Kirkstall Abbey mystery photo

[stevief]

LS1 wrote: stevief, is that not the Vesper Gate that the website menitons? I thought this as on the other side of the road near the Vesper Gate pub, just behind it somewhere? You may be right there.It says the gatehouse was 300 yards from the Abbey so that would tie in.Perhaps it was a lodge built in Victorian times,but why was it demolished?

[Phill_d]

If you look at the google image with the roads overlaid you can see how the layout runs past the Abbey nearly up to the tennis courts & exits again further up Abbey road. I wonder why it runs so far up & what was there originally. The lodge is deffinately nothing to do with the abbey i'd say!

[LS1]

Phil, the roads / pathways you can see near the tennis courts were laid out when the council took control of the park after it was donated to the people of Leeds. At the time Leeds was very proud of it's open space, and tried often to rival places like Birkenhead Park and Heaton Park in manchester, hence why places like Hunslet Moor, Woodhouse Moor, Woodhouse Ridge, Cross Flatts Park, and finally Kirkstall Abbey park were all upgraded with bandstands, paths, flower beads and very grand gates. The land next to the Abbey was given tennis courts and laid out nicely with beds etc, which unfortunaely have gone. I would hazard a guess that the lodge was built as one of these grand entrances, and the path takes you right round the abbey grounds and then back out again, much as it would have done over 100 years ago. Those not feeling that energetic could take the shorter route cutting out the bits near the tennis court as you can see on Phils last picture. I forget the exact dates it was laid out now, but all the parks were more or less done from about 1880 to 1910. I reakon that the Roundhay Park lodge (princes avenue) was also done for this reason as it is the first thing you get to going to Roundhay from Leeds in terms of seeing the actual park, much as the one at Kirkstall is set at an angle so you see it as you come up abbey road from Leeds quite plainly, and it is the first thing you see with the abbey. Could be wrong though. Only a theory, but it might be worht checking the Parks committe minutes of the time. I used them for some uni work as i did alot on Parks, and they are really detailed

[Phill_d]

Great detective work mate! Forgive me a bit here! The Princess avenue lodge? It's obviously been demolished yes? I can't place one there although the Wetherby road one still exists!

[LS1]

Yeah mate, if you look on another thread I started on I think unusual buildings you can see it. Wierd as it was never mentioned (the roundhay one) in any contemporary guide books or anything, so i think it was a later addition by the council way after william nicholson-nicholson died and the park was auctioned off.