Leeds Minster Revisited

 

A view east along the nave

In October 2018, using my newly purchased Building Stone Heritage of Leeds by Francis. G. Dimes and Murray Mitchell, I had a walk around Leeds to look at some of the buildings mentioned in this – including Leeds Minster on Kirkgate, a part of the city that I had not visited before. 

 

The Building Stone Heritage of Leeds

 

During this visit, much of the time was spent being shown the main points of interest at the east end of the church, including the Leeds Cross and an effigy of a knight, but I didn’t have the time to properly explore its interior. 

 

The floor of the sanctuary

 

In the sanctuary, the floor is laid with a mixture of encaustic tiles, mosaic and various decorative stones, some of which I recognised as being Italian Carrara marble and serpentinite, with Connemara marble, Cork Red marble and Kilkenny marble from the Republic of Ireland. 

 

The stone library in the Redmires Building

 

My experience as a building restoration contractor in London, where the stone is imported from elsewhere, provided with me experience and interests in stone identification and matching – to satisfy an architect’s specification “to match the existing as closely as possible” – resulting in the production of the Triton Stone Library, which has since been transferred to Sheffield Hallam University and is now housed in the Redmires Building. 

 

London Illustrated geological Walks by Dr. Eric Robinson

 

With our work being very largely concerned with the external fabric, using publications such as the Natural Stone Directory and Dr. Eric Robinson’s London Illustrated Geological Walks - which was illustrated with black and white photographs but identified buildings where the large scale characteristic of a given stone could be clearly seen – I learned to identify the principal granites that had been used in the buildings that we were restoring. 

Decorative Stone The Complete Sourcebook

 

My experience of marbles, however, is quite limited and this prompted me to purchase Decorative Stone the Complete Sourcebook by Monica T. Price, which is largely based on the Corsi Collection at Oxford Natural History Museum. 

 

The standard layout in Decorative Stone The Complete Sourcebook

 

Although it provides a good introduction to decorative stones, is too large to easily read and it has more of a character of a coffee table book. Furthermore, the specimens in the collection are typically 145 mm x 75 mm in size and these provide very little idea of the true pattern and variation of colours and textures that can seen in a large slab used for panelling or columns in an interior. 

 

Various details of the sanctuary floor

 

Having walked from Swinegate to Kirkgate, as part of my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Leeds, I visited Leeds Minster again to take some more photos of the sanctuary floor, but I could not identify any more stones than during my previous visit. 

 

The sanctuary floor

In the part of the chancel to the east of the sanctuary floor, several ledger stones are set into the floor and some of these appear to be polished Carboniferous Limestone, although I did not get down on my knees to look for fossils that would confirm this. 

 

Ledger stones to the west of the sanctuary

Walking along the nave, there are more of these ledger stones, including some with deeply carved family crests set into a roundel, which are very similar to those that I had previously seen at St. Mary’s church in Sprotbrough and quite recently at St. Mary’s church in Beverley and at Hull Minster. A guide at the latter informed me that the limestone for these ledgers was supplied by quarries at Tournai in Belgium – the source of the black ‘marble’ seen in many C12 fonts. 

 

A ledger stone in the nave floor

 

At the east end of the nave is a font (1883) which, in her Pevsner Architectural Guide to Leeds, Susan Wrathmell states was designed by William Butterfield, but which the Historic England description or Pevsner do not even mention. 

 

The Victorian font

 

The platform upon which the font is set is composed of veined 'Sicilian' variety of Carrara marble and a polished red stone that may also be Cork Red marble, but the lighting wasn’t particularly good in this part of the church and I was more concerned with trying to obtain a few decent record photos than studying the various stones in detail. 

 

Gastropods in the Kilkenny marble step

 

The second step is a polished black Carboniferous Limestone, which contains numerous gastropod fossils and is very similar to the stone seen in the steps of the pulpit at St. John’s church in Ranmoor and which I think is Kilkenny marble. 

 

The base of the font

 

I didn’t take a good photo of the first step but, looking at the base and main body of the font, which looks to me like the Belgian Rouge Royal limestone that features in my reference book, the Stones and Marbles of Wallonia, I think that it may also be made of this stone. 

 

The font

 

The upper part of the font is made out of a stone that reminds me of a polished Carboniferous Limestone from the Duke of Devonshire's estate, which I saw at St. Martin's church in Stoney Middleton, but there is nothing in Monica Price’s book that looks anything like this. As with the stone used for the colonnettes, I will have another look when I am next visiting this part of Leeds. 

 

An unknown stone used in the font

 

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