St. Michael's Road to Headingley Lane

 

Headingley war memorial

Leaving St. Michael’s Road, having photographed several listed buildings on this street, the next stage of my Photo Challenge for Headingley was on Shire Oak Road, a part of Headingley that was largely undeveloped when the 1851 Ordnance Survey (OS) map was published, but the 1893 edition shows was occupied with large detached and semi-detached villas. 

 

The area around Shire Oak Road on the 1893 OS map

 

Before setting off to find these, I took a few photographs of Headingley war memorial (1921), a plain Portland stone obelisk with bronze panels that record the fallen, which stands at the junction of St. Michael’s Road and Otley Road. 

 

A detail of Headingley war memorial

Opposite the war memorial on Otley Road is the early C19 Original Oak public house, which provides a particularly good example of the use of the distinctly yellow plane bedded sandstone from the Elland Flags formation, which was probably obtained from one of the quarries at Woodhouse or Scott Hill. 

 

The Original Oak public house

Arriving at Shire Oak Road, it was immediately obvious that this part of Headingley has a completely different character to the area to the west of Otley Road, which was developed with terraced houses - including back to backs. Upon the death of the 7th Earl of Cardigan James Thomas Brudenell in 1868, land that had been owned by the family since 1671 was gradually sold off – cumulating in a 4 day auction in 1888. 

 

Various listed buildings on Shire Oak Road

 

The late C19 listed buildings on Shire Oak Road, Nos. 4 and 6, Arncliffe and No. 22D, the stable block to Arncliffe, were all built in brick by Francis Bedford in 1893, for his brother James – a prominent chemical manufacturer. In 1901, Red Hill was built in the Vernacular Revival style by Francis Bedford and Sydney Kitson, for Edward Audus Hirst. 

 

An obscured view of Ivy Lodge

 

From a distance I took record photographs of these, which have little interest to my Language of Stone Blog, before retracing my steps and continuing along Otley Road until I arrived at Headingley Lane, where Ivy Lodge was the first of many buildings that were inaccessible, obscured by trees and vegetation or only glimpsed from a distance. 

 

A former lodge to Headingley Castle

 

Although I couldn’t get to Headingley Castle, its former Gothic Revival style lodge (1886) is immediately adjacent to the road and, without looking closely at the rock-faced walling, I could see that this is the yellowish sandstone from the Elland Flags, with its plane bedding exposed on the weathered lower courses, and not gritstone as stated by Historic England (HE) – although this is used for the dressings. 

 

Springbank Cottage

Continuing along Headingley Lane into the Headingley Hill Conservation Area, my next stop was the Jacobethan style Springbank Cottage (c.1857), the lodge to the John Taylor Teachers Centre (JTTC) (c.1857) – the house originally designed by John Fox for Robert J Ellershaw, an oil merchant and soap maker. 

 

Outbuildings to the John Taylor Teaching Centre

Along with the outbuildings to the JTTC, it provides yet another example of yellow sandstone from the Elland Flags, with massive coarse grained gritstone used for the dressings, which is very probably from the Rough Rock that was quarried along the Meanwood Valley 2 km to the north. 

 

The John Taylor Teachers Centre

The JTTC, formerly known as Spring Bank, was only visible from the Headingley Lane but I could still see the same pattern of building stones used for the walling and the dressings. HE mentions that later alterations were made 1877-78 by C.R. Chorley for James Kitson and 1885-86 by William Thorp for William Harvey - a member of a prominent Leeds Quaker family. 

 

Lodge House

A little further along the north side of Headingley Lane, Lodge House (c.1846) was the original lodge to Headingley Castle and designed by the local architect John Child for Thomas England, a wealthy corn factor. Looking at the stonework from my photos, the very well squared masonry to the lodge and walls beside the entrance gates have a course height that is greater than the Elland Flags sandstone and this is very probably another example of locally quarried Rough Rock. 

 

The 1932 extension to the former First Church of Christ, Scientist

 

Continuing along Headingley Lane for a short distance, the Golden Beam public house forms a great contrast to all of the listed buildings seen on my walk to date, with its use of Portland stone. The original block was built in 1912 to the design of William Peel Schofield, in an Egyptian/Classical style, as the Church of Christ, Scientist. 

 

The principal elevation of the Golden Beam

After a delay that was probably due to the onset of WWI, the south-west extension was only completed in 1932 and, with it being used as a Sunday School and by Leeds Girls High School until 2010, when it remained unoccupied until opening as a Wetherspoons public house in 2021. 

 

The east elevation of Buckingham House

 

Buckingham House, built c.1840 with later C19 additions, is another house that is only visible from Headingley Lane and I just took a couple of photos of the east elevation, where gritstone ashlar is used for the original building and rock faced walling for the single storey extension. I then continued to Buckingham Road, where I took a few quick snaps of the west wall and the rear elevation of Ford House – another building described by HE as being built with gritstone, when it is in fact sandstone from the Elland Flags.

 

Views of Ford House

 

St. Michael's Road in Headingley

 

A grotesque on St. Michael's church

Continuing my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Headingley, from Ash Crescent I headed back to North Lane and along St. Michael’s Road, where the first building on my list was Muir Court (c.1830) on Sagar Place, which is built with yellowish sandstone from the Elland Flags, with which I had by now become familiar. 

 

Muir Court

After a taking a couple of photos of its front elevation, I crossed St. Michael’s Road to photograph Nos. 11 and 13, including No. 1 Sagar Place, which is an early C19 corner  terrace, where yellowish sandstone is again used for the walling that has dressings of the same stone and is not reinforced with larger quoins. 

 

Nos. 11 and 13 St. Michael's Road

 

On my exploration of Headingley to date, although many of the buildings have been demolished, the listed buildings recorded on the 1851 edition of the Ordnance Survey (OS) map, surveyed in 1847, are built predominantly with sandstone from the Elland Flags, which I presume was quarried just over 1 km away at Woodhouse. 

 

The 1851 OS map of Headingley

By the second half of the C19, the technology existed to grind down the mudstones from local Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation strata to produce extruded bricks and, as in other northern industrial cities, the development to the north side of St. Michael's Road – first seen on the 1909 OS map – uses these for a variety of houses, including back to back terraces. 

 

Brick built terraced houses

 

Passing Spring House (c.1864), which was partly covered obscured by trees and vegetation in its front garden, I just took a few record photos of the rear of the house, where the west wall and the boundary walls are built with thin bedded sandstone that is again probably from the Elland Flags, but much of the rear wing is built in red brick. 

 

Views of Spring House

 

A little further along the road, buildings that share a corner with King’s Place are marked on the 1851 OS map but, looking at the photo that I took of the terrace of four houses comprising Nos. 1 to 7, the pattern of the masonry is more like the Rough Rock at Alma Cottages and Chapel Street, seen earlier on my walk, and their style makes me think that they are later Victorian. 

 

Nos. 1 to 7 St. Michael's Road

Turning down King’s Place to take a quick look at Deans Cottage, which is again built with yellowish sandstone from the Elland Flags and has a rear wing dated to the C17 and the front range is a late C18 Methodist chapel, which was converted into houses c.1845. 

 

Deans Cottage

 

Moving on to Headingley parish hall (1844), which was formerly a school, the shape of the blocks and greater depth of courses to the masonry also looks to me more typical of the Rough Rock,  but I didn’t look at it closely. 

 

Views of Headingley parish hall

Along the boundary of the grassed area in front of the parish hall, the monolithic square section bollards are clearly made of coarse grained gritstone from the Rough Rock and, together with the attached iron railings, are Grade II listed for their group value. 

 

Bollards outside Headingley parish hall

 

Arriving at St. Michael’s church, the Gothic Revival style gate piers with pyramidal capstones on St. Michael Road and Headingley Lane are also Grade II listed for their group value, together with the boundary wall to the churchyard. 

 

Gate piers at St. Michael's churchyard

 

St. Michael’s church (1885) was not on my list of buildings to photograph, but it is a very imposing building with a tall tower and slim spire, which Pevsner describes as “proud and prosperous” and, above the door to the porch, the church website names the sculptures as Jesus, St. Peter, St. Paul, Daniel and Isaiah. 

 

The porch

 

Although Headingley is mentioned in Domesday Book, the first church was not built until C.1627 and the present church is the third one on the site, which was designed by the Gothic Revival architect John Loughborough Pearson - whose work I had often seen on my travels.

 

The tower of St. Michael's church

 

I only had a very quick look at its exterior and took just a few record photos and didn’t examine the stonework very closely, but I could see that it is essentially built with coarse grained gritstone from the Rough Rock; however, looking at my photo of the surround to the east door, its distinctly yellow colour makes me wonder if the massive variety of the Elland Flags, as seen at the former Parochial Institute on Bennett Street, has been used for this.

 

The surround to the east door

North Lane to Ash Crescent

 

A coat of arms at the Headingley Taps

Leaving Headingley Methodist Church, having spent only 15 minutes taking a look at its wonderful interior, I quickly walked down North Lane to the next building on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, the Headingley Taps public house – a former pumping station that was built in 1880 for the Leeds Corporation Waterworks.

 

The Headingley Taps public house

 

With its Dutch gables, dormer windows and louvred ventilators with pyramidal roofs and finials, I was very surprised to learn that such an architecturally interesting building was used for this utilitarian purpose - but I have since learned that this was common during the later Victorian era.

 

Rough Rock dressings and Elland Flags walling

 

When researching my day out to Headingley, I concluded that sandstone from the Elland Flags would be used for general walling and the Rough Rock for dressings and ashlar in the finest buildings. The pebbly gritstone used here is certainly the Rough Rock and the yellowish, fine grained plane bedded sandstone is very similar to that seen at Ivy Cottage and Nos. 79 to 83A Otley Road, which I presumed to be from the Elland Flags.

 

Gate piers and the lodge at the former Leeds Corporation Waterworks

The separately Grade II listed lodge is built with similar materials and the gate piers, which are included with the lodge are made of massive blocks of pebbly gritstone, with large scale cross-bedding, and after taking a few record photos of these I proceeded to the former Parochial Institute (1884) on Bennett Road.

 

The former Parochial Institute

 

This was originally built as the meeting rooms for St. Michael’s parish church, with the Gothic Revival design by George Corson – a Scottish architect who was very active in Leeds and designed many large houses in Headingley and the wonderful Leeds Central Library (1884).

 

The entrance to the Parochial Institute

 

Coarse grained gritstone is again used in its construction, with the Corinthian capitals to the column and responds to the entrance providing a good example of how this can be used for surprisingly ornate architectural details.

 

A Corinthian capital

Above these are sculpted panels that depict St. Michael and the dragon and the royal coat of arms, which I couldn’t examine closely but from my photos look like they have been carved from a finer grained sandstone that is unlike the locally quarried Elland Flags.

 

A frieze sculpture of St. Michael and the dragon

By the time that it was built, the railways had been bringing in top quality medium grained sandstone from further afield, such as Bolton Woods from the massive variety of the Elland Flags to the north of Bradford, which was previously named the Gaisby Rock.

 

The Royal coat of arms above the entrance to the Parochial Institute

Making my way back to North Lane, I continued down to the junction with St. Michael’s Road, where the early and mid C19 Nos. 76 and 78 occupy the corner site. Although I took photos from a distance and the stonework is quite blackened, I can see that the yellowish plane bedded sandstone is probably another example of locally quarried Elland Flags, with the dressings constructed from coarse grained Rough Rock.

 

Views of Nos. 76 and 78 St. Michael's road

 

The next building on my photo challenge was the former Sunday School (1908), originally built as a Baptist church, and the South Parade Baptist Church (1925), a complex of red brick buildings with gritstone dressings, which Historic England (HE) says were designed by Percy Robinson and William Alban Jones and W.A. Jones and J.E. Stocks respectively.

 

South Parade Baptist Church

 

Although of little interest to this Language of Stone Blog and I didn’t inspect it closely, the HE listing quite unusually describes the dressings as being made from the Rough Rock that was once extensively quarried at Horsforth and transported to the city centre, after the opening of the Horsforth station on the Leeds and Thirsk Railway line in 1849.

 

The former Baptist church and Sunday School

Taking a diversion to Ash Crescent, No. 2 is dated by HE to the late C19 and described as being designed in the C17 'cottage orné' style, but it is not marked on the 1909 Ordnance Survey map and first appears as a lodge at the south-east corner of the grounds of Headingley Lodge on the 1933 edition – perhaps representing an error in recording a building that certainly has the style of a late Victorian lodge.

 

The front elevation of No. 2 Ash Crescent

 

Although the masonry is quite blackened, it is still possible to see that there is a great contrast between the yellowish, plane bedded walling stone and the massive gritstone used for the quoins and dressings, which have developed a grey patina, and stone slates have been used for the roof.

 

The rear elevation of No. 2 Ash Crescent

 

Headingley Methodist Church

 

Headingley Methodist Church

Retracing my steps along Chapel Street, having photographed several listed buildings on a short walk from Alma Cottages to Chapel Street, I went to have a good look at Headingley Methodist Church by James Simpson which, according to Historic England (HE), was built 1840-45, with the transepts and apse added in 1862 and the west front remodelled in the 1890s. 

 

A view from the east end of Chapel Street

According to the church website, the extensive range of buildings fronting Chapel Street, comprising the Sunday School, church hall and vestry were added in 1908-1909 in a Gothic Revival style to match the original design, but I just took a few general record photos. 

 

The Sunday School and church hall

 

Looking from the other side of the road, the large blocks of blacked masonry appeared just like the tooled gritty sandstone that I had already seen in several buildings on my walk around Headingley to date and, crossing the road to take a closer look, the large quartz pebbles in the sawn stone dressings could be clearly seen – confirming that this was another use of Rough Rock from the Millstone Grit Group. 

 

A detail of pebbly Rough Rock

The church was open for a coffee morning and I popped inside to ask if I could have a quick look around the interior of the church, which was unlocked for me. In the few Victorian churches that I had visit during my days out, I wasn’t surprised to see that there was no stonework to be seen. 

 

A view west along the nave from the gallery

 

That said, although there wasn’t anything to to see that was obvious interest to this Language of Stone Blog, I was quite struck by its box pews, galleries, roof timbers and cast iron columns with capitals – all of which are brightly painted. 

 

A painted Corinthian capital on an iron column

 

The listing description by HE states that an inspection of the interior wasn’t undertaken, which is actually a great omission given the architectural quality that is recognised by the local community. Taking note of the dark brown veined alabaster and the greyish sandstone used for the base of the pulpit and short sections of walling at the west end of the aisles, I thanked the churchwarden and continued with my exploration of Headingley. 

 

Alabaster and sandstone

Stopping to take a single photograph of the east front of the church, without attempting to explore the south elevation and churchyard, I then turned down North Lane – a part of Headingley that is dominated by C20 architecture - where I had a very brief look at the south-west corner of the church, before heading off to my find the next building on my Photo Challenge.

 

The south-west corner of the church