Description

LEEDS

SE3033SW MILL HILL
714-1/78/254 (East side)
Nos.4, 5 AND 6

GV II

Shops, manufactory and warehouse, now shops, offices and club
premises. Probably mid/late C18 using C17 materials, refronted
c1870, altered C20. Red brick, stone details and cement tile
roof to frontage, rendered brick and slate roofs to rear
ranges. 3-storey, 9-window frontage with central archway
through to rear yard enclosed by parallel wings at right
angles to front and a range closing the yard at the eastern
end.
Frontage: archway flanked by pilasters; cambered arch with
keyblock; original pilasters divide C20 shop facades. Paired
round-headed windows to first floor, segmental heads to
first-floor windows; stone keyblocks, sill and impost bands;
ground-floor pilasters rise to modillion eaves cornice. Inner
yard facades have C19 and C20 doors and windows, though small
windows under eaves suggest possibly original openings;
details obscured by rendering.
INTERIOR: not inspected but reputed to contain (1984) and more
recent photographic record confirms existence of king-post
roof trusses of 3 types: i) recut king post, feet of principal
rafters set inside wall line and curved to meet king post
below ridge; splayed braces from cross beam to principals;
longitudinal bracing from king post to ridge; one set of
purlins; cut carpenters' marks; ii) king post has braces
rising from close to base and splayed to support underside of
principal rafters; cut and stamped carpenters' marks; iii)
shaped king post thickened at base and head for jointing with
splayed braces and principal rafters.
The 1984 report, confirmed by a view of the roofs from an
adjacent property, suggests that the north and south wings, at
right angles to the front range, were of 3 bays originally,
extended in the later C18 by 3 and 4 bays respectively and
closed off by the 2-bay range. The C19 frontage probably
replaced a merchant's house, the rear yard housing workshops
and warehouses; the site being within the oldest part of Leeds
and close to the Coloured Cloth Hall, built 1756, and the
King's Mill (corn).
HISTORICAL NOTE: in 1826 Nos 4, 5 & 6 were occupied by JS
Darby, butcher, Benjamin Blackburn and Sons, woollen cloth
merchants and manufacturers (Holbeck Moor Mills) and Mary
Walker, grocer and flour dealer. In 1847 the yard was called

Bower's Court; the property was owned by Joshua Bower when the
Boar Lane Improvements map was compiled, the refronting being
done when the south side of Boar Lane was rebuilt in 1869-73.
In 1875 the occupants were: (No.4) a hairdresser, (No.5)
butcher, (No.5A) a cotton yarn agent, (No.6) a glass bottle
manufacturer and a woollen manufacturer; John Brown corn
dealer was in Bower's Court.
A rare surviving example of the city centre buildings of the
C18, similar groups also Blayd's Yard and Queen's Court,
Briggate, (qqv).
(Directories of Leeds for 1826, 1834, 1875: 1826-1875; W Yorks
Metropolitan County Council Archaeology Unit: Michelmore, D:
Report on Nos 4-6 Mill Hill).

Listing NGR: SE3004733328

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26656000

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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