Temple Newsam Country Park

Temple Newsam, is one of England’s finest historic houses. The impressive surrounding parklands were laid out by the famous landscape architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown in the late 1760s for Charles Ingram and today its lakes, woodlands and formal gardens, in the care of Leeds City Council, are available for all to explore.

The earliest record of the property is a mention in the Domesday Book as ‘Neuhusam’, meaning ‘new house’. The preface ‘Temple’ comes from the fact that it was owned by the Knights Templar between 1155 and 1307, when the order was quashed following Papal decree and the property seized by the state.

Sir Arthur Ingram

Subsequent owners faired little better: Sir Philip Darcy was executed in 1537 for his part in the Yorkshire uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, and the property was seized again in 1565 when Temple Newsam owner Lord Henry Darnley married Mary Queen of Scots and was later suspected of attempting to murder her to win her throne. He survived a huge explosion at his residence in Kirk o’Field, fleeing in his nightshirt only to be strangled by assailants waiting outside. It was Sir Arthur Ingram, who bought the Temple Newsham estate in 1622, who built the basis of the mansion we see today, incorporating part of the existing brick-built house in the new west wing. Regarded by some as a wise financier and by others a rogue, the native of Rothwell made his fortune during the struggle to make James 1 and Charles 1 financially independent of parliament. He was knighted in 1613 and became one of the most powerful men in the county of Yorkshire.

His descendants remodelled various wings over subsequent decades and in the 1760s Charles Ingram, the ninth Viscount of Irvine, commissioned Capability Brown to remodel the estate.

Much of Capability Brown’s overall design survives today. He opted for a natural design, breaking up the symmetry imposed by the house and opening up fresh vistas to the west and south. Functional buildings, such as stables, were screened by fresh tree planting and a new approach along a long driveway, which passed between gates guarded by sphinxes, was created.

It was during this period that the Prince of Wales, later to become George IV, presented Ingram’s daughter, Lady Hertford, his mistress, with a pair of 18th century Brussels tapestries depicting the biblical stories of the discovery of Moses, and the battle of the Israelites and the Amalekites as Moses led his people towards the Promised Land. These, and many other great works of art, including furniture masterpieces by Thomas Chippendale, silver and Leeds pottery, are on display within the house.

Today the estate offers even more to the people of Leeds, with classical and pop concerts, cycling, riding, golf and of course walking.

Leave the car park and pass by the left side of the main house. Follow the main track that sweeps left downhill below the Stable Courtyard. Fork right beyond the estate buildings, down to a junction by a pond.

Leave the hard-surfaced track here and take the narrow path ahead, signed for the Little Temple, across a patch of grass and over the pond’s outflow into woodland. The obvious path rises to follow the right edge of a clearing, to a junction.

Turn left here, past the Little Temple on the path signed ‘Easy going route to lakes’. This gently descends through rhododendron, zig-zagging at the bottom to a junction with the lakeside path. Bear right, then left down the brick-surfaced track met at a crossroads, to the water’s edge.

Turn right past two footbridges to a fork. Here, your route continues ahead left but a diversion to the right, to explore the Rose Garden and Georgian Walled Garden, will more than repay the minimal effort involved.

Returning to the junction, resume your earlier direction. Bear hard left at the next opportunity to double back down the opposite side of the lakes, past the two footbridges. The trail sweeps up to a junction and bears right to wind its way back to the house, stables and car park beyond.