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