A community archaeology group has spent months excavating the grounds of Temple Newsam, uncovering the foundations of a long-lost building along with a trove of finds spanning thousands of years of the estate’s history.
South Leeds Archaeology’s volunteers, who gather monthly in Rothwell, first got interested after seeing an old photograph, taken during the scorching summer of 1995, showing odd patterns burned into the grass — the kind of marks that often hint at buried structures beneath.
Chair Mike Turpin said: “They suggested there might have been the foundations of a missing building. Our primary project objective from there was to confirm this and, if possible, understand more about the history of the building and how it might relate to the house and other buildings in the park.”
A deeper dig
Digging deeper into the archives, the group tracked down a roughly 1750 painting seemingly showing the same missing building, matching an existing stable block on site — previously assumed to be nothing more than an artist’s impression of planned renovations that never happened.
Fieldwork was led by group members Jim Jackson and Phil Jones, who dug a series of trenches and exposed what are believed to be the foundations of the mystery building, dating back more than 280 years, though its exact purpose and how complete it ever was remain unclear — something future digs may help resolve.
Alongside the mystery foundations, the dig turned up a wealth of other finds: traces of an old carriageway leading north from the house, a possible arrowhead as old as 5,000 years, fragments of a 16th-century fruit bowl, glass from 18th-century windows, kitchen waste including animal bone and oyster shell, and leftovers from a V Festival gig staged on the grounds during the 1990s.
Phil Jones said: “It’s been a privilege for us to be invited to work on such a prestigious site as Temple Newsam. The council staff from the house and the estate have been really welcoming and supportive. It’s also been fun engaging with many of the public visitors to the grounds, and we may have a few new members joining SLA as a result. Everywhere that we’ve dug we’ve had a few surprises.
“The grounds of the house have been re-modelled and landscaped many times over history. But answering the most common questions from the public passers-by: no – we didn’t find any dinosaur bones, Roman mosaics or walls, nor any gold or treasure. Though as we were mainly looking for evidence of lost structures, we were happy with what we did find and it’s hoped we can return next year to find even more.”
Hampton Court of the north
Sometimes nicknamed the north’s answer to Hampton Court, Temple Newsam House dates back over five hundred years and once housed aristocratic residents including Lord Darnley, who married Mary Queen of Scots. Its grounds include formal gardens, a well-known lakeside walk, and Home Farm, one of Europe’s largest working rare breeds farms.
Cllr Salma Arif, Leeds City Council’s executive member for economy, said: “The story of Temple Newsam is one of the most fascinating aspects of our city’s heritage, spanning centuries of people and events which all played a part in shaping the city of Leeds. It’s wonderful that we’ve been able to work with a group of such dedicated local enthusiasts to add new and exciting chapters to that story which reveal even more about this remarkable place.”
