Potternewton is a suburb and parish between Chapeltown and Chapel Allerton in north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is in the Chapel Allerton ward of Leeds City Council.
Potternewton is bounded by Scott Hall Road to the west, Roundhay Road to the east and Harehills Lane to the north. The main thoroughfare is Chapeltown Road. The suburb is often considered[by whom?] to be part of Chapeltown. On older maps Potternewton included the Chapeltown and Scott Hall areas and parts of Harehills. Potternewton is an historic village and most maps prioritise the name Potternewton over Chapeltown.[citation needed]
The Earl of Mexborough and Earl Cowper had released parts of their estates by the 1700s and by the early 19th century a number of mansions, some with extensive grounds, had been established around Potternewton and Chapeltown roads. Potternewton Park Mansion, Newton Lodge, Scott Hall and Potternewton Hall are typical examples.
In 1870, the Potternewton township, covering 1,667 acres about two miles north of Leeds, comprised the villages of New Leeds and part of Buslingthorpe, and the hamlets of Gipton, Harehills, and Squire-Pastures. Part of its name is from supposedly Roman, "very ancient pottery", found in the vicinity. Coal was mined and stone was quarried. Over time the manor belonged to the Mauleverers, the Scotts of Scott Hall, and the Hardwicks and in 1870 belonged to the Earl of Mexborough.[1]
Potternewton Hall was a country house built by the Barker family c. 1720. In the 1830s it was the residence of Darnton Lupton, whose brother Arthur acquired the adjacent Newton Hall and its surrounding parkland, farmhouse and cottages in the 1840s. Darnton's brother Francis lived at the hall from 1847, becoming the owner of the Potternewton Hall estate by 1860. Francis married in 1847 and raised his family at the hall until the early 1860s. In 1870, Francis and Darnton purchased the Newton Hall estate from their brother Arthur. By 1880, a number of substantial buildings had been erected on the Newton Park Estate, including St Martin's Church and the Newton Park Union Church. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Newton Hall and Potternewton Hall had been demolished and replaced by the city's largest private housing estate.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Olive Middleton (née Lupton), great grandmother of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, grew up at Rockland in Potternewton. Her father, politician Francis Martineau Lupton, developed the estate and built a shopping parade built on Chapeltown Road in 1891.[8][9][3]
Harehills Grove, a country house, was built around 1817 for the woollen merchant James Brown. The Jowitt family owned it in 1861 and they later sold the 750 acre estate and back-to-back terraced houses were built on it. The house and its 30 acre park were bought by the Leeds Corporation to create Potternewton Park in 1900. By 1906 the house had been renamed Potternewton Mansion and was opened to the public in 1906. After 1929 the house was used for educational purposes.[10]
The Leeds Carnival procession starts and finishes at Potternewton Park.
Transport Direct uses the names Potternewton and Chapeltown when for separate areas. Potternewton is the small area around the north of Scott Hall Road around the Scott Hall Road/Potternewton Lane roundabout as most of the area is classified today as Chapeltown. WYMetro and Transport Direct also identify the area as being in this location. Potternewton Lane is served by bus service 7.
Millfield Primary School, formerly known as Potternewton Primary, is located on Potternewton Mount.
St Martin's Church, the Anglican parish church, off Chapeltown Road was built in 1879–81 on land owned by the Lupton family.[8][11] The formation of the parish was the result of a meeting held at the Leeds Church Institute in April 1876, presided over by the Vicar of Leeds, Dr Gott. The site for St Martin's had been confirmed in June 1876. The church was designed by Adams & Kelly of Leeds was consecrated in 1881.[12] It was built of stone from local quarries.
The original design had a steeple, but lack of funds prevented its construction. St Martin's Church has a mainly West Indian congregation.[13][14][15]