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SE0416 : Greenfield Lodge, Scammonden

Malcom Bryant has provided the following information:

The History Of Greeenfield Lodge. (part 1)

Greenfield Lodge stands prominently, facing south east, 1200 feet above sea level on Moselden Height, Scammonden Little Moor, overlooking the Dean Head Valley. The story of Greenfield Lodge begins shortly after the construction of the Elland to Saddleworth road around 1790. An Act of Parliament establishing a Turnpike Trust for improvement of the road followed in 1806. There is mention in a deed date 1817, of ‘that messuage, lately erected by John Dyson, known by the name of Red House’. The building appears as Red House on the first ordinance survey map of 1840. The map depicts the solid, square, 10 roomed building, consisting of a central hall with a west and east wing, which forms the main part of the house we see today. Also shown on that map are the mews and stables around the lower courtyard. The four garage areas for the storage of carriages and other wheeled vehicles are along the northern side of the stable yard. They are separated from each other by impressive, tall, roughly hewn stone pillars, mounted on stone plinths, supporting wooden lintels which in turn used to support a pitched stone slated roof. To the eastern side of the yard is a range of individual stables each with its own door and large window. The last of these stables has a rear archway leading out into the fields beyond. In 1849 the house was re-named Greenfield Lodge. This was possibly because the house and land had been acquired by the Savile Estate. Lord Savile, descendant of the Viscounts Halifax, was the largest landowner in the area at the time. It is said that the house was used as a shooting lodge to accommodate parties of grouse shooters from the Greenfield Estate near Saddleworth. Further research will be required to substantiate this. In 1860, Greenfield Lodge underwent substantial alteration and enlargement and was re-named Parkfield Hall. A large barn was constructed attached to the western wing of the house. Behind this a service wing was added containing a servants’ hall, a large kitchen and two bedrooms, for the use of servants, above. Several of the Census returns in the 19th Century refer to domestic servants being in residence. One theory is that the façade of the house underwent re-fenestration at this time. This could account for why the 'Greenfield Lodge 1849' date stone, which was probably built into the central part of the original façade, today rests above the magnificent 'Parkfield 1860' carved into the elements of the stone arch above the barn door. Further evidence of this is that all the windows to the rear of the house are constructed with traditional, eighteenth century, Yorkshire stone, mullions in the same style as those of the surrounding properties.