| Description | Adel Reformatory was a Reform school built in 1857 with later 19th century and 20th century additions by William Watson Hewitson of Kitson and Hewitson, for Leeds Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders.
It is built of squared and coursed stone with stone slate roofs, although the windows on the outside are externally boarded; some facing onto the courtyards retain original glazing.
The south east range has a gable breaking forward at each end and another at the centre, each divided by four windows. The right hand end gable has a single storey, hipped roofed square bay window projecting forward, and the range extends for another window to the right with a further single storey hipped roofed squared bay window.
The north east range has at its east corner a 3 bay element with a central door with a window to either side and 3 above, which form the eastern end of the south east range. Abutting this is the headmaster’s house which is taller and has separate hipped roof with 2 ridge chimney stacks. It has 5 large stone mullioned and transomed windows at 1st floor, with 2 at ground floor to the left, 1 partly obscured by a square stone porch with a door to the side. To the right of the porch are 2 small windows then 2 mullioned windows. A lower range to the right has 7 windows to each floor and a door to each end. To the right again is a taller range of 3 bays with scattered fenestrations and dentilled eaves, and a final section, the gable end of the north west range, with 3 windows to each of the 2 floors.
The north west range is 2 storey with 9 windows at 1st floor, some altered. The ground floor openings from the north are window, door, two windows, door, window, door, window. Beyond, a later brick wall extending from the range obscures details. The tall tapering square chimney stack for the swimming bath boiler rises from the face of the range at the far end. An inserted later brick linking block joins the southern end of the north west range to the swimming pool that runs alongside to the north west. The swimming pool is single storey with a pitched slate roof with 4 large roof lights along each side and 2 blocked windows in the south west gable end.
The southern gable end of the north west range has two windows to each floor. To the right is the main entranceway. Later stonework and double wooden gates with a rendered brick parapet over fill the gap between the north west range and the south west range, which projects further forward than the end of the north west range, with a small blocked doorway in the gable end next to the main entrance. The 15 ground floor windows are arranged in variable groups, with four closely spaced around a door in the centre and three pairs with flat mullions between to the right (east). Upper floor windows are more widely spaced. Two stacks on the south east gable end rise from half way up the roof line. To the right of this block is a further 2 window section set back and with an end ridge stack, and to the right again a final block which also forms the end of the south east range. This has a large inserted entrance with a metal canopy to the left and a single window to the right, with three windows above. The roof is hipped to the left and to the right forms the gabled roof of the end bay of the south east range.
The four sides of the building are set around a large open tarmac courtyard. The inner face of the south east range has a central projecting gable, broader than that to the exterior, with scattered fenestration including a small second floor window. A porch at the right side extends into the courtyard and has a pent roof; its entrance to the right links to an open verandah extending to the right corner of the range; this has a brick base and pillars and a corrugated iron roof. There are four windows to the right of the gable at ground and first floor, and a further infilled window to the ground floor. To the left of the gable there are four first floor wi |