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FABULOUS FOLLIES
...and Landscape Curiosities

LEEDS, West Riding

The Bear Pit                                                        SE 280 355

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The Old Bear Pit on Cardigan Road was part of the Leeds Zoological and Botanic Gardens designed by Wakefield engineer, William Billington and Edward Davies, a landscape gardener. On the east side the circular brick-lined bear pit was linked by two tunnels and the bears viewed from the turrets. The gardens were opened in 1840 but were a lose-making venture and sold for £6010 in 1848. The site was then known as 'Tommy Clapton's Park' before being closed in 1858 and sold as building plots.



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  In 1966, the bear pit was purchased for £128 by the   Leeds Civic Trust and restored in 1968 at a cost of £1000.




​  Other Bear Pits are at:
  SHEFFIELD, West Riding
  WENTWORTH, West Riding

The Fountain                                                      SE 332 382

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The Corinthian rotunda in Roundhay Park was presented to the borough by Sir John Baran in 1909.

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The Gibbet

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The Gibbet at Temple Newsam was built in 1820 as an arbour to the south of Temple Newsam House near Stork Pond. Open cast mining for coal cleared the area and the Gibbet was taken down in 1945.

On the postcard are the words:
    A rare survival of a salutary punishment in medieval     days when many manorial lords had the right of             hanging criminals

 Truth is stranger than fiction.


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Gipton Spa                                                             SE 319 363

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The plaque reads:

GIPTON SPA
THIS BATH-HOUSE WAS BUILT IN 1671
ICE-COLD WATER FROM A NEAR-BY SPRING
WAS CONDUCTED HERE TO A SUNKEN BATH
ALSO INSIDE WAS A FIREPLACE
TO SWEAT THE PATIENTS AFTER BATHING




The Little Temple                                            SE 364 320

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The little Temple is at Temple Newsham. The information board reads:

'Marked on Brown's original plan as a rotunda, the Temple was built c, 1765. An hybrid of classical and gothic architecture which were both fashionable styles at the time. Overall the Temple appears classical but the cluster columns are more suggestive of gothic. Note the leafy decoration at the top of the columns, known as capitals.'


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Roundhay Park Sham Castle                        SE 334 384

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The sham castle gateway was built by local master builder George Nettleton in 1811 for Thomas Nicholson. Originally it had a wooden roof and an upper floor. It was used as a summerhouse and a sewing room for the Nicholson girls. It was also a viewing-point over the parkland and Waterloo Lake to Cobble Hall, a former farmhouse on Elmet Lane, rebuilt in a Gothick style.

The wall tops and crenellations were rebuilt in the late 20th century.

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The Hermitage

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The Hermitage was situated at the top of Upper Lake in Roundhay Park.
Copyright Ray Blyth 2018