Underground Bath House, Northowram

This is an underground bath house built in the mid-18th century to serve Northowram Hall, likely for John Edwards, the Hall’s owner. The structure is built of stone with some brick and is accessed by a straight flight of stone steps with roll-moulded edges. The principal room features a barrel-vaulted roof and a band course of comb-dressed stone defining the roof’s spring. A large plunge pool sits in the centre, with roll-moulded edges and large, smooth ashlar sides. Pointed arched openings are located centrally in the north and south walls. To the north, an opening leads to a smaller chamber, which contains a smaller pointed arch in the rear wall, with a stone slab behind and hand-made brick side walls, some of which have been removed. To the south, the central opening leads to another chamber and is flanked by two pointed arched windows with stone slab cills. The south chamber is rectangular, with a curved wall at the southeast corner and a small footbath beyond. Two pointed arched niches are present on the west and south walls, and the remains of a fireplace sit on the east wall. A flue is located in a small recess in the north-east corner. Two circular skylights, set in a concrete surround, are positioned above ground level. The bath house is thought to be contemporary with an earlier 18th-century house on the site, and it is believed to have been built by Bernard Hartley, a Yorkshire builder and architect (c.1745-1834), who also worked on several bridges including John Carr's road bridge at Ferrybridge.