Abbey Villa

House, now subdivided into two, built c.1840 as the mill manager's house for Abbey Mills. The building replaces an earlier house destroyed by fire in 1797 which also destroyed the associated mill buildings. It was constructed between 1837 and 1846 and originally served as both the mill owner's house and office for the mill.

The house is built in stone, partly in squared coursed blocks and partly in thinner coursed blocks with stone dressings. It comprises two storeys plus basement and cellars, with a slate roof and two ridge chimney stacks, one at the right end and one central, plus two external stepped stacks along the outside of the cross wing. The plan consists of four bays plus a cross wing.

On the main garden facade, a gabled cross wing projects slightly to the left. This wing has a 2-light mullioned window with horned sashes on each floor and a small blind window in the gable. To the right of the gable is a porch built in ashlar with open round arches to front and side and a parapet above. Continuing right are a 3-light mullioned window, a round-arched stair window and a 2-light mullioned window, all with horned sashes. The first floor has three 2-light mullioned windows. At basement level, as the ground falls away to the right, there are three small windows, one of which is blocked. A string course runs above the ground floor lintels. All windows have cills and lintels but no jambs.

The rear elevation has a gable wing matching the front, with a door to the left approached by four steps and a large round-arched stair window above. Windows are irregularly positioned across the remainder of the elevation, all single sashes with stone jambs as well as cills and lintels. A further entrance is provided through a small square porch. To the left as the ground falls away, the basement floor becomes the ground floor, with a doorway, window and blocked doorway. The right return from the garden front shows the scar of a former extension at lower level. A string course extends round the whole of the cross wing.

The interior preserves substantial original features. The entrance passes through the ashlar porch with a checkerboard floor of tiles to a panelled door set centrally beneath a three-centred arch with patterned and stained glass to each side and above. Beyond is a lobby with patterned tile floor and a wood and glass screen to the hallway, which features leaded stained glass and a half-glazed door. The wide hallway contains a dog-leg stair with turned, column-on-vase balusters and a wooden handrail, with a rear stair window featuring stained glass.

The principal rooms are located to the left in the cross wing, one now a kitchen, retaining original doors, skirtings and cornices. A corridor to the right, presently blocked as part of the house subdivision, leads to a third reception room formerly used as an office, which retains original skirtings, doors and cornices and a black marble fireplace with modern gas fire inserted. The corridor has moulded ceiling decoration and a quarry tiled floor. At the far end, a former kitchen is now a sitting room, with original doors, skirtings and cornices, though the former range has been removed. The former scullery has been converted to a bathroom. A porch to the rear features a stained glass window. A servants stair rises to the first floor between the former kitchen and third reception room.

The first floor contains four principal bedrooms, one of which has been subdivided to provide a bathroom, all retaining doors, skirtings and cornices and leading off a broad landing. Further rooms include a toilet with an original window and an original fireplace in one of the bedrooms. Access to the cellars is available from both the upper and lower side of the house.

The building underwent alterations around 1900 and again around 1920. According to the 1892 Ordnance Survey map, another range stood at an angle to the house on the roadside edge; this had disappeared by 1908. By 1921, the new gable end had been constructed along with the rear porch. The former extension at the other end of the house remained in existence until after 1934. In 1961, the Abbey Mills complex was purchased by Leeds City Council and has since been let out to tenants.

Abbey Villa is significant as a well-preserved nineteenth-century mill owner's house with good survival of original features. It possesses group value with other listed mill buildings in close proximity.