The story of Home Farm as you see it today begins in 1694
1694. The Great Barn is built.
All of the materials for the barn are from the local area: the stone was quarried from Colton and Halton and
109,450 bricks were made at Newsam Green, the receipts for all of the work are held in the Temple Newsam
archives. One beam seems to have 17th century 'graffiti'; it is inscribed with the date 1694 and the initials
EI and IR. It is thought by some that they could be the initials of John Rhodes, Lord Irwin's steward and Edward
Johnson a cock trainer employed at the time (J was often written as I on inscriptions).
It is thought that the barn had repair work done in the 18th century possibly including the date tablet, which
was very worn and incorrectly marked 1744.
The 18th Century.
The Dovecote was built in the early 18th century and appears on Capability Brown's sketch of the estate of 1762.
This building had room for 2,400 birds. Doves were a valuable source of fresh meat in the winter and were very
cheap to keep as they often flew off to feed on the neighbouring tenants' land. There were no windows in the
original building; light, air and access for the birds would have been through roof lanterns. A small circular
hole beneath the central arch gave access for workers to collect eggs and to clean out the droppings, a valuable
fertiliser.
Below the dovecote one arch houses the limestore and the other was a stonemason's workshop which still has
bulls-eye glass panes.
The 19th Century.
The 1808 Inventory taken following the death of the widow of the 9th and last Viscount Irwin gives a snapshot of
the farmyard at the time. The inventory lists the animals that were kept: 4 milk cows, 38 oxen, 7 cart horses,
63 sheep and 4 pigs as well as the farmer's and game-keeper's mares and a "bull killed for the poor on new years
day"
The inventory of 1869 gives a clear picture of a busy farmyard with a dairy, slaughterhouse, poultry yard and
blacksmith's workshop. The yards were also home to the saw mill and joiner's shop and more unusually a working
brew house
1922. Leeds Corporation bought Temple Newsam.
The new model dairy was built and run by the cleansing department. It was built to the highest hygiene standards
of the day and included ventilation turrets in the milking parlour, now called the mistal.
The dovecote was converted into a cottage for the farm workers. Jessie who moved in as a child in the 1920s
remembers that the nesting holes could be seen in her bedroom wall.
By the 1930s a herd of pedigree shorthorns was supplying the Leeds hospitals with around 70,000 gallons of
milk each year.
1968.
23rd July all of the farming stock, dairy herd and produce are sold. Having produced milk for the schools
and hospitals of Leeds for over 40 years, the farmyard becomes a works depot for the Parks Department.
1979. Home Farm opens to the public.
In 1979 the farm re-opened as a visitor centre with a mixture of exhibitions interpreting the history of the
farm and some livestock, including a small herd of dairy goats whose milk was sold to visitors.
The area now known as Home Farm is made up of the old farmyard, the wood yard and the workshops and offices
that were required to run a large country estate.
Since then the farm has developed close working links with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and is a registered
centre. We have some of the rarest bloodlines of British farm animals and make an invaluable contribution to
their continued survival. Home Farm is a working livestock unit with animals sold as pedigree breeding stock
or meat.
