Lotherton Chapel

Lotherton chapel is an ancient little building, capitals which were once supported on shafts or dedicated to St James. It is believed to date back pillars. It was clearly the main entrance to the to the twelfth century, though it has been much building and this confirms what the map tells us, altered since. It is of a simple, two- that most of the village was on the cell plan typical of that time. The north side. plan can clearly be seen from the The larger, square headed outside and consists of a wider nave windows in the south side of the and a narrower chancel, the two nave and chancel are much later, being separated by an interior wall. probably sixteenth or seventeenth The chapel’s oldest features are century. At the west end, under the north doorway (opposite the the belcote, the remains of old present entrance) and the three foundations can be seen which small, round-headed windows at the indicates that the building once east end, to the right of the entrance extended further in this direction. and on the north side of the chancel. The bell itself is dated 1777. The doorway is no longer used. It is quite elaborate, with a moulded arch and water-leaf Above: North door of the chapel Lotherton Chapel before restoration

In the late Victorian period the chapel fell into was collected by the Gascoignes from abroad. disuse and decay. It was restored in 1913‒17 by The central figure of St George is a Colonel FRT Gascoigne, the owner of the estate. modern replacement. He stands flanked by two He made an agreement with the Archbishop of martyr saints. York by which the Church of continued to own the building, but he became responsible for its maintenance, gaining the right to use it as a family chapel. It is still Church property. The chapel is now entered from the south side. To the left of the entrance, against the west wall, is a stone basin, raised on a pillar. It is thought either to have been a stoup for holy water or a piscina for washing communion vessels. The water-leaf which is carved on the capital, or head- stone of the pillar is similar to those which frame the north door and the stoop is probably of about the same date, late twelfth or early thirteenth century.The font in the north-west corner of the building, on the other hand, is a plaster copy, probably taken from a medieval example which the Gascoigne family saw on their foreign travels. Behind it is a flag, which flew from Lotherton Hall when it was used as a military hospital during the First World War. The reredos or altar back-drop, on the north wall, is thought to be north Italian or south German, late seventeenth century. This, too, Interior of the chapel, looking east 7 Next in sequence on this wall is a memorial to Colonel Gascoigne which is adorned with a second figure of St George. He died in 1937 and the statue commemorates him as a great patriot and devotee of the British Empire. On the opposite, south wall is a wall tablet, in seventeenth century style, to Mrs Laura Gwendolen Gascoigne, the Colonel’s wife, who survived her husband by twelve years and died in 1949.A lady of great talent and determination, she herself was the matron of the military hospital. The wall which divides the nave from the chancel is old but not original, though there would certainly have been a wall in this position when the chapel was first built. Against it, on the north side, stands the pulpit. This is early Colonel FRTT Gascoigne with his grandson Douglas Wilder seventeenth century and dates from around the Gascoigne on the steps of the terrace at Lotherton, late 1930’s. time when King James I ordered that pulpits Private collection should be placed in churches for preaching. Its To the right of the reredos is a simple slate tablet to sounding board (acoustic canopy) is somewhat Lady Gascoigne, who died in 1979 and was the last later and looks too grand for the chapel; it may member of the family to live at Lotherton Hall. She have come from elsewhere. Opposite are a simple was the wife of Sir Alvary Gascoigne and together lectern and clerk’s desk, combined into one piece they made the Gascoigne Gift of the house and its of furniture. Before the chapel was restored the contents to the City of in 1968. pulpit stood here too.

Lotherton Hall from the air, 1967. Behind the formal gardens are the old kitchen gardens and orchard where the Bird Garden is now 8 The entrance to the chancel is flanked by During the restoration of 1913‒17 some very memorials to Sir Alvary Gascoigne, who died in interesting medieval plasterwork was uncovered in 1970 and his only son Douglas Wilder the chancel, including a band of shields Gascoigne, who was killed in the above the altar and red lines, Second World War. Had Douglas imitating the joints of masonry, lived, Lotherton might still be a within the splay of the east family home; as it is, the line of window and the north window of Gascoignes has died out in the chancel. Medieval churches Yorkshire after more than seven were nearly always plastered and hundred years. painted on the inside. The Over the chancel entrance is a treatment of the window is rood, the image of Christ on the designed to give the impression Cross flanked by the Virgin Mary that it is made of stone which and St John the Evangelist. It was was expensively cut into regular designed in 1920 by the famous blocks, rather than the coarse church architect Ninian Comper rubble which was actually used. and erected by Colonel and Mrs The altar is a seventeenth Gascoigne as a memorial to the century German oak chest which soldiers treated at Lotherton Colonel Gascoigne brought from Hospital who were later killed in action. Cuxhaven in 1915.The oak settle on the south side The east window of the chapel has been of the chancel is Victorian, but it is designed to somewhat enlarged from its original narrow, look much older and it is partly made up of pieces round-headed shape.The stained glass group of the of genuine earlier work. Virgin and Child is a memorial to Mrs Gascoigne’s sister, Evelyne Cunliffe who died in 1928. She is separately commemorated by a stone tablet on the Above: The east window of the chapel chancel’s north wall. Below: Sir Alvary and Lady Gascoigne, c19??

9 The Old House & Parkland

The Old House from the south

The old house now occupies the south-east The Stable Block and Motor Houses corner of the stable block. It is not open to visitors The Stable Block was created and developed by but the back of it, with its complicated silhouette, Colonel Gascoigne in 1905‒06 from the old farm can be seen from the stable courtyard. Its name is buildings, in order to move the stables from the apt, for it is by far the oldest domestic building on back of the Hall. The main courtyard had a glass the estate. Parts of it date back to the sixteenth and roof which has long been removed. On the seventeenth centuries and even perhaps to the late west side a second courtyard was created with medieval period (fifteenth century). With its accommodation for both motor cars and horse- L-shaped plan it looks from the outside like a drawn vehicles. In recent times steps have been typical old Yorkshire farmhouse and we know that built to give direct access to this courtyard in the Victorian period it was the Home Farm- from the car park, but originally the only entrance house of the Lotherton estate. Later it became was via the stable court, through the arch beside servants’ accommodation. the café. 10 The deer park is quite a recent development, having been created in 1982‒83 when a herd of fallow deer was moved over from the estate, another historic property owned by the . Later they were joined by a herd of red deer and only these remain. The picturesque lodge at the entrance dates from 1908 when Colonel Gascoigne created a new entrance to the park. An old photograph shows a single, wooden entrance gate, far simpler than the present pair of wrought iron ones. Red deer in the park

The Park, Deer Park and Carriage Drive The Lotherton estate is entered from the Towton Road, through a sweep of parkland which was probably laid out in the early nineteenth century. The mature beech trees which can be seen on both sides of the drive may date from that time. Some of those in the deer park, on the south side, are nearing the end of their lives and breaking apart. This is thought to be due to the technique of ‘clump planting’, by which a group of saplings are planted together so that they grow into a single trunk. The mature tree develops more Above: The lodge on Towton Road quickly that it would have done otherwise, but it Below: The entrance gates to the gardens also has weaknesses which show in later life.

11 The Arrival of the Gascoignes

The hall today appears very much bound up nearly so old. A fascinating photograph taken with the Gascoigne family (see pages 13‒21) but, c1900, before the house received its last comparatively speaking, they were new arrivals, extension, shows a modest late-Georgian house having bought the estate only in 1825. The history facing westwards, towards the chapel, with the of the house before that time is complicated and central part of the present building attached.This obscure, and we do not know when it was first may have been the home of Thomas Maud or built.There was a ‘mansion house’ at Lotherton in Maude, who is named as the owner of the estate 1727 which may have stood on the same site, but on the Jeffery’s map. Nothing further is known no part of the building which is visible now is about him.

Lotherton Hall from the west, c1900

About the year 1790 the estate was bought by John Raper, a banker from York. He extended the house eastwards by erecting what is now the central section of the building, which is marked by a semicircular bay window. Raper died in 1824. His son and heir John Lamplugh-Raper had property elsewhere and decided that he did not need Lotherton, so he put it up for sale.

Right: The Hall from the south, c1905, showing the gardens newly planted 12 The Arrival of the Gascoignes Lotherton. They acquired a curious coat of The new owner of the estate in 1825 arms with a fish’s head placed vertically on was Richard Oliver Gascoigne. The the shield from a story that one of the Gascoignes are a very old family which Gascoignes had saved a girl from is believed to have come from Gascony drowning in the lake at Gawthorpe, in France, hence the name. It is claimed near Harewood village. The lake had that they arrived in England in 1067 with pike in it, which is the fish shown. the Norman Conquest, although this cannot be proved. By the early 1200s a branch of the family Above: Portrait of Sir John Gascoigne, First Baronet 1637 (detail) was established at Harewood, to the west of Left: The Gascoigne coat of arms showing the pike’s head 13 Gascoigne Family Houses

he gascoignes T had five Wetherby houses in all. Lotherton is one of the smaller ones; River Wharfe it is by far the most recent and it is the only one to survive. The others can be located on the first A659 Gawthorpe Hall Ordnance Survey map of the area which was A1 published in 1849. A58 At Lasingcroft, near Scholes John and Anne A61 A64 Gascoigne were living in the sixteenth century. Lotherton Hall John died in 1557 and an inventory of the house Hall was compiled on his death.The document lists the Lasingcroft rooms which had movable contents and tells us Barnbow Hall what was in them, but nothing further is known Leeds Garforth about the house. At Gawthorpe near Harewood, the Gascoignes Parlington Hall had a fine house which is shown in this recently- Sir John Gascoigne lived at Parlington Hall, about discovered drawing. Gawthorpe was demolished three miles west of Lotherton, on the far side of in the eighteenth century to make way for the village and the Great North Road. The present which was built close family bought the house in 1545 and kept the by, but family tombs survive in Harewood church. estate until 1964. In the eighteenth and nineteenth Among them is that of Lord Chief Justice centuries it was their main residence. The house Gascoigne who died in 1419. He appears in was abandoned in 1905 and most of it was Shakespeare’s play, Henry IV, Part II. demolished in 1952.

Gawthorpe Hall from the south in 1727. Engraving by ????. Courtesy The Harewood House Trust 14