Following on from our article on the Church of St Mary in the Wood in the March edition of Outlook, in this piece we will be focusing on another entry from our Heritage at Risk List Top 10, Thorpe Hall.
Thorpe Hall is a large farm house situated on Middleton Lane between Rothwell and Middleton in south Leeds, close to the villages of Thorpe-on-the-Hill and Robin Hood, and about a mile from the junction of the M1 and M62 motorways. Grade II*, Thorpe Hall is recognised by Historic England as a historic building of particular importance, being one of more than special interest. Only 5.8% of listed buildings are designated at Grade II*, yet this one has been left neglected, empty, and at risk for many decades.
The building itself is of red brick with sandstone dressings. The main east front shows a symmetrical three storey building, with five bays and a central doorway, and a slate roof. It is a double pile house meaning there are two rows of rooms, with a corridor between the two. This divides the ground floor hall and parlour at the front from the service rooms, including the kitchen, at the rear. The listing entry describes a very fine and elaborate staircase, with the principal rooms at first floor level. As was often the case with gentry houses of this period, these rooms were designed to impress, with exceptionally finely decorated plaster and timber panelling.
Decorated lead rainwater heads give a date of 1735, the date of the current brick house. However it incorporates parts of an earlier late medieval timber framed wing which once formed part of a timber framed house. Occupants of Thorpe Hall have included members of the Gascoigne family, and various members of the Proctor family, whose initials appear on the rainwater heads, and whose coat of arms is displayed on the east front.
Thorpe Hall once occupied a commanding position on high ground, with views to the east including Temple Newsam and Pontefract Park, both several miles away. But the surrounding landscape changed in the nineteenth century due to quarries and coal working in the area, some owned by occupants of the house. The first OS map of 1850 shows a rural landscape with only one small coal pit and a small sandstone quarry nearby, but by 1908 the map shows quarries and brickworks dominating the area south of the house. The 1951 OS map already describes some of the Hall’s outbuildings as ruins, and shows it surrounded by slag heaps, concrete works, an old quarry and a refuse heap. The M1 motorway would later destroy any remaining distant views.
In the early twentieth century the Hall was occupied by William Armitage, a quarry and brickworks owner. However the 1921 census shows the hall occupied by three separate tenants and their families, with three further families living in cottages which formed part of the complex of farm buildings. All of these tenants were employees of J & J Charlesworth, the owner of many large collieries surrounding Thorpe Hall. The tenants’ occupations included chief clerk at colliery office, engine fitter, farm bailiff, and farm horseman, suggesting that J & J Charlesworth may have also owned the Hall and farm and rented it to employees. This shows that the days of Thorpe Hall being a grand residence were already long gone.
The 1950 electoral roll shows several families still living at the hall, but by 1960 only two remained. Thorpe Hall was listed in 1964, and was described at that time as being used as a store. It now appears to have been unoccupied for more than 60 years. It currently features on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, its overall condition having been assessed as very bad and at immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric.
According to the Land Registry, farmland belonging to the property still extends eastwards to the M1, with further land on the other side of the M1, suggesting that this section of motorway, which was opened in the late 1960s, was built across its land. Just south of Thorpe Hall stands a much smaller detached house, probably dating from the 1970s. This is incongruous being so close to a listed building, and would hopefully be unlikely to get planning permission today. This modern house is occupied by the current owners of the Hall, and has not changed hands for a long time.
A brief professional survey of Thorpe Hall carried out in 1990 found that the roof was in poor condition with water penetrating into the building in various places. Several ceilings had fallen to the floor, and others were likely to follow. In a couple of places brickwork was seriously bulging, and elsewhere was a crack in a wall. There were holes in timber floors and a substantial outbreak of woodworm to structural timbers was found, along with various types of wood rot which was said to be spreading at the time. The building is rendered at ground floor level, but a nineteenth century drawing shows that this was applied more recently. It may have been an attempt to deal with damp, but the use of cement based render is not considered appropriate on a building of this age, and it may have made matters worse.
There is no public access to the building, and little is known about its current condition, but it can be assumed that it has deteriorated further in the 35 years since the last survey was carried out. One slight improvement based on a photo from 2002, is that most of the windows have since been boarded. The surrounding land is in similarly poor condition, being overgrown with a couple of abandoned vans, and with several derelict outbuildings. Nevertheless, Thorpe Hall remains an important historic building where in this part of south Leeds it is quite unique. One would hope it is not beyond saving, and bringing back into some kind of meaningful use.
Leeds City Council’s Conservation Team have expressed an interest in the building and were hoping to organise a visit to the property, which we hope will lead to an update on its condition, and perhaps even some progress toward saving this important historic building.
Helen Sanders – Heritage Watch Member
Sources:
- Rural Houses of West Yorkshire 1400-1830, 1986, H.M.S.O
- Rothwell Wiki
- 1990 Survey Report produced by Allen Tod Architects
