SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Walking through Otley close to the centre you pass an old farm with a plaque stating this.Of course Otley grew outwards and covered the fields the farmer farmed, the buildings are used for something else now.But when Leeds was sooo much smaller pre victorian times, and when most of our suburbs were fields there must have been many farmhouses and outbuildings on what is today estates and expanded ex-village centers.Can you point to any Farm buildings still standing (and why not as these are often robust stone affairs)as relics from the once agricultural surroundings of old Leeds town centre?

It depends how old you mean. There are quite a few in the valley between Kirkstall and Rawdon if you know where to look. There are a couple of barn conversions off Pollard Lane in Bramley (although I think the locals prefer Rodley) that are certainly 19th if not 18th century. I believe the farm that manages the fields on the south side of the A65 beyond Horsforth roundabout has been in use for a couple of hundred years. For that matter I was surprised to find that the Clariant site has been a dye works for some 150 years and has cottages on it of that age.

The Parksider wrote: Walking through Otley close to the centre you pass an old farm with a plaque stating this.Of course Otley grew outwards and covered the fields the farmer farmed, the buildings are used for something else now. I think the building you're referring to is now a vets - the one on Courthouse Street.Otley was originally made up of just three streets - Boroughgate, where the more well-to-do lived; Bondgate, where the lower classes (peasants or bondsmen) lived, and Kirkgate, which linked them. Until the building of Sainsbury's obliterated the medieval pattern of burgage plots (strips of agricultural land), they could be clearly made out, stretching toward the base of the Chevin. The old farm mentioned by Parksider must have been owned by a gentleman-farmer, whose fields will have bordered the river.

ParksiderI was about to mention a near local (The High Farm).But I think the interesting point you're aiming for is the closest-to-centre surviving Farm.I've thought hard and I don't know. Will check some books.

Is that farmhouse still there on the right hand side of the A62 as you head towards Gildersome?

Not the city centre (as such) but there are some in Seacroft just off The Green that have been swallowed up by the urban sprawl.It was a 'working' farm up until the 80's at least - perhaps more of a smallholding given the location, but they had a tractor and possibly some livestock I think. Possibly they cultivated the land where Redmire Court stands now?I've just checked Streetview and although the former farmhouse is still there, the farm yard / buildings which were opposite are long gone, with the area just being grassed over:http://goo.gl/maps/FB7xT

The "Tommy Wass" was a farm, I think.

There are several farm buildings now converted into homes off Tinshill Road at Cookridge.

Jogon wrote: ParksiderI was about to mention a near local (The High Farm).But I think the interesting point you're aiming for is the closest-to-centre surviving Farm.I've thought hard and I don't know. Will check some books. A sign of a farm/farm building is a very high archway (where the hay cart used to pull in - for a classic example go along wood lane Buslingthorpe - I was stood in a shop at the top of Horsforth Town street and there was one opposite. Of course the whole thing was infilled to create a solid wall, but the high arch remained to show these were farm buildings....

IIRC Headingley Hall on ShireOak Road is an old farm house..