| Wood Hall Hotel & Spa | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Former names | Wood Hall | ||||||||||||||||||||
| General information | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Type | Hotel | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Address | Trip Lane | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Town or city | Wetherby | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | England | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Elevation | 51 metres (167 ft) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | Hand Picked Hotels | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical details | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Floor count | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Wood Hall Hotel and Spa, Trip Lane, is an AA four-star, 44-room country house hotel with an AA two-rosette restaurant, about one mile from the English village of Linton, West Yorkshire. A Grade II listed building [1] that was once owned by the Vavasour and Scott families.
The house was originally a country retreat of the Catholic Vavasour family, which had owned the estate since the early Middle Ages. An earlier house by the river was destroyed in the English Civil War by Cromwell's army and the stones thrown in the river. The present one was erected about 1750 and was designed by John Carr. [2]
It was sold to the Scott family of Leeds, who inhabited it until 1910 when it was leased to a Mr C. M. Watson, a Morley woollen manufacturer. In 1918 the family sold Wood Hall to Arthur Crowther Watson, a wealthy woollen manufacturer who lived in Morley.It then became a boy's prep school, whose alumni included the Yorkshire and England cricketer Len Hutton.
The 190-acre estate was sold in 1966 to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds as a pastoral and ecumenical centre, in which capacity it was visited by Mother Teresa. [2] There is still a community of Carmelite nuns in a modern house near Wood Hall. [3]
In 1910, architects Connon & Chorley of Leeds were commissioned by Mr C. Watson to make some changes to the layout of the Hall. It shows that the Hall consisted of a cellar and two floors with a small mezzanine and an attic.
The Scott family bought Wood Hall in about 1790. It was advertised for sale in 1786 by the then owner Sir Walter Vavasour 6th Baronet. [4] Edward Whatmore bought the house but he died the following year. [5] Soon after it was purchased by William Fenton Scott, who was born in 1746.
Scott's father was Henry Scott, a wealthy merchant and landowner who was the Mayor of Leeds. [6] In 1779 he married Mary Kaye the sister of Sir John Lister Kaye. In 1890 when his father died he inherited the family estates and two years later founded the Commercial Bank in Leeds. He died in 1813 and his eldest son William Lister Fenton Scott inherited Wood Hall. He advertised the estate for sale in 1818, but decided not to sell it.
William Lister Fenton Scott (1781–1842) was born in 1781 in Leeds. [7] In 1821 he married Charlotte Johnstone who was the daughter of Sir Richard Vanden Bempde Johnstone. [8] In 1825 he was elected as the Registrar of the West Riding and held this position for 16 years. The couple had no children and when William died in 1842 he left Wood Hall to his wife Charlotte. She lived there until her death in 1860. During this time she took an interest in the welfare of the community: in 1850 she built a school at Sicklinghall at her own expense. [9] When she died, her nephew Henry Richard Johnstone inherited the Scott estates, including Wood Hall. In accordance with their wishes he added the name Scott to his title so that he became Henry Richard Johnstone Scott.
Henry Richard Johnstone Scott was born in 1830. He was for some time in the 2nd Regiment of the West Yorkshire Militia. [10] In 1866 he married Cressida Elizabeth Selby Lowndes, the daughter of William Selby Lowndes of Whadden Hall in Buckinghamshire. The couple had three sons and a daughter. Henry died in 1912 and in 1918 the family sold Wood Hall to Arthur Crowther Watson, a wealthy woollen manufacturer who lived in Morley. [11]
Also known as Wood Hall Country House Hotel, the house is set in 100 acres (40.5 ha) of woodland, at the end of a long private drive, 200 yards from the River Wharfe. It opened as a hotel in 1988 and was extended in 1992. It has facilities for helicopter landing, [12] and also a gym, an indoor swimming pool and a steam room.
Also known as Wood Hall Country House Hotel, the house is set in 100 acres (40.5 ha) of woodland, at the end of a long private drive, 200 yards from the River Wharfe. It opened as a hotel in 1988 and was extended in 1992. It has facilities for helicopter landing, [13] and also a gym, an indoor swimming pool and a steam room.
Some of the stonework of the previous house was recovered from the river during its repurposing into a hotel and the House of York coat of arms is displayed in the front hall. [2]
Bolton Abbey Estate in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, takes its name from a 12th-century Augustinian monastery of canons regular, now known as Bolton Priory. The priory, which was closed in the 1539 Dissolution of the Monasteries ordered by King Henry VIII, is in the Yorkshire Dales, which lies next to the village of Bolton Abbey.
Boston Spa is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. Situated 3 miles (5 km) south of Wetherby, Boston Spa is on the south bank of the River Wharfe across from Thorp Arch. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 4,006 rising to 4,079 in the 2011 census.
Harewood is a village, civil parish, former manor and ecclesiastical parish, in West Yorkshire, England, today in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 3,734.
Otley is a market town and civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the population was 13,668 at the 2011 census. It is in two parts: south of the river is the historic town of Otley and to the north is Newall, which was formerly a separate township. The town is in lower Wharfedale on the A660 road which connects it to Leeds.
Linton is a village in the civil parish of Collingham, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. It is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-west of Wetherby on the north bank of the River Wharfe, Collingham is on the opposite bank.
Hazlewood Castle is a country residence, now a hotel, in North Yorkshire, England, by the A1 and A64 between Aberford and Tadcaster. It is one of the oldest fortified houses to survive in the whole of Yorkshire.
Stutton is a small village in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, a mile south-west of Tadcaster.
Swinsty Reservoir is a reservoir in the Washburn valley north of Otley and west of Harrogate in Yorkshire, England. Construction began in 1871 and was completed in 1878. The capacity is about 866 million gallons, with a surface area of 63 hectares. It can be found from the A59 road.
Clifford is a village and civil parish in West Yorkshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 1,662. The village is 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Wetherby. Many of the older buildings are built of magnesian limestone.
Weston is a village and civil parish in the former Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. The village is 1.2 miles (2 km) north–west of Otley and near the River Wharfe which forms the boundary between North and West Yorkshire. The name is from Old English and means western enclosure, farmstead or village.
Ryther cum Ossendyke is a civil parish 6 miles (9.7 km) from Tadcaster and 6 miles (9.7 km) from Selby, North Yorkshire, England. It includes the village of Ryther. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 241.
Thorp Arch is a village and civil parish near Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough.
Denton Hall is an English country house located to the north of the River Wharfe, at Denton, Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England between Otley and Ilkley, and set within a larger Denton estate of about 2,500 acres (10 km2), including a village, church, and landscaped gardens. It is a Grade I listed building.
The recorded history of Wetherby, a market town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England, began in the 12th and 13th centuries, when the Knights Templar and later the Knights Hospitallers were granted land and properties in Yorkshire. The preceptory founded in 1217 was at Ribston Park. In 1240, the Knights Templar were granted by the Royal Charter of Henry III the right to hold a market in Wetherby. The charter stated the market should be held on Thursdays, and an annual fair was permitted lasting three days over the day of St James the Apostle.
Sicklinghall is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England that is situated between the town of Wetherby and the village of Kirkby Overblow.
Miles Gale (1647–1721) was an English antiquary.
The Leeds and York Railway was a proposed railway line, promoted in the mid 1840s, intended to connect York and Leeds. The line lost a significant promoter, the Manchester and Leeds Railway in 1845/6 as a result of a non-competition arrangement between that company and the York and North Midland Railway.
Newall is an area of Otley in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Wharfe, across Otley Bridge from the central area of the town. The place-name, recorded in 1166 as Niuhale, simply means "New Hall".
Newton Grange in Bank Newton, Skipton, in Yorkshire is a Georgian house of historical significance and is Grade II listed on the English Heritage Register. It was built in about 1800 by Richard Greenwood, a gentleman, and was the private residence for many notable families. It is now a wedding venue and provides holiday cottage accommodation.
Dunkeswick is a hamlet in the civil parish of Kirkby Overblow, in North Yorkshire, England, just north of the River Wharfe, off the A61, around a kilometre north of Harewood and two kilometres south of Kirkby Overblow.
