Farnley Hall is a stately home

Stately home

A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...

 in Farnley, west Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England. It is a grade II listed building. It was built in Elizabethan times by the Danby

Earl of Danby

Earl of Danby was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1626 in favour of the soldier Henry Danvers, 1st Baron Danvers. He had already been created Baron Danvers, of Dauntsey in the County of Wiltshire, in 1603, also in the Peerage of England. The...

s. The manor is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 as Fernelei, so it is probable that this house was a replacement for earlier medieval structures.

The Danbys owned part of the manor and the hall until 1799, when it was sold to James Armitage. Thomas Danby

Thomas Danby (mayor)

Thomas Danby of Farnley and Thorpe Perrow was the first Mayor of Leeds .He was born in 1631, the son of Sir Thomas Danby of Farnley Hall , and married Margaret Eure in 1659....

 was first Mayor of Leeds

Lord Mayor of Leeds

The Lord Mayor of Leeds is a ceremonial post held by a member of Leeds City Council, elected annually by the council....

, and Thomas Danby College

Leeds Thomas Danby

Leeds Thomas Danby was a further education college in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England offering courses for 16-18 year-olds and adults. The college was named after the first Mayor of Leeds, Captain Thomas Danby of Farnley...

 in Leeds is named after him. The Hall was acquired by the Leeds City Council in 1945 and its grounds are now the public Farnley Hall Park. The Hall is used as the headquarters of the council's Parks and Countryside Service.

Part of the 16th-century house still exists, including a much-eroded Danby arms. The house was drastically rebuilt in the 18th century, when much of the earlier house was demolished and replaced with an architecturally dull building. A sketch or the Tudor house survives in the British Library. In the early 19th century a classical front was added.

There are fairly intact remains in the parkland at Farnley, although the current layout is from the early 19th century. 16th- and 17th-century maps show a deer park, and the 1985 West Yorkshire Archaeological Survey said that the boundaries of the medieval deer park could be traced on the ground. However, it is unclear where these earthworks or ditches may be.

Farnley Parish Church, built in 1885 and dedicated to St Michael, stands across the park from the hall. It replaced an 18th century building, attributed to Carr of York. The classical belfry from this chapel is extant in the churchyard. A chapel is known on this site from 1240. The chapel at Farnley had a historic dedication to St Helen, and a well dedicated to the saint was extant in the village of Farnley until the 1950s when the site was developed for housing by Leeds city council. Remains of medieval tracery used to be preserved in the interior of the church.

There is a cottage close by, which is several hundred years old and is linked to the park. Archaeological research is currently is progress.

External links

• Farnley Hall Park at Leeds City Council website