Temple Newsam House

Has been described as a Possible Fortified Manor House

There are major building remains

NameTemple Newsam House
Alternative NamesTemple Newsam
Historic CountryYorkshire
Modern AuthorityLeeds
1974 AuthorityWest Yorkshire
Civil ParishLeeds

Great house, built circa 1500 and consisting of four ranges set around a large courtyard. The entrance gateway was in the north wing, the great hall in the south wing and the private apartments in the west wing. Between 1622 and about 1628, the east wing was demolished and the north and south wings were rebuilt. (PastScape)

The Manor of Newsam ('new houses') is first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. In 1155 it became a property of the Knights Templar, the military - religious order who guarded the pilgrim routes to Jerusalem. Their farmstead, excavated in 1991, was about half a mile to the south of the present house, close to the river Aire. After the order's suppression the property eventually passed to the Darcy family and the first person to build the new house on this site in c. 1500 was Thomas Lord Darcy, a courtier, mercenary and crony of Cardinal Wolsey. This was a spectacular four-sided courtyard house of which only the west wing survives as the central block of the building we see today. (Leeds City Council, 2004)

Gatehouse Comments

Quite how fortified the C16 Darcy house was may be open to question although this was a major house (The Hampton Court of the North) and is likely to have had some martial architectural details. Equally the Templar's grange may also have had some military symbolism added to the normal domestic defences of a building holding valuable items.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSE356321
Latitude53.7843399047852
Longitude-1.45969998836517
Eastings435690
Northings432130
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 403
  • Faull, M.L. and Moorhouse, S.A., 1981, West Yorkshire Archaeological Survey to AD 1500 (West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council) p. 530-1
  • Kitson, S.D. and Pawson, E.D., 1927, Temple Newsam
  • Bogg, E., 1902, Kingdom of Elmet p. 113 online copy
  • Wheater, W., 1889, Temple Newsam: Its History and Antiquities online copy

Journals

  • Fawcett, R., 1972, 'The Early Tudor House at Temple Newsam in the light of Recent Excavations' Leeds Art Calendar Vol. 70 p. 5-12
  • Rowe, R., 1968, 'Temple Newsam House' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 125 p. 356-7