Temple Newsam House (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Temple Newsam

In the civil parish of Leeds.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of Leeds.
1974 county of West Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire West Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE35993213
Latitude 53.78434° Longitude -1.45970°

Temple Newsam House has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Great house, built circa 1500 and consisting of four ranges set around a large courtyard. The entrance gateway was in the north wing, the great hall in the south wing and the private apartments in the west wing. Between 1622 and about 1628, the east wing was demolished and the north and south wings were rebuilt. (PastScape)

The Manor of Newsam ('new houses') is first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. In 1155 it became a property of the Knights Templar, the military - religious order who guarded the pilgrim routes to Jerusalem. Their farmstead, excavated in 1991, was about half a mile to the south of the present house, close to the river Aire. After the order's suppression the property eventually passed to the Darcy family and the first person to build the new house on this site in c. 1500 was Thomas Lord Darcy, a courtier, mercenary and crony of Cardinal Wolsey. This was a spectacular four-sided courtyard house of which only the west wing survives as the central block of the building we see today. (Leeds City Council, 2004)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1255943
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1103673.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 4003.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Leeds City Council, 2004, Temple Newsam
  Wikipedia entry
Books
- Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 403
  Faull, M.L. and Moorhouse, S.A., 1981, West Yorkshire Archaeological Survey to AD 1500 (West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council) p. 530-1
  Kitson, S.D. and Pawson, E.D., 1927, Temple Newsam
  Bogg, E., 1902, Kingdom of Elmet p. 113 online copy
  Wheater, W., 1889, Temple Newsam: Its History and Antiquities online copy
Periodical Articles
- Fawcett, R., 1972, 'The Early Tudor House at Temple Newsam in the light of Recent Excavations' Leeds Art Calendar Vol. 70 p. 5-12
  Rowe, R., 1968, 'Temple Newsam House' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 125 p. 356-7

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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