington Street in July, I learned a lot about the post Industrial Revolution industries in Leeds. An information panel informed me that Briggate used to be a very wide market place that extended from Leeds Bridge to the modern Headrow and was once the world’s largest woollen cloth market. 

 

The 1852 OS map of Briggate and the adjacent yards

 

Briggate was created in 1207 and it was flanked by long thin burgage plots, which were occupied by craftsmen and traders, and by the C17 it was lined with houses, workshops and inns. These subsequently developed as yards in the C18, with a variety of industrial and commercial ventures sharing space with living accommodation, and this street pattern is clearly recorded on the 1852 Ordnance Survey (OS) map. 

 

The Queen's Court bar

 

In respect of the early C18 Nos. 165A and 166-169 Briggate, a former merchant’s house and workshops, now occupied by the Queen’s Court and Fibre bars, Historic England (HE) state that the rooms on the upper floors and to the right of the entrance passage were probably used as workrooms, warehousing and showrooms/shops, together with the north ranges of Queen's Court. 

 

The Fibre bar

Purchases of cloth were made in the market and the merchant employed workmen in the finishing processes but, in the early C19 factory production resulted in the change of use of such buildings, including those of the mid C18 brick built Queen’s Court. 

 

Views of the north range of Queen's Court

Records suggest that the north and east ranges were occupied by a hatter, wool-stapler and insurance agent by 1817, with it being the premises of Sidney and Stables - a tea coffee and spice dealer, latterly tea dealer and grocery warehouse. HE also mention that the south range possibly included the premises of a cornflour and bacon dealer in the later C18 and early C19 and that a stationer, ironmonger, linen merchant, silk mercer and hosier were also occupiers in this period. 

 

Views of the south range of Queen's Court

 

Continuing down Briggate and under the railway bridge, Nos. 3-5 Blayds Yard (c.1800) comprise another row of houses with workshops, now a  bar, which are built in red/brown brick and HE describe as “An important surviving example of the type of housing built for textile workers within the historic centre of Leeds in the late C18/early C19, in the rear yard of an C18 town house”. 

 

Nos. 3-5 Blayds Yard

Various Churches in South Yorkshire

 

The chancel in Rotherham Minster

To conclude a great day out on the buses and trains to Batley and Birstall, I had a very quick look at the exterior of All Saints church, and with the Heritage Open Days festival for 2024 coming to an end, the next time I went out was to lead a walk as part of the Nether Edge Festival – a recce for which I had undertaken in the first week of September. 

 

A walk around Nether Edge

Following on from this event, which was attended by 35 people, I next went to the Church of St. John the Baptist in Hooton Roberts to meet Liza Nash, who had contacted me on Facebook the year before to ask if she could use a photo that I had taken of the church, when walking along Hooton Cliff in the summer of 2021. 

 

The south at the Church of St. John the Baptist

 

Although not a member of the Parochial Church Council, she had undertaken a lot of work to ensure that the church did not become redundant, due to the diminishing numbers of parishioners who attended the church, and she wanted to produce a calendar to raise funds. 

 

The Church of St. John the Baptist

 

Having not heard about this for some time, a message on Facebook again was followed by a long conversation instigated by Liza, during which I highlighted my experiences of visiting many mediaeval churches that faced similar problems - including St. Helen’s church in Treeton - and my experience of the very successful Church Explorers Week event that Chris Ellis at the Diocese of Sheffield had organised earlier in the year. 

 

An outcrop of sandstone on Holmes Lane

I had briefly seen the interior the year before, but I had been intrigued about the red sandstone that outcrops on Holmes Lane and in a farm track to the east of the village, which according to the British Geological Survey map is not the Rotherham Red variety of the Mexborough Rock - and I have further investigated this after visiting St. Helen's church in Burghwallis.

 

Variation in the sandstone in the responds of the arch to the south aisle

According to the geological memoir, between Rotherham and Hooton Roberts, the Mexborough Rock changes from the locally distinctive dull red/brown Rotherham Red sandstone - which is characteristic of Rotherham and the villages to the south - to a mottled red/yellow variety. I noted this variation in the masonry of the arch to the south aisle and dressings at St. John’s church, but I have not seen any exposures of this and am still curious to know where this was quarried. 

 

Sandstone used for dressings

 

This was seen in several quarries that are no longer visible or have been infilled and redeveloped and the owners of the Hooton Roberts quarry off Kilnhurst Road have refused access to both the South Yorkshire RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) Group and the Sheffield Area Geology Trust (SAGT); however, from glimpses of this and another quarry on Denaby Lane, the Mexborough Rock appears to have the typical light brown colour that I have seen in old quarries in Mexborough and Darfield. 

 

A detail of the sandstone used for dressings

 

Having met with the churchwarden and subsequently had a long conversation with Liza back in her house, I have been glad to know that the church is still functioning for services and that they have participated in subsequent Church Explorers Week events. 

 

Poppyheads in Rotherham Minster

On the following Saturday, I popped into Rotherham and took advantage of Rotherham Minster being open to take some photographs of the wonderful poppyheads that adorn the choir stalls and which are dated to c.1480. 

 

A view of the crossing in Rotherham Minster

 

I had been inside Rotherham Minster several times over the years and, except for the stained glass, I had photographed all of the features that interested me and, on this occasion, I just spent 10 minutes inside the church. 

 

The Norman font in Rotherham Minster

 

Moving into October, when I was still making plans to travel further afar while the weather was still reasonably good, I spent a couple of hours at St. John’s church at Ranmoor in Sheffield. I had visited this church a few times earlier in the year, to prepare for a talk that I gave on 7th September – entitled The Stones of St. John’s – A Geological Assessment. 

 

The entrance to St. John's churchyard

On this occasion, I was attending another talk as part of the Scissors Paper Stone project, on the subject of Frank Tory by the late Sylvia Dunkley. Treeton History Group had previously invited Sylvia to give a talk on the same subject, but it had to be cancelled during the COVID-19 Pandemic and was never rearranged due to the subsequent demise of this group. 

 

A view along the nave of St. John's church in Ranmoor

I had already taken very many photos of the exterior and interior, but with the lighting being switched on and the font being well illuminated, I could not resist taking another photo that show the Caen stone and serpentinite from the area around Genoa in Italy.

The font at St. John's church