Apartments plan for Wakefield's 300-year-old Lupset Hall

A fresh attempt to make use of a listed building will be put to city planners, with blueprints to convert the site into apartments.
Lupset Hall dates back to the 18th century.Lupset Hall dates back to the 18th century.
Lupset Hall dates back to the 18th century.

Lupset Hall is more than 300 years-old and was bought in 2014 by a private owner.

Prior to that, it served as the clubhouse for the City of Wakefield Golf Club.

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Blueprints have now been submitted to Wakefield Council’s planning department to transform the building, which is off Horbury Road, into 18 two-bedroom apartments.

Enough car park space is also being pencilled in for up to 26 vehicles.

London-based HWR Properties Development Limited have submitted the plans, although there are currently few details with the applications.

What is evident is that they are hoping to demolish the northern extension of the building, which was built in the 1970s for the golf club.

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The company said: “The existing extension is not fit for the purpose of this application and does not demonstrate any conservation value.”

The plans show that a new extension looks likely to be built, should the application be given approval.

A former gentleman’s residence, the building dates back to 1716.

It was bought for the Gaskell family in 1806 and was home to Daniel Gaskell - Wakefield’s first MP in 1832.

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He was a radical and a non-conformist, and was a noted social reformer re-elected in January 1835 and served until July 1837.

After his death, Lupset Hall passed to his great-nephew Gerald Milnes Gaskell and it was when Gerald’s widow died in 1926 that the council took over ownership.

In 1936 the parkland surrounding Lupset Hall was converted into a municipal golf course and the hall itself became the clubhouse until 2013.

The golf club moved out of Lupset Hall and into the new purpose-built Gaskell Sports Pavilion in April, 2013, with the hall going under the hammer a year later.

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A couple bought the house for around £310,000 with intentions of renovating the site as a family home.

However, the sheer amount of work involved to transform the two-storey home took its toll on the couple who opted to sell the building in 2018. It then went up for sale for £600,000.