Since we announced the South Leeds Life public meeting about the future of Stank Hall Barn, we’ve been asked about the location of the barn and the associated buildings.
View Stank Hall Barn in a larger map
This slide show gives you various views of the barn and two other buildings: Stank Hall and New Hall. The site lies on Dewsbury Road, just beyond the railway line and before you reach the White Rose Centre.
The barn was built in the fifteenth century and is one of the oldest secular (non-religious) buildings in Leeds and was used to store grain.
The middle building is Stank Hall, stank is an old English term for pond or pool. The original timber building appears to have been clad in stone later. According to the West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service:
“The Hall was the home of the Beeston family, lords of the manor of Beeston in the late Middle Ages. in 1600 the last member of that family to live here, Ralph Beeston, sold his house and land to the Hodgsons, a prominent Leeds family.”
The third building, which suffered a fire a couple of years ago and is now held up with scaffolding is New Hall. Built in the Seventeenth century it was still habitable in the 1980s when a photo of it was taken which appears in the Leodis photo archive.
Beeston History Society will be providing a lot more information about the history of these buildings at the public meeting.
Save Stank Hall Barn, Thursday 28th February at 7:00pm, Beeston Village Community Centre, St Anthony’s Drive.
