wappy
Well-known member
Doctors and students have both lived at Manygates House over the years but a family of shipping merchants were among the first to call it home.
The former Victorian mansion is about to be turned into 16 luxury apartments by the Acorn Property Group.
But it was once a luxury home owned by the McPhail family with grounds containing beautiful flowered gardens, tennis courts and an orangery in a huge glass house.
The family’s great-great-great granddaughter, Kate Whoriskey, 40, who lives in Kent, said: “Hugh McPhail, my great-great-great grandfather, bought the house in about 1891 after selling his shipping businesses, coal mines and forest land in Glasgow and Belfast.
“He spent many happy years there with his wife, Isabelle, and nine children, but was forced to sell the property in about 1905 after his co-owned margarine manufacturing business in Wakefield, McPhail and Simpson, went bust.”
In about 1930 the mansion became doctors’ quarters for Wakefield Maternity Hospital until 1992.
The grand Victorian residence on Manygates Lane and the surrounding four acres was part of Leeds University’s drama and arts campus until 12 months ago when it was bought by regeneration and renovation specialists, Acorn.
The former Victorian mansion is about to be turned into 16 luxury apartments by the Acorn Property Group.
But it was once a luxury home owned by the McPhail family with grounds containing beautiful flowered gardens, tennis courts and an orangery in a huge glass house.
The family’s great-great-great granddaughter, Kate Whoriskey, 40, who lives in Kent, said: “Hugh McPhail, my great-great-great grandfather, bought the house in about 1891 after selling his shipping businesses, coal mines and forest land in Glasgow and Belfast.
“He spent many happy years there with his wife, Isabelle, and nine children, but was forced to sell the property in about 1905 after his co-owned margarine manufacturing business in Wakefield, McPhail and Simpson, went bust.”
In about 1930 the mansion became doctors’ quarters for Wakefield Maternity Hospital until 1992.
The grand Victorian residence on Manygates Lane and the surrounding four acres was part of Leeds University’s drama and arts campus until 12 months ago when it was bought by regeneration and renovation specialists, Acorn.
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