Shadwell Grange, Stable Cottage and Shadwell Grange Farmhouse

Shadwell Grange, Stable Cottage and Shadwell Grange Farmhouse

This is a large house, farmhouse, cottage, barns and outbuildings forming a complex on the south side of Shadwell Lane. The farmhouse and associated buildings date from around 1810, whilst the large house was built between 1821 and 1831 for Stephen Nicholson. The buildings underwent alterations and extension in 1903 for Henry Barran. The structures are constructed in coursed squared tooled gritstone with ashlar details, the farm buildings having stone slate roofs and the later house a slate roof. The buildings are arranged in a U-plan farm complex, open to the south, with the farmhouse positioned in the north east corner and the large house added to the southwest.

Shadwell Grange is a two-storey building of five by five bays. The garden front features a central full-height bow with three sash windows to each storey; the ground floor sashes have glazing bars, whilst those above are sixteen-pane sashes. A first floor band and band at eaves level are present, together with a 1903 parapet and central pediment. The left return, which serves as the entrance facade, has a central entrance bay of 1903 containing double doors with a traceried overlight and a rusticated surround with pilasters and pediment, above which is a heraldic crest. The doors are flanked by sashes with glazing bars and sixteen-pane sashes, with two blind panels to the right. Set back to the left is a two-storey service wing and outbuildings range; the roof steps up to a four-window range with side-sliding sashes and twentieth-century small-pane frames, plain lintels and sills, and a passage to the rear yard.

The north-facing facade has a central former courtyard entrance range, now used as garage and farm store, comprising two storeys and three bays with end copings. A central pedimented bay breaks forward featuring a segmental arch to the ground floor and a keyed lunette opening in the gable. Distinctive square windows to the upper storey have side-sliding sashes with projecting sills and lintels grooved as though for sliding external shutters.

To the right, Stable Cottage forms part of a four-window continuation of the west-facing service wing, with a plain lintel and a sash with small-pane frame. To the left of the pedimented range, the farmhouse rear wing has three first-floor windows with sliding shutters, two of which are blocked, small ground floor openings, and a taller sash stair window. Two single-storey ranges are attached to this facade: a former cart shed and a small farmhouse service bay.

On the east-facing facade, Shadwell Grange Farmhouse, comprising two storeys and four bays, is positioned to the right and has a wooden architrave and plain stone lintel to the entrance, flanked by sashes with glazing bars. At the far left is a low segmental cart arch providing access to the rear farm yard. At the centre of this range is a barn with a tall segmental keyed arch and a byre door to the left, with three square openings above, now glazed, which have rebated surrounds for shutters. At the far left is another barn with a lower roof, a low segmental cart arch, a window to the right, and a loading door above.

The farmyard facades include an inner arch to the entrance garage range and distinctive tapered pilasters built of large blocks on the rear walls of Shadwell Grange Farmhouse. A contemporary range of single-storey farm buildings in the yard is also included, positioned along the line of division between the Grange and Farmhouse.

The interior has not been inspected.

Historical context indicates that Kirkstall Abbey owned a total of 19 acres of land in Shadwell by circa 1195, and in 1333 and 1334 John de Shepley sued the Abbot of Kirkstall for 80 acres. Shadwell Moor Farm was built by a Leeds mill owner shortly after the enclosure of Shadwell Moor in 1803 and 1806. In 1821, Stephen Nicholson, the then Lord of the Manor of Roundhay Park, purchased the estate and built Shadwell Grange by 1831, possibly adopting the name from associations with Kirkstall Abbey lands, though there is no evidence as to the precise date of naming. By 1841 the property was occupied by David Cooper and family, and the farm had been renamed Shadwell Grange Farm. Occupiers in 1871-72 included C Empson and Elizabeth Shaw. In 1903 the property was owned by Henry Barran, son of the important Leeds clothing manufacturer John Barran, who commissioned alterations including a new entrance bay featuring his family badge of a bear, a pun on the Barran name.

The pilasters on the rear wall of Shadwell Grange Farmhouse are similar to those at Nos. 1-7 Park Cottages, Mansion Lane, Roundhay, which were also the property of Stephen Nicholson.