Aberford and Parlington Estate 2
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ABERFORD, BECCA BANKS and PARLINGTON ESTATE A fairly easy going 3.5 mile walk involving 2 short hills and 2 stiles (can be muddy around Leyfield Farm). Start point: Cock Beck Bridge, Aberford. LS25 3AA A map for this walk can be obtained by using the following link:- http://www.walk4life.info/walk/harrys-walks-aberford-becca-banks-parlington See NOTE 1 for detailed history Walk: From Cock Beck Bridge, walk away from the beck passing the Arabian Horse public house on your right to take the first lane on your left, opposite a public bridleway sign. Continue along the lane passing cottages on your left and then Becca Bank Villas. 200 yards further on, turn left into a wood along a ‘permissive footpath’. Carry along this distinctive path as it winds its way through the wood eventually arriving below Becca Bank Crag on your right. See NOTE 2 Continue following the path, through the wood to eventually emerge on to the lane that you left a while back. At this point, turn left continuing to walk along the road for about ½ a mile where Becca Hall eventually comes into view. See NOTE3. Before you reach the hall, turn left at a post which says ‘no public right of way’ and within 100 yards on reaching a footpath sign by a wood, turn left through a gate to follow the sign to Parlington. Now continue down a wide track through the wood and at the bottom, on reaching a field, bear slight right along the top of a field with a row of trees on your right. In a few yards, at another footpath sign, turn left to follow the direction of Parlington, across the middle of the field, coming to a wooden stile on the far side by a small clump of trees. After negotiating the stile, remain along the footpath over a wooden bridge and up the hill as it bears right (area of possible mud!) to go through a metal gate. A little further on, carry on through a metal kissing gate to follow a wide track on to the top of the hill; following the lane to another footpath sign by Leyfield Farm. Now turn left to follow the farm road up to Barwick Road. At the road, turn right and directly opposite the farm, turn left across the road to go along a wide track into a wood within Parlington Estate. Continue along the track as it wends its way through the wood for about ½ a mile as it veers left and at a field veers right to go up a slight hill and at the top bear slightly left , with a wood on your left to shortly arrive at a large field. At this point, follow a narrow path across the middle of the field, heading towards a stile by a gate at the far side of the field. After the stile, continue ahead for a few paces to come out on to a wide avenue (Parlington Drive) and here turn right heading towards the Triumphal Arch. See NOTES 4 and 5. After viewing the arch, turn around and retrace your steps back down Parlington Drive and continue towards Aberford for around ¾ of a mile back on to Barwick Road. Here, turn right and on reaching the T junction by the White Swan, turn left to Cock Beck Bridge and the start of your walk. NOTE 1 Aberford grew around the north-south crossing of the River Cock. Today it is no more than a small stream, but in ancient days it was a much larger river and fordable here; hence the name – a derivation of Aber - Celtic for a confluence of 2 rivers (the Cock & the Crow) and Ford. The ford became the road, which led to the founding of the village: From Celtic track, to Roman road, to the Great North Road, to motorway Link Road – a cavalcade of history has passed this way and it has always been a key route from the north to the south of the country. The first known evidence of a settlement is reference to a church in the 7th century, probably built of wood, and almost certainly on the site of the existing church. This would indicate that at this time the settlement was concentrated on the tongue of high ground just south of the ford over Cock Beck. Although there was a church the settlement must have been quite small in that Aberford is not mentioned in the Domesday Book whilst Parlington and Sturton Grange are. However some 150 years later, in Norman times, the timber church was replaced by a stone church which was itself replaced by the present church in the 19th century. Further evidence of the increasing size of the village is the granting of a charter by Henry III in 1251 for a weekly market held in front of the church. The most important factor in determining the future shape of the southern end of the village happened in 1546 when John Gascogine bought the Parlington estate from Lord Wentworth. Subsequently the family acquired the Lotherton estate and Sturton Grange at which point they owned most of the land within the District south of Cock Beck; land which they continued to hold into the twentieth century. To the north of Cock Beck the rest of the District comprised the estates of Becca to the west and Hazelwood to the east. The Swan Hotel was previously a staging post used by those travelling the Great North Road by stagecoach. However, Aberford changed considerably in the middle of the 19th century with the coming of the railways. Its fate was sealed when the decision was made to locate the Leeds to York line south of Aberford through Garforth and Micklefield. As passengers turned from stagecoaches to trains the coaching business rapidly declined and new businesses favoured towns and villages with easy access to the faster railway links. The arrival of the motorcar did bring people and goods back onto the roads and Aberford being on the Great North Road saw a vast increase in traffic but unfortunately unlike during the stage coachdays, when Aberford was an important stop over place, modern traffic just passed through and brought little if any trade to the village and before the building of the A1 by-pass, much congestion. The Arabian Horse was formerly called The Bay Horse and got its present name when people came from miles around to see the first Arabian horses to arrive in England which were stranded in Aberford on their way to Middleham in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. The droving trade survived until the late 19th Century and the wide grass verge from Hook Moor to Bunkers Hill is a reminder that it was once a drover’s road. Towards the southern boundary of the village lie the Aberford Almshouses, built by the two Oliver Gascoigne sisters Mary Isabella and Elizabeth in 1844 to commemorate their father, Richard Oliver Gascoigne and two brothers who died in quick succession in 1842 and 1843; originally serving as housing for eight poverty- stricken inmates, it is today a thriving business centre NOTE 2 Becca Bank Crag Becca Bank Crag features A 100m long quarried wall of magnesian limestone, up to 10m high and is popular with rock climbers. Becca Banks: Running from near Potterton Bridge eastwards through Aberford and across the A1 motorway, Becca Banks mark the time when the area was an important place. The earthworks (seen as troughs and bankings) are thought to have been built rather hastily by the Brigantes as defences facing south about the time of the Roman invasion of the North of England. NOTE 3 Becca Hall Becca Hall is a Grade II listed building. The site was occupied by a William Markham, private secretary to Warren Hastings, in 1783. For many years through the 20th century the property was owned by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). Following the privatisation of the UK electricity industry in 1989, ownership of the property passed to the National Grid Company. It was used to house the Leeds Grid Control Centre for the UK's electricity transmission network from 1958 until its operational closure in 1997. More recently, it has been used for social functions. In September 2004, planning permission to develop the building for use as a training centre was refused on the grounds that the development would be unsustainable and would affect local use of the area due to parking requirements. The hall is now privately owned. NOTE 4 Triumphal Arch: Triumphal Arch: Thomas Gascoigne became the 8th Baronet in 1762.He had been educated in France – perhaps the source of his strongly held political opinions, famously demonstrated by the Triumphal Arch in Parlington Park: It was intended as a grand entrance to a new Hall. The Hall was never built, but the stone already cut was used for the Arch, designed by Thomas Leverton and based on the Arch of Titus in Rome. At the end of the American War of Independence, Britain signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, recognising the independence of her former American colonies. It is the only monument in the United Kingdom which celebrates the loss of the American War of Independence. It was celebrated by Sir Thomas on his Triumphal Arch with the Inscription,“LIBERTY IN N.AMERICA TRIUMPHANT MDCCLXXXIII.”It is said that George IV in the days when he was Prince Regent, was passing through this part of Yorkshire and was to lunch at Parlington. On coming to the arch, under which he would have to pass, and being informed of its purpose he declared that he would not enter the house of a man who could thus perpetuate the memory of England's defeats, and immediately turned back." NOTE 5 During the Second World War, Parlington was taken over by the army.