Temple Newsam Estate

As well as the impressive Temple Newsam mansion, the estate offers formal gardens and one of the largest parks in Europe. The 1,500 acre estate of gardens and woodland is stocked with rhododendrons, roses and azaleas. The grounds also offer numerous trails, walks and a bridlepath.

Home Farm in Temple Newsam Estate is the largest approved Rare Breeds Centre in the country. The farm is a large working farmyard where traditional animal rearing techniques are employed and a fine collection of harvesting machines can be found.

There is an estate shop, cafe and conference facilities in the Stable Courtyard.

Events
If you’re looking for some fun activities for your kids on weekends or in the holidays, you'll find there's often stuff to do at Temple Newsam farm including baby animals in spring, art and craft activities to do and new meet the farmer sessions. There’s also loads of other stuff to do on the site including visiting the new playground, checking out Temple Newsam House, exploring acres of green space, shopping and relaxing in the café. To find out what’s going on check out the list of activities on the attached PDF or call 0113 3367560.

Access 
The gardens and woodlands are fully accessible. Home Farm is uneven and cobbled but has some trails with cobbles filled in and most displays are accessible to wheelchair users. Electric scooters and wheelchairs available. Telephone 0113 3367560 to book or contact rangers at the farm.

Temple Newsam public golf course 
Two testing 18 hole courses for pay and play golf set in the grounds.
Temple Newsam Public Golf Course
Temple Newsam Road
Leeds 15
Tel 0113 2647362

Opening times 
Home Farm 
Tuesday to Sunday - Winter 10am to 4pm - Summer 10am to 5pm. Last admission is 45 minutes before the stated closing time.

Rose Gardens, glasshouses and toilets close at dusk.

Tea Rooms 
Summer - Open Monday to Friday 10am to 4.30pm and Saturday to Sunday 10.30am to 5.30pm
Winter - Open Tuesday to Sunday 10.30am to 4.15pm. Closed Mondays.

There may be limited access to the whole site during Summer events, please phone for details.

Prices 

Telephone numbers 

• Main Office 0113 336 7560
• Temple Newsam House (0113) 264 7321
• Tea Rooms (0113) 336 7546
• Home Farm  0113 336 7557

Please note that the Parks and Countryside's Head Office main reception telephone number 0113 3957400 is staffed from 8am - 4.30pm Monday to Thursday and 8am - 4pm on a Friday. Outside of these hours you can leave a message on the answerphone.

The park and gardens 
Jan Kip's meticulous bird's-eye view of 1699 showing the house and its formal surroundings provides an invaluable record of the 17th century garden laid out for Sir Arthur Ingram by the Frenchman Peter Monjoye. He created an impressive parterre on the south front, with a geometrical arrangement of flower beds, topiary work and gravel walks interspersed with stone beasts carved by Thomas Ventris of York. A walled bowling green and garden banqueting house were constructed on the west side, while long avenues of trees radiated into the deer park. The only estate building shown in Kip's engraving which still stands is the great barn with a beam dated 1694.

In 1710 the present East Avenue, bridge and ponds were started under the direction of the architect William Etty of York and took five years to complete. This scheme reflects an early phase of the new taste for the natural beauty of landscape which superseded the fashion for rigid formality and eventually led on to the open pastoral style of 'Capability' Brown who, in 1762, was commissioned to prepare an ambitious plan for improving the park. The prospects to the north and west were enhanced with carefully placed clumps of trees, while beech plantations screened the agricultural land beyond and sunk fences known as ha-has, which could not be negotiated by deer or farm animals, conveyed the impression of the landscape coming right up to the walls of the house.

To the east a serpentine walk led to a prostyle temple in the middle distance and elsewhere various picturesque spectacles - a sham bridge, thatched cottage, rustic dairy and so forth - were provided. The park was intended to reflect something of the gentle serenity of landscape paintings by Claude and Poussin. The imposing Sphinx gateway, based on a design by Lord Burlington, was once the main entrance to Brown's park, via the North Lodges. Its massive iron gates were cast in 1768 by Robert Johnson and reputedly hung by John Smeaton.

During Victorian times the south lawn once again sported formal flower beds; the cast-iron fountain and urns were supplied by Handyside of Derby in 1874. The rest of the 917 acre park was managed by gamekeepers for the benefit of shooting parties. Despite the ravages of open-cast coal mining, abundant evidence of earlier park plans survives. In a field towards Colton traces of a deserted medieval village are still visible, while Grim's dyke, a conspicuous Dark Age earthwork, marks the eastern boundary of the estate.

The imposing Palladian stable block built in 1742, almost certainly to the design of Daniel Garrett, boasts a one-handed turret clock and the cupola is headed by a weather vane in the form of a Viscount's coronet and the Ingram crest - a cock proper.

Today there are splendid gardens which attract visitors all the year round. To the south there is a grassless Italianate garden with formal flower beds, box, yew and beech hedges, pleached laburnum walks and a clipped hornbeam stilt hedge. Below the Home Farm and starting at the Sphinx Gate is the rhododendron walk which winds its way through expanses of lawn and broad beds of azaleas to the lakes. Near the large lake is an arboretum, and beside the upper lake will be found a bog garden. Beyond, the old walled kitchen garden has, for half a century, been planted with roses flanked by wide herbacious borders. The long conservatory, set against a tall fire wall built in 1788 (pierced by flues which once conducted hot air to ripen pineapples and other soft fruit) contains fine seasonal displays of flowering plants, columns of colourful pelargoniums and a new collection of South African plants.

Home Farm 
Home Farm, part of the Leeds City Council’s Temple Newsam Estate, is the largest Rare Breeds centre in Europe. It is home to more than 400 animals including cattle, sheep, pigs, goat, chickens and ducks. Temple Newsam has breeding herds of all the cattle on the Rare Breeds List, including the only Vaynol cattle in the world. Our stock is sold worldwide. There is also a Georgian dovecote containing nesting holes for 2,000 pairs of pigeons, a working estate joiner's shop and sawmill, byres, a bothy for itinerant labourers, and cart sheds housing a growing collection of old agricultural machinery.

Contacts