Details
SE24SE
714-1/2/625
19/10/51
LEEDS
COOKRIDGE LANE, Cookridge
(East side (off))
Cookridge Hall with flanking screen walls, gate piers and gates
(Formerly Listed as:
COOKRIDGE LANE, Cookridge
Cookridge Hall including adjoining garden wall to east and west)
GV
II
Country house and flanking walls, vacant at time of survey.
1754-5, retaining C17 rear range at basement level and 1748
kitchen; rear wing extended 1787, additions probably early
C19, altered 1992. For Charles Sheffield; architect Mr Stox.
Stone from Weardley Stone Delph nearby, ashlar and coursed
squared gritstone; slate hipped roofs. L-plan with rear
service wing and main range facing S.
S front: 2 storeys, 5 bays, the central 3 bays break forward
slightly and are pedimented. Central double doors, flanking
margin lights, console brackets and entablature. Sashes with
glazing bars, most windows blocked or boarded at time of
survey, incised wedge lintels; central Venetian window in
round-arched recess to 1st floor. First-floor string, cornice,
blocking course flanking pediment, 2 large square multi-flue
stacks, to rear of ridge, left and right.
Right return: 5 bays, on sloping ground, 2 storeys left, 4
storeys right. Steward's accounts provide dates for building
phases (Cole, 1986). Bay 1 (main range of 1754): blind window
ground floor, sash with glazing bars above; bay 2 (C17
remains, new kitchen range of 1748, improvements c1820):
coursed rubble walling, recessed chamfered mullion windows to
basement built in edge-tooled ashlar, flat-face mullions to
ground and 1st floor, 2 small windows in plain stone surrounds
to 2nd floor; bay 3 (1748 servants quarters, added top storey
in ashlar 1755): irregular fenestration, plain stone
surrounds; bay 4 (1755) paired sashes, plain surrounds; bay 5
(the steward's 'New House' added 1787, probably early C19
alterations): plain surrounds.
Rear: service yard set down, with a low wall and flight of
stone steps from drive area. The rear of the main range is
supported on keyed round arches; C17-style door and mullioned
windows below. The N side of the small yard is enclosed by
single-storey salting room with stone shelves and game larder,
chamfered surrounds to panelled doors with ventilators,
mullioned windows, hoodmoulds, string course, moulded blocking
course carried round to elaborate stepped arch to gateway
through to the front of the 'New House' in rear wing. The 'New
House' has a central door with plain jambs, raised lintel,
plain window surrounds.
INTERIOR: main range has covered panelled front door, entrance
hall with egg-and-dart moulding to ceiling cornice, round arch
and step down to inner hall now partitioned, stairs removed,
reeded architraves to doors, modillion ceiling cornice. Front
left: elaborate architrave to doors, panelled window reveals,
deep cornice.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: curved flanking walls screen the main
facade and drive from the service range and
coach-house/stables; to left the wall is approx 85m long and
3m high, of dressed gritstone, near the centre a pedestrian
gateway with plain stone surround and remains of a
wrought-iron finial, at the outer (west) end a pair of
octagonal inner gate piers with shallow pointed capstones,
gates missing, outer piers are square with shallow pyramid
capstones; attached to the outer pier a 1m railing with
arrowhead finials and short wall ramping down to the former
haha. The right wall screens the kitchen gardens; of coursed
stone backed with red brick, about 50m long with flat coping.
At outer end a pair of gate piers with gates: piers of
rusticated ashlar, capstones missing; gates have bars with
spearhead finials, dog-bars, circles in lock rail.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the C17 estate was owned by Thomas Kirke and
acquired by Charles Sheffield in 1722. Stewards' accounts
record extensive alterations: 1748 new kitchen and servants'
quarters; 1753 preparations to alter hall, James Lapish of
Horsforth master mason, Thomas Kemp master carpenter, Richard
Carr plasterer; the rooms included drawing room, dining room,
Miss Sheffield's chamber. 50,000 bricks were made on the site.
The haha wall was built about 1760, also probably the screen
walls. In 1787 the 'New House' built for the steward, but beds
were to be taken there when the hall was full.
In 1820 Richard Wormald, a Leeds woollen merchant, bought the
estate and undertook further extensive alterations, including
building coach house, stable, gatehouse and gates, icehouse
and heated garden wall. His work on the house probably
included the replacement of the C17 mullioned windows and the
building of the game larder and store.
(Cole, D: Rectors, Squires Stewards...in Adel and Cookridge:
1986-: 23-30).
Listing NGR: SE2573340684
