The house was originally a country retreat of the Catholic Vavasour family, which had owned the estate since the early Middle Ages.

[2] It was sold to the Scott family of Leeds, who inhabited it until 1910 when it was leased to a Mr C. M. Watson, a Morley woollen manufacturer.

In 1918 the family sold Wood Hall to Arthur Crowther Watson, a wealthy woollen manufacturer who lived in Morley.It then became a boy's prep school, whose alumni included the Yorkshire and England cricketer Len Hutton.

The 190-acre estate was sold in 1966 to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds as a pastoral and ecumenical centre, in which capacity it was visited by Mother Teresa.

[3] In 1910, architects Connon & Chorley of Leeds were commissioned by Mr C. Watson to make some changes to the layout of the Hall.

He died in 1813 and his eldest son William Lister Fenton Scott inherited Wood Hall.

[9] When she died, her nephew Henry Richard Johnstone inherited the Scott estates, including Wood Hall.

Henry died in 1912 and in 1918 the family sold Wood Hall to Arthur Crowther Watson, a wealthy woollen manufacturer who lived in Morley.