Page 1 of 6 List Entry Summary (Published) This garden or other land is registered under the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by English Heritage for its special historic interest. Name: Parlington Estate List Entry Number: 1447854 Location Aberford, Leeds, West Yorkshire The garden or other land may lie within the boundary of more than one authority. County District District Type Parish Leeds Metropolitan Authority Aberford Barwick in Elmet and Leeds Metropolitan Authority Scholes Leeds Metropolitan Authority Parlington National Park: Not applicable to this List entry. Grade: II Date first registered: 21-Sep-2017 Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry. Asset Groupings This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information. List Entry Description Summary of Garden Country estate developed by the Gascoigne family mainly in the C18, with C19 and C20 additions and alterations Reasons for Designation Parlington Estate is registered at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: it is a good example of a designed landscape laid out largely in the late C18 with distinct areas and features that directly reflect the ideas, philosophies and interests of its owner and also that of a notable estate gardener; * Designers: it is largely the work of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, a significant figure in C18 agricultural reform, and his estate gardener John Kennedy, a key figure in the development of horticulture, cultivation and agriculture in the C18 who brought the estate and Gascoigne international recognition through his pioneering planting methods; * Design interest: it is a landscape designed equally for pleasure, agriculture and industry that incorporated fashionable C18 features, but also enabled agrarian and horticultural experimentation, facilitated the exploitation of the estate's mineral resources, and indulged the Gascoigne passion for racehorse breeding; * Survival: despite some later alteration the landscape's late-C18 and early-C19 development, layout and views remain clearly readable and legible in the surviving landscape, which includes notable survivals, such as a hidden former wagonway with associated bridge and tunnel used to transport the family's coal through the estate, and rare impressively-scaled late-C18 stallion pens; * Group value: it has strong group value with listed features on the estate, including the Triumphal Arch (Grade II*), Gardens House and attached walls (Grade II), shelter in the north-east parkland (Grade II), Hookmoor Lodges (Grade II), The Cottage (Grade II), and Park House Farmhouse (Grade II). History The history of the Parlington estate is intertwined with that of the Gascoignes, a family of Catholic landed gentry based in Yorkshire. Land at Parlington, including the medieval village of Parlington and probably also a manorial complex, was bought by John http://swnhpr03 -c1/EH.UDS.Web.UIElements/article_heritageasset.aspx?useAv=1& ... 11/ 06/ 2018 Page 2 of 6 Gascoigne (1520-1602) from Thomas Lord Wentworth in March 1545. The remains of the village are believed to have been removed in the C18 when the landscape was gentrified and mineral extraction was also exploited. Parlington became the seat of the Gascoignes in the early 1720s when they moved from nearby Barnbow Hall (now demolished). Parlington Hall (now - 2017 - largely demolished) is believed to have been remodelled in the 1730s for Sir Edward Gascoigne (1697- 1750), and again in around 1800 for his son Sir Thomas when an east wing was added. Sir Edward's accounts reveal that a deer park was created in the late 1730s, and a deer herd remained at the estate up until the Second World War. Also in the 1730s, stone from the estate quarries was used to build the Assembly Rooms in York and Sir Edward provided stone for restoration work at York Minster gratis. Sir Thomas Gascoigne (1745-1810), who was born and raised in Cambrai, northern France and was the youngest son of Sir Edward and Mary Gascoigne, inherited the Parlington estate in 1762 after his elder brother's sudden death. He settled in England in 1765, interspersing his residence with two Grand Tours where he mixed in court society, including with Marie Antoinette and Charles III, King of Spain. In 1780 Gascoigne abjured his Catholic faith to become an Anglican and a Member of Parliament, becoming a close ally of the Marquis of Rockingham. However, in 1784 Sir Thomas married Lady Mary Turner, a widow with two young children, and he resigned from politics to concentrate on his family and improving the Parlington estate, although he returned to politics several years later following Mary's early death from childbirth complications. Sir Thomas was an advocate of agricultural reform like his father Sir Edward, and a coal mine and quarry owner interested in developing technologies and innovation. He also had a keen interest in horse racing and breeding, developing a stud at Parlington. His horse Tuberose won the Doncaster Cup in 1776, Hollandaise won the St Leger in 1778, followed later by Symmetry who won in 1798, and Theophania won the Epsom Oaks in 1803. The Gascoigne Stakes were also run at Doncaster in the early C19. Gascoigne was elected Honorary Member of the Board of Agriculture in 1796 and his expertise and opinions on agricultural reform were sought by the board and his contemporaries. New parkland was created in the early 1760s (presumably altering the earlier deer park) whilst Sir Thomas was away on his first Grand Tour and was overseen by one of his guardians Stephen Tempest, as recorded in letters between Tempest and Gascoigne. In 1771 Sir Thomas employed the gardener John Kennedy (1719-1790) who had been employed and recommended by Gascoigne's brother-in-law William Salvin of Croxdale Hall, County Durham. Kennedy was from a notable family of C18 gardeners and horticulturalists and in 1776 he published an account of the aboricultural methods he employed at Parlington in a book entitled 'A Treatise Upon Planting, Gardening, and the Management of the Hot-House' where he pioneered new techniques, such as the use of artificial fertilisers. The book sold to subscribers including members of the peerage and earned the estate an international reputation for pioneering techniques in cultivation and agriculture. Some of the methods pioneered by Kennedy were employed by Thomas Blaikie, the gardener to the Comte d'Artois at the Chateau de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, northern France, and the methods employed at Parlington were discussed in the North American 'The Farmer's Almanac' of 1794. One of Kennedy's specialisms was trees and woodland, and he planted and developed a considerable amount of woodland at Parlington, which was not only a valuable resource, but also a symbol of patriotism for Gascoigne, with some of the wood specifically grown for the Royal Navy. Letters sent by Jarrard Strickland to Sir Thomas reveal that the estate was visited by 'garden seers' (garden tourists) in the late C18 who came to view the landscape. Sir Thomas Gascoigne died in 1810 shortly after his only son and heir, Thomas Charles (1786-1809) had died in a hunting accident. The estate subsequently passed to his step-daughter Mary (c1783-1819) who had married Captain Richard Oliver (1762-1842); her husband taking the name Gascoigne as stipulated by Sir Thomas' will. Richard Oliver Gascoigne maintained the estate's agricultural and horse racing interests developed by Sir Thomas at Parlington: Richard's horse Soothsayer won the St Leger in 1811 and his horse Jerry won in 1824. Gascoigne also built new stables in 1813 to the designs of Watson & Pritchett of York (now demolished). He also further developed mineral assets on the estate, constructing the Dark Arch in 1813 on the coal wagonway of Parlington Lane that cut through the estate just to the south of the hall. Two different designs for a mansion house were produced by W Pilkington for Richard Oliver Gascoigne in 1810, suggesting that Gascoigne was clearly thinking about constructing a new house at this time. However, the plans were not carried out and the existing house was instead altered and extended at some point in the mid-1810s by Watson & Pritchett of York. Watson & Pritchett also produced a number of designs for other buildings on the estate from 1813 to 1815 for Gascoigne, including stables (now demolished), dog kennels (now demolished) and a gamekeeper's house. Richard Oliver's two sons Thomas and Richard pre-deceased him and thus upon his death his two daughters Mary Isabella (1810- 1891) and Elizabeth (1812-1893) inherited. Mary Isabella and her husband lived at Parlington, and Elizabeth and her husband lived at the family's other estate, Castle Oliver in County Limerick, Ireland. The sisters created an ornamental lake (now drained) in the woodland of Parlington Hollins in the mid-C19, and were also involved with philanthropic projects in the local area, constructing almshouses on Bunkers Hill in Aberford (1843-1845, Grade II*). After the death of his parents Parlington passed to Isabella's son Colonel Frederick Richard Thomas Trench-Gascoigne in 1905. Frederick, who had already inherited nearby Lotherton Hall from his aunt Elizabeth and had made that his family residence, focused on a military career, leaving the running of the Parlington estate to employees. Frederick removed many of the contents from the hall, along with a number of architectural features, including the hall's porte cochère, which became a garden feature at Lotherton. Parlington Hall was subsequently abandoned and in 1919 the estate's mines were sold. During the Second World War the Parlington estate was occupied by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps No 3 Vehicle Reserve Depot and a number of temporary buildings were constructed, all of which have since been demolished, but tank inspection ramps survive.