Snap, AlanBoyd! I was just typing up the same, but from 1846!
Will post it anyways:
Leeds Intelligencer 24 October 1846
Refusal to Grant Licence for a Lunatic Asylum
At the West Riding Sessions at Leeds, on Thursday
last, Mr. Hill applied, on the part of Mr. John Sutton, governor
of the Manchester Workhouse, for a license to be granted for the
adapting of White-windows House, near Sowerby-bridge, for an
asylum for the accommodation of eighty pauper male, and twenty
private, lunatics. The application was opposed by Mr. Hall, and
after considerable discussion, the license was refused.
So it looks like it never did become an asylum?