SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Just had a quick trawl of Geograph (see above) and discovered that Daniel Peckover was a Quaker, and Bradford banker and wool merchant. I know there is a Peckover Street in Bradford. The lodge to his estate still exists on Leeds/Bradford road between Thornbury Barracks and Bradford Moor, so just in Leeds - the boundary is at Gain Lane. However, years ago, I was walking the dog in the fields between the lodge and the Blue Lagoon (Woodhall Lake) when I came across a very nice, colourful, Victorian interior tiled floor partly hidden under the turf. Perhaps this was his house?Incidentally, anyone remember the other, wooden-built, house that overlooked the Blue Lagoon?        

Thats some mighty fine sketching you got going on there Si,if i may say so myself!

Thanks very much, Brandy! A bit of Googling shows that Daniel Peckover owned the whole area, which was called Woodhall Park. In the 1840s there was a slump in the woollen business, rendering his mills idle. To keep his workers busy, he put them to work building the Blue Lagoon in his park. Maybe the old wooden house there, was his summer house? I think there is/was a small boat house there, too.    

Here's the wall containing the "D.P.1860" stone. It's built to look important, I'd say.Sorry it's so dark! The round thing is just an old drum lid.    

And this is the "Mystery" stone. Note the groove and chamfered front edge.

And from the left showing the circle, now half buried in the tarmac. When I was a teenager, it was fully visible.    

And a shot showing the recess in the field wall. Note the expensive-looking stone work.    

D.P.1860. The carving is much clearer than it looks here.    

Uno Hoo wrote: You're on to my home ground here, Si. I don't know the answer, but my dad knows a man who might! Give me a day or two to speak to Dad, and maybe a bit longer to try and get something from the Calverley historian. The stone is very close to the Calverley Millennium Way, which in turn was mapped using the old Calverley Parish Boundary, so it might be something to do with that.U.H. I think Calverley Millennium Way actually passes the stone. Doesn't it join Woodhall Lane just below Hill House, and go down the lane before crossing Calverley Golf Course on the opposite side? It's marked by blue signposts, I think.

having looked at the pictures,this looks very like an old well.The revolution well on Stonegate road has a simliar beehive shape. the inset is typical of how many wells were set back off a main highway.it should therefore be marked as a well on any old maps of the area.I would think the mystery stone is actualy the top of the stone protecting the well and the small circular bit if dug down, would actually be the basin for catching water in. Any pipes in the field behind the wall?