“It is a pleasant delusion to think that this is the last fragment of a noble baronial pile” wrote the author of a guide to Roundhay Park in 1872. It was, he explained, simply ‘an object of interest’, the creation of a gentleman of ‘good taste’: in short, a folly.

That gentleman was Thomas Nicholson. In 1803 he had bought a large part of the ancient Roundhay hunting park in partnership with fellow Quaker Samuel Elam. Whilst Elam hoped to profit by developing homes for the burgeoning professional class in Leeds, Nicholson intended to build his country seat on the northern portion of the estate.

By 1806 Nicholson gave his address as Roundhay Park, although it is not clear exactly when his new mansion house was complete. A plan of the park made at the time of the purchase in 1803 shows that Nicholson worked with the existing topography, and retained the plantations already in situ when developing the new pleasure ground. By 1807 it was said that Nicholson was ’embellishing’ estate at ‘no small expense’, and the sham castle, top lake, and a haha had been created by 1811 when they are mentioned in a newspaper report of trespass within the grounds.

The castle was constructed as an eye-catcher from the mansion, and also functioned as a belvedere and summerhouse. It is an elaborate construction with squat towers, a central arch, and a cross passage within. Above is a room that was used for shooting lunches and picnic parties, and the battlemented roof offered views of the woodland and lakes (a second, the Waterloo Lake, was added by damming a beck in 1815). The construction is attributed to George Nettleton, stonemason, of Roundhay, but the name of the designer is yet to be discovered.

By 1871 the family no longer wished to reside at Roundhay and the park was offered for sale. The Mayor of Leeds, John Barran, was determined that the people of his city should have access to a park, and he began the process of purchasing the estate for this purpose. It was a complicated process, not without major obstacles and some acrimony, but that has been covered in detail elsewhere*. The process even involved the Leeds artist Atkinson Grimshaw being commissioned to paint views to help the cause.

Barran and his supporters within the Leeds Corporation eventually achieved their goal, and George Corson was commissioned to design the new public park with all the necessary accoutrements: boathouse, bandstands and shelters. With work barely underway Prince Arthur, 3rd son of Queen Victoria, visited the city to declare the park open on 19 September 1872.

To commemorate his visit Mr William Joseph Booer, of the Leeds glass merchants and stained glass manufacturers Booer &Co., presented painted glass to be installed in The Castle’s window. Booer had made the ‘art of Glass Staining his life-study’ and his work was much in demand in the Leeds and Bradford area. For The Castle he designed and painted a three light window (the shape visible in old photos) in the centre of which was a ‘bust of Prince Arthur in appropriate attire’ which was ‘charmingly represented in medallion form’. Booer also designed and installed stained glass windows in a number of local churches and in private homes as far afield as Africa**.

A commemorative handbook was published which included lines by the Yorkshire dialect poet Joseph Eccles, although perhaps in honour of the royal visitor he stuck to the Queen’s English. Previously known simply as The Castle, the folly was now romantically renamed ‘The Ivy Castle’, and Eccles’ ode included the lines

Yet what a rich and charming view
From off its towering walls,
Of woodland, lake, and village spire,
That to the mind recalls
Some ancient tower in bygone times,
When watchers gazed below,
Ready to mark the first approach
Of some advancing foe.

The 1872 handbook noted that the upstairs room was in a ‘dilapidated’ condition, although public access to the roof was possible, if one avoided the ‘rush of tourists’ clogging the spiral stair. Sadly, this treat is denied to today’s visitors, and The Folly Flâneuse and her Curious Confidante had to be content to appreciate the view from ground level.

By the 1960s the Castle had deteriorated and the section of wall above the arch had collapsed, destroying the window. The folly was restored to its present appearance later in the 20th century and remains a popular attraction within the park.

Roundhay Park remains a hugely popular visitor attraction in Leeds and the Friends of Roundhay Park work with Leeds Parks to maintain it for future generations.

* For a full history of the park see Steven Burt’s volume online at http://www.thoresby.org.uk/content/townships/roundhay/illhist/rp01i.php

** Sadly largely lost or forgotten but Booer’s career deserves further research. His quirkiest production was a window (now lost) in Grove House, Pudsey, depicting the story of the Pudsey Pudding, a giant confection which was created to celebrate the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. There’s more on this great event here http://www.pudsey.com/clanvis/loc/pudpud.htm

Bramham Park, south of Wetherby and close to the Great North Road as it passes through Yorkshire, was built by Robert Benson, Lord Bingley, and completed in the early years of the 18th century. The estate has remained in the care of his descendants (with a couple of confusing name changes) ever since. In 1828, while the family were away at a funeral, fire broke out in the mansion causing serious damage to the fabric of the building. Happily, the quick actions of the servants and neighbours meant that some of the contents could be saved. Less fortunately, there was no money available to rebuild, so the house remained a ruin throughout the rest of the century.

Following the fire George Lane Fox, the then owner of Bramham Park, moved into the much smaller Bramham House in the nearby village of the same name. This remained his home until the grander Bowcliffe House, between the village and Bramham Park, came on the market following the death of its owner, John Smyth. He had died in 1840, and his executors were quick to announce that Bowcliffe House would come to the market ‘early in the spring’. The house was only a few decades old and the gardens, which had been laid out ‘with the utmost taste and judgement’, were home to thriving plantations as well as a Gothic hermitage and a Grecian temple (sadly lost). There were also rare trees and exotics ‘collected from all parts of the world’. By May 1841 George Lane Fox had become the owner and he moved the surviving furniture and paintings from Bramham Park into his new home – which was appropriate really as John Smyth had helped save the paintings from the fire.

The famed gardens at Bramham Park, created in the formal style popular in the early 18th century, were maintained during the family’s exile and continued to be used for fêtes champêtres ‘in a most magnificent style’, and for the annual agricultural show. In 1845 a new building joined the temples that decorated the park. This was The Museum, a curious structure combining classical and gothic elements, possibly using some masonry recycled from elsewhere*, and with a stone marked GLF 1845.

Although usually remembered as ‘The Gambler’ (for obvious reasons), George Lane Fox was also a cultured man. He had ‘with great taste’ and ‘immense outlay’ formed a collection which was to be housed in his new building. Sadly, he didn’t live to enjoy his museum as in 1848, soon after arranging the display of the collection, he died. His brief will left everything to his only son and there is no mention of the museum. In 1850 his heir offered the collection for sale with the household furniture (that is, the non-heirlooms) from Bramham House, which was to be let. The Museum was described in the sales particulars as ‘fitted up in compartments’ and ‘arranged and classified by a gentleman of eminent skill, from London’. The contents included ‘specimens of Birds, Fish, Reptiles, Fragments of Animals, Organic Remains, Minerals, Shells, Fossils, Coins, Armour, War Implements, and a great variety of Miscellaneous Articles, highly valuable to the Antiquarian’. The museum collection was offered for sale as one lot, and interested parties were requested to obtain a ticket from the auctioneer to allow access to view.

It seems a buyer was not found and Lane Fox’s son and heir, also George Lane Fox (‘The Squire’),  initially decided to keep The Museum intact. Probably as a result of the publicity caused by the proposed auction, there was considerable interest in viewing the collection. In September 1851 The Squire agreed to open the ‘grounds at Bramham Park and the museum [on] Monday the 22nd of September’. The visitors, or ‘excursionists’, as they were called, were from ‘the industrious classes of York, Leeds, &c’ and the Midland Railway Company offered low terms to convey them to Thorp Arch station, which had opened only a few years earlier. Tickets were available from the wonderfully succinct address of ‘Trip-manager’s office, Leeds.’

Seeing the treasures enjoyed by a wider audience may have been the impetus for George Lane Fox’s ‘munificent donation’ of the collection to the museum of the Leeds Philosophical Society. Opened on Park Row in 1821, the museum was supported by the local aristocracy, gentry and the burgeoning professional class of Leeds, reflecting that age’s desire to study and understand the natural world. The society’s annual report for the 1858-59 session notes that George Lane Fox was ‘foremost amongst the Benefactors to the Museum’, and had donated not only his entire collection but also the bespoke cabinets in which it was displayed.

The museum and its contents passed to the city of Leeds, for the benefit of the wider public, in 1921. Sadly, a bomb destroyed much of the museum fabric, collection and archive in March 1941, and the surviving artefacts were largely in storage until the opening of the new Leeds City Museum in Cookridge Street in 2008.

In the first decade of the 20th century, newly enriched by judicious marriage, another George Lane Fox (grandson of The Squire), began the process of rebuilding the hall at Bramham as the family home it remains today. In 1911 The Museum was included in a book on gardens in the north of England, by which time the enclosure around it, surrounded by the famous high Bramham hedges, had become a rose garden with a central statue of a satyr playing a flute.

A later generation removed the statue and planting to create a tennis court, with The Museum as its perfect pavilion. The current custodian of Bramham, Nick Lane Fox, has recently restored the structure and is developing plans for its garden.

* A trawl of the archives for further information on the construction will be a winter project for The Folly Flâneuse. Watch this space…

The gardens and pleasure grounds at Bramham, in which The Museum stands, are open by appointment. See the website for details https://www.bramhampark.co.uk

Thanks to Val Corbett for the wonderful photo http://www.valcorbettphotography.com