Leeds Parish

NEW GRANGE, (the seat of Thomas Benyon, Esq.) in the township of Headingley, and parish of Leeds, 3 miles from Leeds, 7 from Harewood. (This was re-named Kirkstall Grange in 1834 and is now part of Becketts Park - Leeds Metropolitan University site. Jean Greenwood 2008)

This place belonged to Kirkstall Abbey. At the dissolution of the house 1540, it was granted by King Henry VIII. with the site of the Monastery, &c. to Robert Pakeham, gent. of the King's Household. It is now the seat of Benjamin Wade, Esq. The house was built by a predecessor of both his names, 1626, who placed this inscription upon the front; "Except the Lord build the house, thy labour is vain that builds it, it is the Lord that keeps thee going out and in. B.W. 1626." Over the north door, where the poor received their alms, is engraved, "If thou shalt find a house to thy mind, without thy cost, serve thou the more, God and the Poor, my labour is not lost." This family of the Wades derive their pedigree from the famous Saxon Duke Wada, who died in 798. --Thoresby. The house was re built in 1752, by Walter Wade, Esq. --Whitaker.