Roundhay Grange Including Barn Adjoining To South

Roundhay Grange is a farmhouse with attached outbuilding located off Wetherby Road, Roundhay. The outbuilding dates from the 17th century, while the main farmhouse was built in the late 18th century and altered in the mid-19th century and around 1915. The buildings are constructed from coursed gritstone rubble with stone slate roofs and timber-framing.

The late 18th-century range is two storeys with five windows on the north side of the farm yard, alongside a two-bay wing projecting southwards to the right. The ground floor has 20th-century doors and window frames, while the first floor has small square windows with an inserted stair window to the left of centre, possibly originally a loading doorway. The left gable has a rebuilt coping and brick ridge stacks that may define the original extent of the 18th-century house.

The right wing is built of larger squared stonework with 20th-century openings and an entrance in the left bay. The roof line to the right bay is slightly steeper and roofed in slate on this side. The rear garden front (east-facing) has five first-floor windows with sashes with glazing bars. The entrance is sheltered by a wooden porch with tri-stone jambs, a chamfered shallow pointed lintel, and carved spandrels.

The 17th-century wing, now functioning as an outbuilding, has a south gable with a chamfered plinth and the remains of a continuous moulded string at first-floor level. Former mullioned window openings are now blocked with square 19th-century windows. A pigeon loft opening with perches occupies the gable. The left return has two bays with coursed stonework matching the gable on the right, but with rubble infill walling to the left. A plinth and external stack appear on the right, while barn and loading doors open on the left.

Interior of the farmhouse: The garden entrance opens into a panelled stair hall. The massive framed wooden staircase, probably an early 20th-century introduction, features bulbous balusters, square-section end newels with recessed panels, a closed string, and pegged panelling. The house is reputed to have a king-post roof with V-braces.

Interior of the 17th-century wing: The south bay contains three substantial cross beams with stepped chamfer stops and mortices for a framed ceiling. On the west wall is a large external stack fireplace with massive stone lintel and traces of roll moulding to the jambs. A second fireplace with large lintel, now plastered over, occupies the upper floor, now used as a hay loft. The north bay, with rubble walling, has a further two chamfered cross beams and a small flat Tudor arch fireplace on the west wall, though no flue survives.

In the north wall of this bay, against the end of the house wing, part of a timber-framed range wall is preserved. This was originally an external wall probably extending westwards into the present yard area, its original width represented by the rubble walling. The lower walling consists of large squared blocks. One principal post survives, thickened at the top and morticed for a tie-beam brace, with angle braces rising to the wall plate. Vertical studs form the infill between the wall plate and a bressumer resting on the stone walling. Further timbers may survive beneath later work.

The Roundhay Grange site has been associated with the lost Domesday village of Watecroft and a farm belonging to Kirkstall Abbey. The 17th-century and earlier structures demonstrate continuity of occupation after the Dissolution and are of considerable historic importance.