Lady Royd House And Gatelodge (Ladyroyd Junior School)

Lady Royd House and Gatelodge

Lady Royd House is a substantial Victorian building constructed in 1865 with an extension added in 1880, designed by the architectural firm Milnes and France for the textile magnate Henry Illingworth. The house has served as Ladyroyd Junior School for Bradford Girls Grammar School for approximately 70 years. Some mid-20th-century extensions have been added.

The building is constructed of dressed sandstone 'bricks' with ashlar dressings and has Welsh and stone slate roofs.

Plan and Layout

The main house has two main storeys with basement and attic floors. The plan is irregular. The 1865 section has the main entrance on the north side leading to a hall and main staircase, with reception rooms to the east and south. To the west, a corridor leads to service areas on the north side, whilst further rooms link to the 1880 extension. This extension contains a large reception room occupying the south-west corner, with further altered rooms on the north side. A corridor connects to a single-storey 20th-century extension. There is an additional 20th-century extension at the east end.

Exterior

The building has multiple roof lines, with some parts rising to a full three storeys and others featuring dormer windows to the first floor. Numerous chimney stacks rise from the roofs, all with tall multiple pots in dressed stone. Windows are of various types—shouldered arch, pointed segmental, round and rectangular—many mullioned and some transomed. Most retain their original glazing, though some sashes have been replaced with casements.

The north elevation has five main sections. From the east: a gable-fronted bay with a three-light window at ground floor, a two-light window at first floor, and an oculus in the gable, with a wrought iron balcony at first floor level. Next comes the main entrance with a recessed door. The doorway features narrow Corinthian-style engaged columns and a segmental arch above the lintel, flanked by stepped buttresses. Above, in the narrow bay, is a triangular oriel window with a single light to each side, and a small two-light window with oculus above in the apex of the gable. Above and behind rises a square tower with windows in each side and a splayed square spire. To the right, the ground floor breaks forward with two-light windows to ground and first floors and a small dormer window in the roof. The first floor also breaks forward to form a hipped-roof bay with a pent roof over the ground floor two-light window and a marigold window above the two-light first floor window. A low projecting wall separates the remaining bays. A four-light ground floor window has a variety of small windows at first floor topped with an oculus, partly in a half-hipped gablet. A five-light window to the right has a two-light window topped with an oculus in a similar gablet. To the right again is the 1880 block, which has a pent-roofed entrance to the left and a set of three-light windows to the ground floor, with two-light windows to the first and second floors, those on the second floor in a gablet. Beyond these is a two-light window above steps down to the basement, and windows above matching those to the left.

The west elevation is partly obscured by the 20th-century single-storey, flat-roofed extension. Above it is a first floor iron balcony and two windows, and a second floor five-light window range rising into a gablet. To the south behind the extension is a large five-light window at ground floor in a square bay with a two-light side window.

The south elevation has five main sections. From the left: a gable-ended bay with a large five-light window at ground floor, a pair of two-light windows above, and a three-light window in the gable, all in a bay that breaks forward slightly. To the right is a 20th-century porch at the junction point of the 1865 and 1880 parts of the house. Behind it is a linking corridor and beyond and above is a five-light window in the second floor. On the right of this section is a two-storey square bay with three lights to the front (facing west) and one to each side, with a gable above. The next section to the right has a basement door to the left and a window on ground and first floors to each side of an external chimney stack. This splits at ground floor level where there is a window between the two sections. An ornamental buttress links the two sides at first floor level. To the right is a gabled bay with a two-storey canted bay window, the ground floor windows being full height with steps leading up to the central window. The final section has a large two-light window set forward and with steps, with a two-light window and oculus above in a gablet.

The east elevation is partly obscured by a 20th-century single-storey flat-roofed extension. A centrally placed entrance is to the left of an external chimney stack with a split flue and central window similar to that on the south elevation.

Interior

The interior retains much of its original floor plan and features original doorcases with decorative moulding, original panelled doors with a variety of original door furniture, elegant moulded plasterwork to the ceilings and cornices in all the principal rooms, and original joinery in the window frames.

The main entrance door leads to a lobby with a decoratively inlaid ribbed and vaulted ceiling. The walls have exposed stone below and inlaid panelling above. There is an arched alcove on the left side and the floor has encaustic tiles. The inner door is a wooden half-glazed double door with pointed segmental arch, with glazed lights to each side and fanlight above into a pointed arch.

The hall is double height and contains the main staircase, which is cantilevered around the perimeter forming a balcony around the first floor. The balustrade is formed of wooden column balusters with carved capitals, supporting arches which are part of a continuous handrail, and square newels at the corners with carved capitals. To the left is a white marble fireplace with a heavy carved overmantel incorporating a clock. The hall is lit overhead by a glass dome supported on carved wooden brackets. Arched corridors lead out to right and left, that to the left leading to a former external door, now leading into a 20th-century extension.

To the left of the hall is a north-facing room (North-east room) with a red marble fireplace with a split flue and central window facing east. On the south side of the corridor are two rooms. The easternmost (Divided room) is split north-south, the eastern side having a black marble fireplace with tiling to the sides, facing into the extension. The window is split between the two rooms. The western room (Frieze room) has a wooden and glass screen to the adjoining room to the west, consisting of a wooden door to each end with round glazed panels above, with a half-glazed panel in the centre with wooden tracery above. This room, opening from the hall and facing south with a canted bay window, has a black and white marble fireplace and a carved wooden frieze picked out in gold below the ceiling, as well as wooden beams dividing the panels of plasterwork. The doorcase and double door is very elaborate with carved panels divided by wooden corbels between the door lintel and the frieze, and decorative brass bolts on the doors.

The next room to the west (Staff room) has a fireplace with split flue and central window, with a carved wooden surround. There is a window to either side and a large window to the west. A half-height wood-panelled corridor from the hall leads to a glass-roofed passage joining this part of the house to the 1880 section. This has wooden and glass screens and a door leading to a 20th-century porch to the south, and double doors at the end into a large room (Panelled room) occupying most of the 1880 section of the house. It has two large windows to the west and south and is entirely wood-panelled. The ceiling is also wood with decorated beams and bosses dividing the intricately carved panels. The double entrance doors and a further entrance leading out to the north have carved panelled doors and decorative carving over the lintels. The fireplace is also in wood, with a mirror incorporated in the overmantel. The windows have coloured glass in the panes above the transoms.

The north side of the ground floor is less highly decorated and has been partially subdivided to form lavatories, stores and science rooms, though the original divisions remain visible. A service stair also rises to the first floor in this area.

The first floor contains a number of rooms with matching doors and doorcases to those on the ground floor, mainly painted. There are also several fireplaces, some marble but mostly of more modest proportions than the ground floor examples, and some wood. A subdivided room in the north-east corner has decoratively carved support brackets. There are a number of circular windows, some with stained glass, and a number of rooms have decorative cornices. The attic floor contains a number of small rooms, almost all partially in the roof space. The basement is also extensive with some vaulted ceilings supported on cast iron columns.

Gatelodge

The lodge house and attached gateway are also included in the listing. The gateway consists of a stone arch with wrought iron gates, with a small shouldered arch doorway to the right side with a timber door. To the other side is a short stretch of wall with a three-light rectangular unglazed window.

The former gatelodge, currently used as an infants school, was built in 1865. The lodge adjoins the wall on the right-hand side and is a two-storey stone structure with steeply pitched slate roofs. There are two chimney stacks, one with tall stone pots.

The plan consists of two single-depth blocks running side by side but staggered so that the western is set further south than the eastern. Behind (to the north of) the western section is a lower hipped-roof block emerging from the side of the eastern section, and there is a round tower emerging from the north-east corner of the eastern section and adjoining the gateway.

The windows are shouldered arch sashes, those on the first floor situated either in gable ends of the main roofs or in gablets to the sides. The tower has a circular spire topped with a weather vane. There are entrances to the west, alongside the tower, and to the east. The south front has a single window in each of the ground and first floors of the two gable ends, those at first floor rising above eaves level. To the west side, the south part has an entrance but no windows, whilst the north part has a hipped roof with a single window in a gablet with a fire escape leading down from it. The north front has a small blocked window at ground level and a single window in the gable end with a lancet-shaped relieving arch above it. The west front has the tower to the north end, with an entrance and a window to the ground floor and a window in a gablet, projecting and supported on stone corbels, above.

Historical Context

The house was built on former open ground by the locally well-known firm of Milnes and France for the wealthy textile magnate Henry Illingworth in 1865. The same firm of architects designed the Grade II listed Whetley Mills in Bradford for the Illingworth firm, and Eli Milnes designed a number of listed buildings in the Bradford area. The house was apparently extended to the west in around 1880, but little of its subsequent history is known. The Illingworth family were extremely eminent in Bradford, and Alfred Illingworth, brother of Henry, was an active politician, serving as a Member of Parliament for Knaresborough and then Bradford. Whetley Mill was the largest in Bradford, employing 1,000 people at its height. The building has served as a junior school for Bradford Girls Grammar School, immediately adjacent to the south, for around 70 years. During that time, extensions to each end of the building have been added, together with a small porch on the south side. These have made minimal inroads into the fabric of the original.

Setting

The house is set on ground sloping from north to south, so the gardens to the south fall away steeply from the south front. The approach is from the north, where there is an arched gateway and a surrounding boundary wall, with the lodge house to the right. Between the road and the house there are trees and shrubs which shield the house from view from the road.