Spenfield

Spenfield is a large house, now offices, built between 1875 and 1877 and extended and altered around 1890. It was designed by George Corson for James Walter Oxley, a banker. The building is constructed of local rock-faced gritstone ashlar laid in diminishing courses, with steeply pitched slate roofs in the Gothic Revival style.

The house is two storeys with attics and cellars, comprising three bays with a two-bay single-storey and two-storey extension set back on the left. The central entrance features a pointed arch porch with pink granite columns, shallow relief carving to the spandrels and parapet which includes roundels bearing the date and the initials 'JWO'. This monogram is repeated throughout the house. Gargoyles sit to the right of the entrance between moulded string courses, with a three-light window above the porch. The flanking gabled bays have two-storey three-light canted bay windows, two-light attic windows, quatrefoils, stone copings and bud finials to their apexes. Large four-flue stacks flank the central bay, forward of the ridge.

The 1890 additions are set back to the left and include a single-storey approach gallery with three round-arched windows and a steeply gabled billiard room with canted bay window. On the left return a projecting fire bay has lancet windows and a tall circular stack. On the right return, the main range includes a two-storey five-light segmental bay window with pavilion roof, a projecting gabled bay with three-light windows and two-light attic windows with quatrefoil and bud finials, and a rear wing with a two-light Romanesque-style window and corner turret with conical roof and ornate finial.

The interior is richly decorated. The vestibule contains a glazed entrance screen with coloured and painted glass depicting birds, animals and fishes, a polychrome tile floor, and a moulded and painted ceiling inscribed with 'Welcome the Coming' and 'Speed the Parting Guest'. An inner screen with paired black marble columns opens into the top-lit lounge hall, which features Byzantine-type arches and columns supporting a galleried landing with pierced balustrade of polished pine, moulded and painted wall tiles, round-arched architrave, brass brackets, globe wall lights, a marble floor, and a coffered and painted ceiling with painted glass lantern. The stairs have panelled and fretwork banisters and elaborate newels with ornate globe lamp standards.

The former dining room, redecorated by G.F. Armitage of Manchester in 1888, features marquetry and printed fabric wall panels in William Morris designs, fitted cupboards and a sideboard with leaded glass doors and painted flower panels. The fireplace has an inlaid marble hearth, cast-iron and copper hood, fireback, and flanking panels of copper painted in imitation of tiles with scrolled flower patterns and a peacock tail motif in the overmantel. The deep bay window has carved wooden columns and panelled reveals, with a frieze of scrolled flowers in relief, a coved ceiling with star pattern, and two large brass light fittings with globes and bracket wall lights with thistle heads.

The former morning room has plain walls, four light brackets, and a wooden fire surround carved with flower and leaf motifs including thistles and roses, with a marble and tiled hearth and a moulded plaster ceiling frieze with star-shaped ventilator panels. The central drawing room is more ornate, with six-panel doors whose gold panels are painted with flowers, flanking a fireplace of veined marble and carved wood with three panels and brass scrolled lamp brackets. A buffet with arched niches and side cupboards features a wide arched recess with birds, flowers and fruit on a gold ground, and a large mirror. The room has a parquet floor, overpainted embossed wallpaper, and a coved ceiling with relief panels painted in gold, green and red, with a gold-painted monogram and mottoes and badges.

The added gallery and billiard room are reached from a corridor with a mosaic floor. A narrow lobby with panelled and glazed cupboards opens into the gallery, which has a marble floor and dado with paired columns between three round-arched windows with painted glass depicting fruit and grapes, and a ribbed vaulted ceiling. It was originally used to display the owner's collection of sculpture and antiquities. The billiard room has a parquet floor, marble dado, six-panel doors with crenellated cornices bearing the 'JWO' monogram, and a blue-tiled fireplace with wooden surround and mirrored overmantel in a deep recess lit by paired windows with fine stained glass representing female figures of the four seasons. The room has a moulded coffered ceiling and panelled top light with coloured glass.

Service rooms opened from the rear left of the hall and are much altered, but the black and red tiled floor and service stairs of four straight flights with moulded balusters and ball end finials survive. A servants' room has a walk-in corner store-room with wooden shelves on cast-iron brackets. A through-room contains plain panelled store cupboards and fireplaces with plain stone surrounds. The main stairs are lit by a large six-light window with two transoms, the painted glass in Arts and Crafts 'Jacobean' style depicting domestic scenes in the lower panels, hunting, shooting, fishing, football and archery in the middle, and birds at the top. A service stair opens from the landing to the rear left.

The first floor originally housed the owner's bedroom, dressing room and bathroom, three other bedrooms, a smoking room and a guest's bedroom, dressing room and bathroom. Partitioning has altered the character of these rooms, but original features survive in the front rooms, which retain six-panel doors and fireplaces with marble surrounds and painted and inlaid panels with sunflowers and wreaths, or with tiles painted with yellow flowers, fruit or song birds. Rooms on the right return also retain two fireplaces with carved wood and marble surrounds and bands of seven tiles painted with fruit. Attic fireplaces have plain chamfered stone surrounds.

George Corson's designs in Moorish style are similar to the Grand Theatre and Municipal Offices, now public library, built during the period 1877 to 1884. G.F. Armitage of Manchester redesigned the former dining room in 1888, and this and other rooms display Arts and Crafts decoration. The approach gallery and billiard room were added in 1890.

James Walter Oxley was the son of Henry Oxley of The Elms, Weetwood Lane, now Oxley Hall, who was the first Lord Mayor of Leeds. John became a partner in the bank of William Williams and Brown, later merged with Lloyds, and a director of the Midland Railways. He took an almost dictatorial interest in the architectural details of the house and the design of all its contents.