Anon

This is where I work. This buiding has such an interesting history to it. It feels wierd sometimes in there knowing what it used to be.

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CC

My Uncle who has special needs was a patient/resident here in the 1960's-1970's when Oulton Hall was a home for psychiatric patients. Does anybody have any information/ memories from this period ?

charlinkyplinky@hotmail.co.uk

Keith Clarkson

I remember Oulton Hall when I was a child in the mid 80's to late 90's. It was for a time a ruin people use to steal lead from the roof, it later had a golf course set up there and then the hall itself was bought by de vere and changed into a splendid hotel. Many of the big teams stayed there when Leeds Utd were in the Premiership, I remember going to a Christmas party there and Newcastle Utd were in the next big room. Nearby is a fishing pond with an unfortunate name of the looney pond, this I assume is from Oulton Halls history. Once had a strange experience in the woods down there with friends we could have sworn we were surrounded by figures with white trousers surrounding us with an old type lurcher dog running from one of the men to another you know the types of people that would have worked at the hall when it was psychiatric home, I swear to this day it was a ghost or maybe it was just kids having too much of a vivid imagination who knows. Nevretheless its a great place full of history I think it was owned by the calvery family who are actually buried at Oulton Hall.

17-Dec-2008

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Frank Calvert

I often played in the ruins of Oulton Hall back in early 80s. Inside there were the remains of padded cells, metal frame beds and rusty filling cabinets. There was also the ruins of a grand sweeping staircase under which we found store rooms, stacked with broken wheelchairs. The place always had a sad forgoten eerie feel to it. It wasnt hard to imagine the tragic lives of those that inhabited the place when it was an asylum/hostpital The nearby woods next to the church/cemetry was a place that we never ventured after dusk. You always had a feeling of being whached. I returned to leeds just recently (after 27 years) and was very touch to see the grand old hall returned to its former glory.

11-Mar-2009

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rob cooper

oulton hall has just been downgraded to a four star hotel with good reason

28-Jul-2009

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Peter Jackson

My friends and I in approx 1947 used to walk from Belle Isle to the woods surrounding Oulton Hall to pick blackberries, it was known to us as the "looney woods" and we were always on our guard as I presume a man who could be some kind of gamekeeper used to patrol the woods from time to time with a gun, this certainly frightened us.

01-Jan-2010

petermj67@hotmail.co.uk

Ian Higgins

My grandmother, Daisy Higgins worked at the hall when it was the mental hospital. she worked there from around 1956 to 1969. I walked past it every day up wakefield road on my way to Royds school from 1971 to 1976.

15-Jun-2010

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anon

After the last Carvely member went to live in America the house stood empty at one point it served as a war hospital I think for Officers, I remember when the mentally handicaped lived there, patients used to sometimes be moved to the big hall in Methley, after this use it was said the polie force took over the ownership or rent, but never actually did anything with it, it did lay in ruin for a long while even the mahogany bookcases and large entrance doors were stolen, upon entering the house from the front you were taken into a inner hall that lead to the library on your left,this library was all mahogany, lined with bookcases from floor to ceiling, all the doors were very tall double mahogany doors, you then went further in to a larger hall with the big staircase and full gallery, if you turned to your right and stepped onto the first landing there was a door leading to the large wing on the left side of the house( which was pulled down by De Verse and rebuilt)upon going through this door there was a spiral staircase that lead you down to the kitchens which were below this wing.I too went past every day on my way to Royds School 1971-1976, and we were tought in the history dept all about the house and family. The school had a book about them and also one was kept at Rothwell Library, but to read it you had to sit in the library it was not allowed out. In our school lessons we were also taken to the church that the Carvely's had built to see all their graves, which are the ones at the front of the church to its left, surround by black railings. When you went up the drive towards the house, if you continued on to the bend in the drive on your right there used to be a chapel and round the back of the house used to have a large open air swimming pool, which is no longer there, I believe this is now the patio and car parks. I grew up loving this house and hoping one day someone would rescue it, I was very lucky that my dad used to work there and let me see inside,also of which, when derelict I did go with my husband to see it , this was heartbreaking to see all the damage done, but we are very lucky that it is still there today.

13-Apr-2011

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Don Smith

I can relate to the comment by Peter Jackson, around 1942 I would go to Rothwell after school with my school mate George Peel his Granddad had a bake house on Commercial Street in Rothwell, after we had our tea we would walk along Oulton Lane to Oulton Hall fish pond to get Coot and Moorhen eggs meny a time we were run off the property by the Gamekeeper riding in a pony and trap,it was hard to run in the marshy ground but we always managed to get away.

13-Apr-2011

anne-donsmith@shaw.ca

Helen Burnett

My brother lived here for a number of years when it was a mental hospital - as a child I would visit on a Sunday and can remember the smell and the caged staircase, we would be let in at the bottom the gate locked behind us then were let out at the top.

24-May-2011

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anthony stones

having spent 25 years living on the old coal board estate we spent a lot of time around oulton hall. i can remember a girl wandering from the hall down to the pond and was found dead in the water.also we used to swim in the pound in summer and play on it in winter when it used to freeze over.the calvery,s now live in canada

03-Nov-2011

tonystones1956@live.co.uk

margaret

hi there i live in south australia.i lived in oulton with mum dad my two brothers and sister,and went to oulton primary school.mum and dad worked at oulton hall in the 1950s.mum worked in the kitchen and dad was an orderly,i think thats what they were called.he helped look after the patients.we lived in st johns road and i can remember my sister and i playing out in the street on sunday morning and seeing about twenty patients and staff walking towards us,they would say hello and us the same.i have a photo somewhere in the house of some of the staff at oulton hall.

19-Feb-2012

maggieann7@hotmail.com

tim bradley-williams

My Grandmother Frances Mary Calverley together with her two sisters Sybil Horatia and Katharine Isabella were born here between 1889 and 1895. My Great Grandfather John Selwyn died early, in 1900. Soon thereafter they moved with their Mother, Sybil Isabella (nee Disraeli) to Down Hall in Herts. Now also an hotel. My Grandmother married William Picton Bradley-Williams (Col), produced 4 children the youngest of which was my Father, Simon George. Question. Do I get a discount if I stay at the hotel?

18-Jan-2013

tim74660@yahoo.co.uk

C.J.Davis.

I'd consult TripAdvisor.com first, Tim!

30-Jan-2013

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