Meanwood Towers + Strange Structure In Road

LS1 · Post by **LS1** » Fri 10 Aug, 2007 5:18 pm

oldleedsman wrote: Thanks. King Alfred's Castle was actually built by Jeremiah Dixon in 1720. It was on the rocks at the high-point near the triangulation station. It was demolished in the 50s. Indeed you are right! Confusion withe the names! Although 1946 was the year of demolition after the storms at the time seem to have done most of the work and the council did the rest! Are there any remains of it at all? Been up there a few times, but cant see anything that could have been the castle, i.e. stones lying about. There are two gate posts up there though as you walk toward where the castle was. Any ideas what these were for?

oldleedsman · Post by **oldleedsman** » Fri 10 Aug, 2007 5:28 pm

Hi LS1. Definitely no remains whatsoever and weren't even in the 60s when I used to play there. I often wondered about the gate posts but have no idea.A bit more info on King Alfred's at another threadhttp://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=438

LS1 · Post by **LS1** » Fri 10 Aug, 2007 5:33 pm

oldleedsman wrote: Hi LS1. Definitely no remains whatsoever and weren't even in the 60s when I used to play there. I often wondered about the gate posts but have no idea.A bit more info on King Alfred's at another threadhttp://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=438 OldLeedsman, I'm going to post on the other thread, as I think this will be veering off subject, couple of points about the castle if you can help...

Inquirer · Post by **Inquirer** » Mon 13 Aug, 2007 12:33 pm

In October Oct 2003 Labour MP Andrew Dismore asked a Parliamentary questions about rhe cost of judge's lodgings throughout England. He was told the annual cost in 2002/3 of the Leeds Judge's lodges was £319,626.98 and that 575 'judge nights' were spent there. Seven staff were employed in that year.

oldleedsman · Post by **oldleedsman** » Mon 13 Aug, 2007 4:38 pm

That's about £500 per night. A hotel plus food & drink is going to cost around £200 per night. So, the additional cost is about £200k pa to keep 7 people employed and maintain a large green space in Leeds' increasing over-developed suburbs. Sounds a good deal to me. What's the alternative? Turn the building in to a hotel and sell off the grounds for housing as usual I suppose. Having said all that, it's a shame the grounds aren't open to the public when the judges aren't in residence.

cazaw · Post by **cazaw** » Mon 08 Oct, 2007 3:09 pm

Yes, the organ was built for Clara Thornton who was Thomas Kennedy's wife. It was housed in a huge centrally heated wooden structure with beautiful stained glass windows not far from the front door of the Towers today.It was opened by SS Wesley who was an eminent Organist and composer of organ music. Unfortunately, within 10 years of the opening Clara became ill and wasted away. Her and her husband are buried in the churchyard at Wetherby, they had no children.I own part of Meanwood Towers so it is close to my heart: we try our utmost to keep it in pristine condition, but it is not easy. The house has been used for various things over the years. I have found that in 1931 according to the National Archives hospital records Meanwood Towers was an ancillary building for Meanwood Mental Hospital, it was also a proposed home for disabled children.I've been told by local people that it was a gentleman's club for a while too. The locals did not like the huge wooden organ house and when the wind blew through the disused building, it caused the organ to spring to life. They believed it to be haunted and smashed the beautiful stained glass windows, until the place was such a mess that they had to demolish it.

Tasa · Post by **Tasa** » Mon 08 Oct, 2007 4:49 pm

There's lots of information about the organ's origins, together with a couple of photos of Meanwood Towers (click on the "Meanwood" link) and the site of the organ house, on the official Armley Schulze organ website:http://www.armley-schulze.freeserve.co.uk/OrgHist.htm

BONDGATE BUSES · Post by **BONDGATE BUSES** » Mon 08 Oct, 2007 6:45 pm

I lived in a very pleasant ground floor flat at "The Towers" for a most reasonable rent between 1968 and 1972. It did have a somewhat "haunted" air about the building, especially in the vast hallway/stairs at night.Just had one very bad experience there one Sunday afternoon while having a nap on the settee - my lounge was above the oil fired boiler room for hot water. I awoke choking with acrid blue fumes and feeling really bad, The whole flat was damaged with oil residue - turned out that a pigeon had fallen down the chimney ( high above the rooftops), which was the flue for the boiler and had totally blocked the outlet for the fumes from the burner. Quite seriously, this was a very narrow escape indeed, and the whole public hallway and upstairs were reduced to no visibility. If this had occurred in the night, with everyone in the building asleep, it is most likely that we would all have perished !!Incidentally it is not the Judge's residence - that is a rather similar building on the other side of Stonegate Road. I was always led to believe that "The Towers" is an exact replica of a place in Italy (I think) which the owner liked so much that he decided to have it copied here.

drapesy · Post by **drapesy** » Fri 19 Oct, 2007 11:31 am

Here's a couple of pics I took of the well recently

drapesy · Post by **drapesy** » Fri 19 Oct, 2007 11:57 am

the Inscription reads; Bog in the adjoining Field drain'd Spring open'd & conducted hither For the benefit of the Passenger and the neighbouring House Nov. 5th 1788the 100th Anniversary from the land'g of KING WILLIAM in memory of which happy AEra this is by Joseph Oates inscrib'd (the) REVOLUTION WELLI have tried to give as exact a copy as I can with spellings and capitals as they appear. Where appropriate on the original 's' is rendered in the archaic style (looks like an 'f' without a cross). On line 9 the first letter of 'Era' is capitalised and has an 'A' and 'E' run into each other [ there may be a way to do this on the keyboard, but I dont know how to!]. I am unsure as to existence of the word 'the' on the last line.