ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS ART GALLERY
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed
Tues -Sat: 10am – 5pm
Sun: 11am – 3pm
Address
The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AA
LEEDS CITY MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (11am – 5pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat & Sun: 11am – 5pm
Address
Leeds City Museum
Millennium Square
Leeds
LS2 8BH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS DISCOVERY CENTRE
Opening Hours
Visits by appointment/special event only.
Free public store tours are now available by booking in advance. Please call or email us.
Address
Leeds Discovery Centre
Off Carlisle Road
Leeds
LS10 1LB
LEEDS INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed (10am – 5pm on bank holiday Mondays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat – Sun: 12 – 5pm
Last admission one hour before closing.
Address
Canal Road
Leeds
LS12 2QF
KIRKSTALL ABBEY
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (10am – 4pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Sun: 10am – 4.30pm
Last admission: 4pm
Address
Abbey Road
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LOTHERTON
Opening Hours
Open Daily
Estate opens: 7.30am
Café: 9am – 5pm, hot food finishes 45 mins before
Hall: Open (Downstairs only) 10am-5pm
Wildlife World: 10am – 4pm
Estate closes: October: 7pm
November: 6pm
23 Nov – 24th Dec: 7pm
24th Dec – 28th Feb: 6pm
March: 7pm
April onwards: 8pm
Last entry 45 mins before estate closing time
TEMPLE NEWSAM
Opening Hours
THWAITE WATERMILL
Address
Thwaite Lane
Stourton
Leeds
LS10 1RP
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Privacy and data
Miners dig deep to unearth estate’s pit history
News6 June 2019
A group of ex-pit workers from Leeds have gone back to the coal face, working with volunteers to unearth the history of mining at Temple Newsam.
Blot on the Landscape, a new exhibition at Temple Newsam House, explores stories of deep shaft, drift and open cast mining on the estate, which once saw large swathes of the stunning parkland dug up to make way for huge industrial operations.
Through a series of objects collected by local miners over decades, including a bible made of coal and an anthracite inkwell, visitors will get a unique, first-hand insight into what life was like for those who toiled down the estate’s former Waterloo Pit.
Temple Newsam was the setting for a succession of huge mining operations as recently as the late 1970s, with similarly large-scale digs throughout the 1940s, when the Ministry of Fuel and Power requisitioned the land from Leeds on September 1, 1942 and again on July 21, 1945.
Thanks to extensive landscaping, the grounds eventually recovered and few obvious signs of the mines can be seen today.
Uncovering an important chapter of Leeds’s heritage, the new exhibition has seen community curator Helen Pratt work with Swillington Elderberries, a local group of volunteers which includes former miners.
Together, they researched the history of Temple Newsam’s pits, talking to former miners from North, South and West Yorkshire and loaned objects which encapsulated their time down the mines.
Artists from Yorkshire and Northumberland have also created artworks for the exhibition and The Elderberries crafted a Yorkshire design rag rug for the exhibition. Rag rugs were commonly made in households up to the middle of the 20th Century by prodding scraps of fabric through the weave of old sacking.
Helen said:
“It’s been a privilege to work alongside miners and local volunteers and to learn more about their experiences working at Temple Newsam at a time when it was so profoundly different to the way we see it now.
“It’s hard to imagine, but the stunning greenery which surrounds the mansion today was once the setting for massive, industrial mining operations which were deemed essential for the provision of fossil fuels nationwide.
“Thankfully the estate has recovered in the intervening decades, but what’s left is a fascinating legacy of experience and history which those who worked down those mines have shared with us in this exhibition.”
Blot on the Landscape will be at Temple Newsam House until October 31.
For more details about the house and estate, visit: Temple Newsam webpage
ENDS
For media enquiries, please contact: marketingmuseums@leeds.gov.uk
Notes to editors
Temple Newsam house showcases over 40 interiors and one of the most important collections of fine and decorative arts in Britain which were designated as being of pre-eminent importance in 1997 (the first country house to be recognised in this way). It is a treasure house of outstanding collections including furniture, ceramics, textiles, silver and wallpaper. The house captures over 500 years of history and this is key to the visitor experience. The house is brought to life by telling the stories of the people who lived and worked there, through all art forms including digital, music, theatre and fine art. The collections show how the house was used as a family home, which was once birthplace to Lord Darnley, notorious husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Across the historic courtyard is also Home Farm, a working farm and one of the largest rare breed centres in Europe. All the animals at Home Farm are Native to the UK and most are classed as Rare Breeds by the Rare Breed Survival Trust. As a rare breeds centre we help to ensure the continuation of some of the oldest breeds of farm animals in the country, and provide a living legacy people can enjoy now and in the future. The estate is also set within 1500 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown landscape, boasting paths and trails for cycling, walking and riding, an 18th century Walled Garden and national plant collections.
Address: Temple Newsam Road, Leeds LS15 0AD
Telephone Number: 0113 3367460
Website Address: Temple Newsam