Adel Reformatory

This former reform school, later approved school and community home, was built in 1857 for the Leeds Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders. The original designer was William Watson Hewitson of Kitson & Hewitson, locomotive builders and general engineers, who was also one of the founding members of the Society. The complex was enlarged with later 19th and 20th century additions and is now disused.

The buildings are constructed of squared and coursed stone with slate roofs. All windows facing outward are externally boarded, though some overlooking the courtyard retain their glazing.

Layout

Two-storey blocks of varying heights are arranged around a large quadrangle. At the east corner stands the master's house, with workshops to the north-east and north-west, dormitories to the south-east, and kitchens to the south-west. Beyond the north-west range is a covered swimming pool with a boiler room and changing rooms linking to the inner range. A detached chapel stands to the south of the main complex.

External Description

South-East Range

The south-east range has gables breaking forward at each end and at the centre, each divided by four windows. The right-hand end gable features a single-storey, hipped-roofed square bay window projecting forward. The range extends for another window to the right with a further single-storey hipped-roofed square bay window.

North-East Range

At the east corner is a three-bay element with a central door flanked by windows on either side and three windows above, forming the eastern end of the south-east range. Abutting this is the headmaster's house, which is taller with a separate hipped roof and two ridge chimney stacks. At first floor it has five large stone mullioned and transomed windows, with two at ground floor to the left, one partly obscured by a square stone porch with a door to the side. To the right of the porch are two small windows followed by two mullioned windows.

A lower range to the right has seven windows to each floor and a door at each end. Further right is a taller range of three bays with scattered fenestration and dentilled eaves, and a final section—the gable end of the north-west range—with three windows to each of the two floors.

North-West Range

This two-storey range has nine windows at first floor, some altered. The ground floor openings from the north are: window, door, two windows, door, window, door, window. Beyond this, a later brick wall extending from the range obscures details. The tall tapering square chimney stack for the swimming bath boiler rises from the face of the range at the far end. An inserted later brick linking block joins the southern end of the north-west range to the swimming pool that runs alongside to the north-west.

Swimming Pool

The swimming pool is single-storey with a pitched slate roof featuring four large roof lights along each side and two blocked windows in the south-west gable end.

The southern gable end of the north-west range has two windows to each floor. To the right is the main entranceway. Later stonework and double wooden gates with a rendered brick parapet fill the gap between the north-west range and the south-west range, which projects further forward than the end of the north-west range. There is a small blocked doorway in the gable end next to the main entrance.

South-West Range

The 15 ground floor windows are arranged in variable groups, with four closely spaced around a door in the centre and three pairs with flat mullions between to the right. Upper floor windows are more widely spaced. Two stacks on the south-east gable end rise from halfway up the roof line. To the right of this block is a further two-window section set back with an end ridge stack, and to the right again a final block which also forms the end of the south-east range. This has a large inserted entrance with a metal canopy to the left and a single window to the right, with three windows above. The roof is hipped to the left and to the right forms the gabled roof of the end bay of the south-east range.

Courtyard Elevations

The four sides of the building are set around a large open tarmac courtyard.

South-East Range (Inner Face)

The inner face has a central projecting gable, broader than that to the exterior, with scattered fenestration including a small second floor window. A porch at the right side extends into the courtyard with a pent roof; its entrance to the right links to an open verandah extending to the right corner of the range. This has a brick base and pillars and a corrugated iron roof. There are four windows to the right of the gable at ground and first floor, and a further infilled window to the ground floor. To the left of the gable are four first floor windows and on the ground floor a single window to each side of a cart entrance. At the left end is a single-storey extension with a pitched roof that partially obscures the left-hand first floor window. The first part of this, with two windows, was extant by 1893, but it was extended in the 20th century to form a rear wing of the former master's house, with a change in the style of stonework and a raised roof ridge marking the later building.

The rear of the master's house rises behind the extended building, with an external chimney stack towards the left and six windows at first floor. At the right end it is attached to a gable-ended projection from the south-east range. The single-storey building in front has four windows and a narrow entrance door, and has a small flat-roofed extension on its left gable end.

To the left of the master's house is a lower two-storey section with two windows to each floor. The next range to the left is stepped back and has an entrance to the right and two to the left, divided by a continuous band of stone lintels indicative of a series of former entrances. Above is a row of four windows and a further blocked window to the left, possibly a loading bay. The block to the left is slightly higher though the stonework is continuous and has a number of altered openings including a first floor loading bay. It has raised gables at each end and is joined directly to the north-west range.

North-West Range (Inner Face)

The north-west range facing the courtyard appears to be a single build, of two storeys, with a first floor entrance approached from an external iron stair crossing the front of the building at the right-hand end. There are four windows to the left, then a large loading door, then five windows, then another door with iron stair, then a final window. There are ground floor entrances below the staircases and a number of altered openings to the right end of the range with evidence of a removed extension. At the left end the main entrance to the courtyard is in a wall extending from the north-west range to the south-west range.

South-West Range (Inner Face)

The south-west range, also a single build on its internal face, has six first floor three-pane windows to each side of a central wooden plaque bearing a shield and the letters EMS (Eastmoor School). The ground floor has similar windows, only boarded up, with entrance doors at each end and centrally. To almost the whole length of the front is a brick-based verandah with brick pillars supporting the remains of a roof structure in timber and steel, now burnt out. The verandah joins with that on the south-east range at the corner.

Interior

Most of the interiors have been either stripped or damaged by fires. The master's house retains the layout of rooms but without features of interest. The former workrooms on the ground floor of the north-east and north-west ranges survive as small rooms, some tiled and made into wash rooms. The upper floors of these ranges were also workrooms, and on the north-west range these survive as large open spaces, top-lit with skylights.

Behind the north-west range are changing rooms and a boiler room for the swimming pool; the boiler survives but is disused. Beyond is the swimming pool, with a deep end towards the north-east where there are steps down, and tiled in white tiles. It is surrounded by a walkway and at the south-west end are two small cubicles, one in each corner. The roof is constructed of slender steel beams supporting a slate roof with multiple skylights.

The south-west range has kitchens on the ground floor extending over much of the west end, and offices to the east. The upper floor, former dormitories, are fire damaged and were not inspected. The south-east range has several large rooms to the left with quarry tiled floors and iron columns supporting the floor above. Other rooms to both ground and first floor have been internally altered. Staircases survive. The single-storey extension behind the master's house housed kitchens.

Chapel

The detached chapel has a steeply pitched roof in blue slate with horizontal bands of grey slate, ashlar dressings, and stepped angle buttresses at the corners. The west gable end has a central porch with pitched roof and open arched entrance leading to the inner door. A three-light pointed arch window is above the porch and there are two paired narrow basket arch windows to either side.

The former vestry is on the north side at the east end and has a pitched roof with a large end stack. The windows are shouldered arches and there is a date stone of 1882 on the outer gable wall. There are two paired pointed arch windows on the north side separated by stepped buttresses, and three similar windows on the south side. The east end has a four-light pointed arch window.

The interior has three open trusses with metal rod tie beams. It has lost all interior features relating to its original uses but retains climbing frames attached to the side walls relating to its later use as a gym; the interior is not of special interest.

Historical Context

Up to the mid-19th century, children who committed crimes were commonly sent to adult prisons as there was no separate provision. Philanthropic societies and private founders set up some voluntary reformatories for young people in the early 19th century, but it was not until the Youthful Offenders Acts of 1854 that state-registered institutions were established and pre-existing private reformatories were brought under state certification. Reformatories were distinguished from Industrial Schools by taking young people who had actually committed offences, as opposed to those who were merely destitute or neglected and in danger of falling into crime.

By the end of 1857 there were 47 reformatory schools in England. Most of these occupied domestic buildings such as a farmhouse with land, or a detached house and garden. At least 14 were in new premises and four are known to have been built on a quadrangular plan. By 1876 the number of schools had risen to 53 but fell to 41 by 1894. The system was superseded by the Borstal system in the early 20th century and many reformatories later became approved schools.

The Adel Reformatory was founded in 1857 on a site deliberately chosen to be removed from the temptations of the city. William Watson Hewitson of Kitson and Hewitson, locomotive builders and general engineers, was one of the founding members and also the designer of the earliest part of the building, the south-west range. There were around 50 boys at the school in 1858.

The south-east range and headmaster's house was added in 1860, when the attic floor of the initial range was converted to dormitories. The workshops of the north-east range, built by the boys in 1859, were rebuilt in 1881 after a fire. The separate chapel to the south was added in 1882, designed by an unknown architect but apparently designed to function also as a lecture room and subsequently as a gym. Surrounding land within the grounds was cultivated for crops and garden produce. The land was bought by Leeds City Council for £3,500 in 1875, having been leased to the Society by the owner previously.

The swimming pool beyond the north-west range was added in around 1887 and roofed in 1896. A boiler room between the north-west range and the pool was inserted in 1899 to heat the pool. It was used by community groups as well as inmates, and swimming and life-saving were taught. A report of the school from 1887 records 150 boys engaged in occupations including joinery, tailoring, shoemaking, farm work, calligraphy, building trades, cooking and blacksmithing. Many of the boys went on to join the Grimsby fishing fleet for which their swimming training was considered useful.

A group of buildings within the central courtyard, extant in 1893, was demolished by 1908, and an extension to the rear of the master's house dates to between 1934 and 1954. There has been some infill between the main buildings and the adjacent swimming pool since the 1960s.

The buildings continued in use as an approved school named Eastmoor School from 1933 and then a community home from 1972 until the mid-1990s. A number of separate houses were constructed around the core site from the 1950s onwards, but there has been little change to the 19th century buildings externally. The site was leased to Leeds Metropolitan University from the late 1990s when the surrounding houses were used for student accommodation, and in 1993 a secure unit for young offenders was built on part of the site, formerly open land also owned by Leeds City Council. It has been unused since around 2004 and has been marketed for housing development.

Significance

The building is designated at Grade II for its plain but functional architecture that reflects the purpose of the buildings; its intactness, with the form and footprint of the entire complex remaining largely unaltered from its 19th century appearance despite internal losses; its rarity as one of only four listed reformatory buildings and the most complete example; its historic interest in powerfully demonstrating how juvenile offenders were treated in the mid and late 19th century, from the first attempts to separate them from adult prisoners to the increasing range of facilities offered at the school through the second half of the century; and for special features including the swimming pool, an unusual survival which further illustrates the range of skills taught in the school and provides a physical link to the employment of boys in the Grimsby fishing industry.