MATTER 7 Selection of sites allocated for development: Site Mx2-39 (Parlington) Main Issue 1

Susan Kellerman/Yorkshire Gardens Trust

This objection to the proposed development at Parlington (site Mx2-39) is based on 7 months of research conducted into the history of the site, and is supported by the Yorkshire Gardens Trust (YGT) and the (national) Gardens Trust. The letter submitted by the YGT is attached as Appendix 1.

1.Introduction

1.1 The proposal to include the Parlington estate (as now owned by M&G) in the Leeds Site Allocation Plan is unsound. Such development poses a threat of substantial harm to the historic environment, and would be a wholly inappropriate use of a heritage asset of considerable significance, contrary to the NPPF and the Leeds Core Strategy.

1.2 It is for its historical interest, as seat of the Gascoigne family, and for the absence of statutory protection, that I submitted an application in December 2016 to have the designed landscape added to the Historic England National Heritage List (Register of Historic Parks and Gardens). As the designed landscape is surprisingly under-researched, and little has been published on this particular aspect of the estate, I and colleagues from the Yorkshire Gardens Trust have spent the last 7 months looking at the Gascoigne family papers and other related primary and secondary source material. Much of this has been sent on to HE. At the time of writing (August 2017), a draft report by the HE listing officer has been completed. In addition to my application, HE has now made (July 2017) the decision to assess a further 7 built structures for listing (Light Arch and Dark Arch, Stallion pens, Ice house in the Wilderness, Home Farm, Wakefield Lodge, Barwick Lodge, Ass Bridge Lodge).

1.3 The significance of the Parlington estate resides in a number of aspects. The historical interest of Parlington derives, in particular, from the rich and unusual history of the Gascoigne family in the C18 and C19. Its evidential value resides in the wealth of archive material available, which has been little studied, compared with other similar historic sites, and is still yielding more and more of interest (reaching beyond the sphere of garden history). Its aesthetic value can be seen in a number of individual architectural features, and in the integrity of the designed landscape as a whole. Its communal value is inherent in its history and associations, which give it a sense of place, i.e. a strong identity and character that is deeply felt by local inhabitants and visitors. And its use as a green open space, appreciated by local people, is evident for all to see. All of these aspects of significance will be expanded upon below.

1.4 A heritage asset is irreplaceable. The historical integrity of this estate should be seen as a whole, not just as a handful of scattered, unrelated individual features. This historic value is not something which can survive the large-scale development as proposed, or piecemeal development, where ‘sections’ of woodland are felled, or ‘some’ fields are covered by houses or cut across by access roads which ignore ancient tracks and field boundaries. Nor can the context and setting of an 1

architectural or natural feature be intruded upon and compromised, and views and vistas interrupted, without leading to substantial harm and, potentially, loss of significance.

2. Historical value

2.1 Parlington estate became the seat of the Gascoignes, a family of Catholic gentry, in 1720, after they left nearby Barnbow. It remained their home until the early 1900s, when the family moved to nearby Lotherton Hall (Park&Garden, Grade II). The house at Parlington was almost completely demolished in 1952, leaving only the surviving west wing. It is the C18 history of the Gascoigne family which is somewhat unusual, and which influences the story of the designed landscape.

2.2 The family had been staunch Catholics and remained so during the time of Sir Edward, 6th bt (1695–1750). Like all Catholic gentry, the sons were educated in France, and many of the daughters became nuns. Recusancy brought persecution and disadvantage, including accusations of treason (cf the infamous but failed ‘popish’ Barnbow Plot, 1680, instigated by colliers at the Gascoigne mines), suspicions concerning Jacobite sympathies, financial burdens in the form of fines and double taxation, and exclusion from the benefits of holding public office. The family’s income was derived from agriculture and mineral extraction, both coal and stone. During the years 1718–1743, Sir Edward developed the earlier house and created a garden typical of the period, with formal walks, a Wilderness, canal, bowling green, mount, grotto, fish pond and kitchen garden. However, suddenly, in 1743 he and his family, including 3 young daughters and son of 3 months, moved to Cambrai, northern France. The reason for this move has not been discovered, but fears arising from association with known or suspected Jacobite sympathisers (kinsmen and friends) might have prompted the move. Sir Edward died in France 7 years later.

2.3 And so from 1743 the garden went to sleep, although the productive activities of the estate continued to be managed efficiently for the following 20 years, until 1762, when Sir Edward’s second son, Thomas, unexpectedly inherited after the death of his older brother. Sir Thomas (8th bt, 1745– 1810), born in Cambrai, had received his (surprisingly enlightened) education in France and Turin, and came to England for the first time in 1763, still a minor. For the next 16 years, Sir Thomas spent much of his time travelling the continent, mixing with the aristocracy of France and Italy. These 40 years abroad were undoubtedly largely responsible for his independent and rather unconventional attitudes when he finally settled in Yorkshire in 1779 and took on responsibility for his estate, which had been successfully managed until then by his steward, agent, and head gardener.

2.4 Sir Thomas abjured his faith in 1780, which allowed him to take an active role in society and politics. He continued to employ and support Catholics, providing a RC chapel in Aberford, which still stands (St Wilfrid’s Priory). He married in 1784, and a son was born. He served as a Whig MP, was a close ally of the Marquis of Rockingham, and opposed the ‘King’s war’ in America. He commissioned plans for the house (mostly unrealised) and estate buildings from leading architects of the day (John Carr, Thomas Atkinson, Thomas Leverton, William Lindley). He had an active interest in, and reputation for, agricultural improvement, and was elected Honorary Member of the Board of Agriculture in 1794.

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2.5 Sir Thomas established a stud at Parlington of international renown, which continued to flourish under Richard Oliver Gascoigne, after Sir Thomas’s death. The stud produced some of the finest bloodstock of the period: four St Leger winners were trained there, commemorated by the silver Race Cup (1797) held at Lotherton Hall. Evidence can still be seen of horse breeding in the Parlington landscape. Three paddocks bordering Parlington Lane, south of the Avenue, survive, with watering provision from the culverted Crow Beck still visible. These paddocks are marked on the 1773 map of the estate (they probably date from much earlier), and a map of 1802 shows pencilled-in individual stables. The gothic Round House on the Avenue (William Lindley, 1803, Grade II), variously described as ‘cattle shed’ and ‘deer shed’, was more likely intended as an eyecatcher-cum-vantage point on the Avenue from where the Gascoigne mares and foals could be viewed grazing in the paddocks below. The 4 stallion pens to the NE of Home Farm were built by 1813, after Sir Thomas’s death in 1810. Although the pens, with their magnificent 2.5 m curved stone walls and elaborate gate piers survive, the individual stallion ‘houses’ in each have been lost (probably since WWII). An architectural drawing in the estate papers, dated 1809, showing a classical, pedimented building, has been identified as a stallion ‘house’. This costly accommodation for horses demonstrates the value the Gascoignes attached to their horse racing and breeding activities. So far, no other similar stallion pens of this kind have been identified, and so they are a rare survival. Their context and setting would be totally compromised in the development proposals.

2.6 Sir Thomas’s only son died in 1809, and he himself died the following year. Parlington passed to Richard Oliver Gascoigne, husband of Thomas’s step-daughter Mary, who extended the house, continued to develop the estate and mineral extraction, and ran the stud to great advantage. On his death in 1843, his two daughters, Isabella and Elizabeth inherited, who introduced further changes to the house and garden as fashion in the Victorian period dictated.

3. Evidential value

3.1 There is a wealth of material relating to Parlington in the Gascoigne papers at West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds (WYL115). Although a recent book on Sir Thomas Gascoigne has examined the management of this estate in some detail, there has been little research and very few publications focusing on the designed landscape per se, from a garden history perspective, and there is undoubtedly much more to be discovered. For example, the personal accounts and diaries of Sir Edward Gascoigne between 1718 and 1737 are a rich source of information about the creation of a formal garden in the fashion of the time, methods of tree propagation, tree and hedge planting, local and London nurserymen, crops, construction of walls, etc. Daily notes recording the acquisition of deer from friends and neighbours, and the details of deer as they fawn, together with accounts of work on paling in ‘the Park’, date the origins of the deer park (which survived till WWII) to 1734–37. Such records need further analysis and publication.

3.2 In time, there will certainly be further archival evidence found in collections in other record offices, in the form of Gascoigne correspondence to family members, friends and colleagues; and possibly diaries and other material that have so far not been identified. The diary of a Hungarian aristocrat, from an archive in Hungary, records a visit in 1822 to buy horses from Richard Oliver

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Gascoigne. John Kennedy’s Treatise (1776, revised and enlarged 1777) provides further evidence of plants and crops grown, and horticultural methods used in his time working at Parlington.

3.3 Further material can be found at Lotherton Hall: when the family moved there and Parlington Hall was demolished, some garden ornaments were removed there, and the house portico was re- erected in the garden. Other objects at Lotherton associated with the Gascoignes include racing cups, portraits, a 1774 map. Another source of information is the extensive Parlington.com website, constructed over many years, which includes photos of the gardens and park from the mid-1800s onwards.

4. Aesthetic value

4.1 The aesthetic value of this site resides in its designed landscape and the architectural elements within that landscape.

4.2 Designed landscape

4.2.1 Although only one wing of the Hall remains, it still forms the focus of the designed landscape. The estate’s C18 and C19 perimeter and layout clearly survive to a substantial degree, and can be seen not only by comparing current and historic maps but can be understood on the ground by even the untrained eye.

4.2.2 A survey of 1773 shows an agrarian landscape with remnants of old field patterns, and a very formal, unfashionable arrangement of house, kitchen garden, Wilderness, and fish pond; but an estate map of 1817 shows transformation into a landscape typical of the late C18/early C19, with gardens, pleasure grounds, park, clumps and plantations – essentially, what has become known as the English landscape garden.

4.2.3 In 1771 Sir Thomas Gascoigne employed a Scotsman, John Kennedy (1719–1790), as head gardener. Kennedy was one of a dynasty of influential gardeners, landscape designers and nurserymen which extended over many generations, and with many famous patrons, in England, Scotland and France. Together, Kennedy and Gascoigne transformed the designed landscape and productive estate at Parlington. They were important and representative figures in the great movement of landscape development, agricultural improvement and horticultural advances of the second half of the C18, when landscape was ‘a cultural expression of social order, public virtue and nationhood’. His Treatise upon Planting, Gardening, and the Management of the Hot-House (1776) gained national and international recognition for himself, for Gascoigne, and for the innovative methods of ‘rural economy’ employed at Parlington.

4.2.4 Kennedy was probably employed not just for his horticultural expertise but also for his considerable experience in tree planting in Scotland, timber production being an essential element in ‘patriotic design’. The plantations at Parlington today can largely be seen as Kennedy’s legacy. Accounts kept by Kennedy record the exact number and type of trees planted, e.g. ‘some thousands’ of Scotch Firs by Throstle Nest Bridge in 1772, soon after his arrival, and later on, Cedars of Lebanon.

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4.2.5 The formal tree-lined Avenue from Pike Lodge, shown on the 1773 map, with the Triumphal Arch added as its focal point, survives as a much-used permissive path. The earlier south-eastern approach from Hook Moor on the London Road, its course somewhat altered after 1773 to cross Street Field and the Light Arch bridge, survives, although it is not accessible to the public. Parlington Lane, an ancient route linking Leeds and Aberford, remains as it was shown on a printed map of Yorkshire in 1720. Unlike the case at many country estates, where a public road was removed because it intruded on the privacy of the family, the route was exploited by the Gascoignes, probably from the early 1700s, for coal transport, developing from a horse-drawn wagon way to a private steam locomotive railway line in 1870. The route of the wagon way can still be seen, in what now looks like a ditch along an eastern section of the Lane; running beneath the Light Arch; and alongside the Dark Arch. The latter, built by 1813, allowed unrestricted views from the house across the gardens, over the sunken Parlington Lane, to the deer park to the south. This is a particularly interesting example of marrying ‘Utility and Ornament’, where the economic, industrial activity of an estate co-existed alongside the aesthetics of the ornamental gardens and deer park.

4.2.6 The estate map of 1817 can be overlaid onto a current OS map and the same pattern of plantations is evident. The boundaries of the C18 deer park, C18 and C19 paddocks, and many of the fields can still be seen in the ditches, ha-has, stone walls, and hedges (many of which were recorded being built or planted in the 1720s and 1730s). The gardens around the house were virtually destroyed when the house was demolished, although their appearance in the mid-1800s is recorded in photographs. Some specimen trees remain, and the Pike Fountain is now at Lotherton. The pleasure grounds have become overgrown, as has the Wilderness (first recorded in 1718), but the haha along its north-eastern edge can still be seen. The kitchen garden is now grassed over, but the Garden House and its walls survive (Grade II), and the sundial is at Lotherton. Of the other designed landscape features, the C19 Lake has been drained, although Lake Cottage and various water management features remain. The pond at Keeper’s Cottage survives, as does the Fish Pond SW of the house.

4.3 Architecture

4.3.1 Lodges and farms from the second half of the C18 and early decades of the C19, which once signalled the status of the Gascoigne family, still serve as a frame to the whole: Pike Lodge, The Cottage on Parlington Lane, Hook Moor Lodges, Park House [all Grade II], Wakefield Lodge, Ass Bridge Lodge, Barwick Lodge, and Throstle Nest Farm. The Almshouses (Grade II*) on the Great North Road in Aberford, built by the Gascoigne sisters in 1843–45, once formed part of the estate, although they are now under separate ownership.

4.3.2 Other extant built structures which add to the architectural interest of the landscape are the Round House on the Avenue (Grade II); the Garden House (Grade II); the Dark and Light Arches on Parlington Lane; Keeper’s Cottage (once an elaborate early C19 building with kennels, but now much reduced); the late C18/early C19 ice house in the Wilderness (SW of the Light Arch); Home Farm (one of 2 original Gascoigne model farms), and the 4 stallion pens NE of Home Farm (1809-13).

4.3.3 By far the most important feature is the Triumphal Arch (Grade II*), erected by Sir Thomas in 1783. It was designed by Thomas Leverton, and his plans were exhibited at the Royal Academy. The inscription records ‘Liberty in N. America triumphant’, a clear statement of Sir Thomas’s political 5

views. The Arch is the only contemporary monument in the country that explicitly celebrates American independence; it is the only example of such a monument in the designed landscape of a country estate, and thus it is unique. A Triumphal Arch needs a vista through it, an appropriate backdrop of landscape, and a space around it.

4.3.4 All of these built structures (with the possible exception of Pike Lodge) have retained enough of their setting to maintain their meaning and significance, and would be harmed by the proposed development.

5. Communal value

5.1 Parlington is a much-used and valuable open green space, and as such, should be preserved for present and future generations – indeed, as an amenity, it could be exploited to a greater and more positive advantage than it is now. The Triumphal Arch is a sight worth visiting, for its history and its architecture. Parlington also contributes to a sense of place for the surrounding communities, in Aberford, Garforth and Barwick, and for all those people who have links through past generations with the estate and its family, through agriculture, mining, quarrying, trades and services.

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APPENDIX 1

August 22nd 2017 - This is the letter sent to Kathryn Holloway with the Yorkshire Gardens Trust objection to the inclusion of Parlington in the Leeds Site Allocation Plan. This seems to have been missed in the representations against Parlington to the Site Allocations Plan Team in March.

YORKSHIRE GARDENS TRUST President: Countess of Harewood

Vice-presidents: Lady Legard, Peter Goodchild, Nick Lane Fox

www.yorkshiregardenstrust.org.uk

Mrs Val Hepworth Kathryn Holloway Manor House Team Leader (Major Projects) Skeeby Policy and Plans Group Richmond City Development North Yorkshire Leeds City Council DL10 5DX The Leonardo Building 2 Rossington Street Leeds LS2 8HD

[email protected]

24th March 2017

Dear Ms Holloway

Parlington Near Aberford, West Yorkshire

Thank you for the very useful meeting which we had with you and your colleagues on 27th February regarding the proposal for the inclusion of the historic estate at Parlington on the Site Allocations Plan, Leeds Local Development Framework.

The Yorkshire Gardens Trust is a member of the Gardens Trust; the statutory consultee for historic parks and gardens. The Gardens Trust supports the County Gardens Trusts in the protection and conservation of designed landscapes and gardens.

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As you know the Yorkshire Gardens Trust has been researching the history of the Gasgoigne family and their long ownership of the Parlington estate, and object to the inclusion of what is a large part of this estate in the Site Allocations Plan as in our view development will result in substantial harm to the heritage asset.

Since our meeting much more evidence has been found for the significance of the designed landscape and the estate in the archives at the West Yorkshire Record Office. We have been particularly researching the gardens and landscape. This research has been a completely neglected area. The Gascoigne Archive is quite extensive and there is still much to investigate including many papers for Sir Edward Gascoigne from the first half of the eighteenth century. We are also trying to relate the development of the designed landscape at Parlington with other important estates. Until we are able to visit the totality of the site, which the agents AECOM are arranging for us, (thank you for helping us with this), we are unable to correlate the archive research to features still evident on the ground.

In brief we have found that Parlington has 3 major strands of significance:

1. Triumphal Arch - Dr Patrick Eyres (New Arcadian Journal), has written a specific piece of which this is a small extract:

The Triumphal Arch at Parlington is unique. It is unique because it is the only contemporary monument that explicitly celebrates American independence. It is also unique because it is the only example of such a monument in the designed landscape of a country estate.

As such it is a major tourist asset, let alone a monument of national importance.

There are a number of monuments that articulate the opposition to what was widely regarded as the king's war - a civil war tyrannically waged against the North American colonists of the British empire. These were largely erected by landowners of the Rockingham Whig persuasion (as was Sir Thomas Gascoigne), which embodied the parliamentary opposition to the war. They are significant as political monuments that represent a time of major national crisis.

2. Early bloodstock breeding - Breeding and racing horses was a significant interest for the Gascoignes from c.1700, when Sir Thomas 4th Bt is recorded as owning a ‘foreign horse’. In 1722, the estate was raided and horses removed under penal laws (Catholics prohibited from owning a horse over the value of £5). In the second half of the C18 and the first decades of the C19 Sir Thomas and Richard Oliver Gascoigne ran a stud that had national and international renown, producing some of the finest bloodstock of the period. Both men had winners in the greatest races of their day (St Leger, Derby, Oaks) and the Gascoigne Stakes were run at Doncaster throughout the early decades of the 1800s.

3. The Kennedy dynasty of gardeners - working as gardeners and landscape designers at famous estates across, England, Scotland and France over many generations, with records starting at Drummond Castle, Perthshire in the early seventeenth century, then members working for the Salvin family at Croxdale, Co Durham and finally for Sir Thomas Gascoigne at Parlington. In 1776, 1777, whilst working for Sir Thomas Gascoigne, John Kennedy published a noted practical guide; Treatise on Planting, Gardening, and the Management of the Hot-house. This book was addressed to landowners and their head gardeners.

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Research is continuing but we remain convinced that the historic designed landscape at Parlington is of significance and object to its inclusion in the Site Allocations Plan, which we consider would be contrary to NPPF policy. We have requested that Historic England assess the site for inclusion on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

I have copied this letter to Tim Hill, Head of Planning for Leeds City Council. If it should be submitted elsewhere within the Authority I would be grateful if this could be done please.

Yours sincerely,

Val Hepworth

Chairman

cc. Tim Hill, Leeds City Council; Cara Organ, Historic England; Margie Hoffnung, the Gardens Trust

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