Moorfield House And Attached Outbuildings And Walls

Moorfield House and attached outbuildings and walls

Country house, now retirement home, with stables, outbuildings and wall. Early 19th century with possible later 19th-century additions and alterations around 1960. Built from sandstone ashlar with chisel-tooled walling, plain lintels, bands and porch. The main roof is grey slate with a hipped design and lead porch roof. Large ashlar stacks are positioned forward of the ridge, flanking the central bay on the main front, with a further stack on the right return and one at the rear left (a 6-flue rendered stack at the rear right).

The house is two storeys with a three-bay entrance facade facing north-west and a slightly projecting one-by-two-bay wing at the northern (left) end. The garden front faces south-west and extends to five bays. The entrance front features a central single-storey porch against the slightly-projecting pedimented central bay, containing double doors, corner pilasters with sunk panels and carved laurel wreaths, entablature and cornice. The flanking and first-floor centre windows are almost full height with margin lights and flat-faced stone mullions set under segmental and rectangular recesses. A similar window exists in the added projecting bay to the left. Other upper-floor windows are tall and narrow; ground-floor windows are boarded and upper-floor windows have 20th-century frames. A projecting sill band and plain cornice flank the central pediment, with a blocking course completing the facade.

On the right return and garden front, a fine full-height semicircular three-window bay projects prominently, with a sunk panel above all windows. The rear features a slightly-projecting central bay with three-light and sash-type windows.

Interior retains a columned screen in the entrance hall and contemporary plasterwork.

The stables and outbuildings are two storeys, forming a rectangular block with lower projecting ranges on the north-east side, linked to the house by a narrow range of outbuildings. Much original fenestration survives, including a three-light window on the south-west side. The hipped roof incorporates a cupola. Ground-floor alterations and additions from around 1960 in the stable yard include cement render.

The attached wall is constructed of ashlar to approximately two metres high, positioned at the west corner of the stable block. It forms a fine curved and ramped screen wall to the stable yard with a plain side gateway and gate pier.

The house was built before 1822 on a prominent site on the outskirts of the city, probably by a mill owner. By 1842, John Purchon lived there. Purchon was an army and police clothier and woollen merchant (recorded in the 1842 Directory) who was born in Rothwell in 1782. He began his career as a book-keeper at No.28 Kirkgate and became a cloth merchant by 1834. He likely established his business by supplying the Leeds Police Force, which began operations in 1836 and from which the Fire Brigade was formed in 1842; Purchon's Yard on Kirkgate was named after his workshops there. The house was occupied by Isabella Purchon (John's daughter) in 1857, Reverend William Richmond in 1861, William Cooke (a manufacturer of paper hangings) in 1881, and Mrs Mellor in 1905.

Mid-19th-century alterations to the house probably include the front entrance porch, the wing to the left, the six-flue kitchen stack at the rear, and extensions to the coach-house. The building was altered around 1960 for conversion to a retirement home.