Trip to Ledsham Church and Farnley Hall
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Farnley Hall from the South.
Wednesday, 18th June 2014
Today's trip to Ledsham and Farnley Hall was a great success and blessed by fine sunny weather.
At Ledsham we were given a tour of All Saints' Church, the nave and tower of which were constructed in Saxon times. The church was expanded in the later middle ages and suffered some Victorian alterations. It possesses some fine marble tombs, including those of Sir John Lewis, a founder of the East India company, and of his granddaughter, Lady Elizabeth Hastings who was great philanthropist.
At Farnley Hall we were given a tour of the wing built by John Carr in the last decades of the eighteenth century. The interiors in a refined neoclassical style are some of his finest work. On display are a fine collection of Turner watercolours. The artist was a frequent visitor to the house and his paintings show that some of the rooms have changed very little in the last two centuries.
You can see some photographs from our visit on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.864201530261210.1073741843.209661439048559&type=1
All Saints' Parish Church, Ledsham, West Yorkshire
Although much altered, enough of the Anglo-Saxon fabric of Ledsham Church remains in evidence for its claim to be the oldest standing building in the West Riding to be legitimate. There are numerous small arched windows (most blocked when bigger gothic windows were inserted in the middle ages) and a door surrounded by a sinuous vine motif. Inside are ... (read more...)
Farnley Hall, North Yorkshire
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The hall has been occupied by various branches of the Fawkes family since the middle ages. In the 1780�s Walter Hawkesworth Fawkes commissioned John Carr to add the large Georgian block at the front of the building. His son, Walter Ramsden Hawksworth Fawkes, was a friend of J.M.W Turner and had a large collection of his paintings which much ... (read more...)
John Carr
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Detail of the Tomb of Sir John Lewis.
