The Light Arch

Summary

Bridge carrying the Parlington Estate's south drive over Parlington Lane, late C18, for Sir Thomas Gascoigne

Reasons for Designation

The Light Arch, constructed in the late C18 for Sir Thomas Gascoigne, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of a late-C18 park structure set within the designed landscape of the Parlington Estate that was designed to carry the estate's main drive over Parlington Lane, a wagonway through the centre of the estate that enabled the movement of the Gascoigne family's coal to Aberford;
* it is constructed from high-quality limestone from the estate's own quarries;
* it is little altered overall, and the addition of an extra course of stone added in 1837 to raise the bridge and enable trains to pass underneath, adds interest in revealing the historic development of the wagonway when it became part of the Aberford Railway, an early private railway line that carried passengers as well as freight.

Historic interest:

* it reflects the importance of the Gascoigne family's commercial mineral exploits and their willingness to share their landscape with industrial features, as long as they were cleverly hidden from view.

Group value:

* it has strong group value with the other listed buildings and structures on the Parlington Estate and the Grade II-registered landscape.

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 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 - 2018 - 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. 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. 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.

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, and 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.

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. 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 cochere, 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. During the war German and Russian prisoners of war were also hired from the West Riding War Agricultural Executive Committee to work in the woods of the estate.

The majority of the hall was demolished in 1952, leaving only part of the service wing surviving, which is now a private house. The entire estate was sold in the 1960s and is now owned by an institutional property investment fund.

Parlington Lane, which was possibly originally the main central axis of the medieval village of Parlington, runs across the Parlington Estate and cuts straight through the hall's grounds less than 200m south of the former site of the now largely demolished Parlington Hall where it separated the more formal garden from the parkland to the south. The lane was used as a horse-drawn wagonway in the C18 and early C19 to transport coal from the Gascoigne family's collieries in Garforth to a coal staith in Aberford on the Great North Road where it could be transported away. In 1837 the wagonway became part of the Aberford-Garforth Railway, which remained in use until 1924. The Light Arch was constructed in the late C18 for Sir Thomas Gascoigne to carry the estate's south drive over Parlington Lane. Following the lane's conversion to the Aberford-Garforth Railway, the arch is believed to have been raised to allow trains to pass underneath.

Details

Bridge carrying the Parlington Estate's south drive over Parlington Lane, late C18, for Sir Thomas Gascoigne

MATERIALS: coursed limestone, probably from the estate's own quarries.

DESCRIPTION: the Light Arch is located approximately one kilometre south-west of Bunkers Hill and carries the estate's south drive over Parlington Lane, which is sunk in a cutting several metres deep. The bridge is similarly detailed on both sides and is constructed of coursed limestone 'bricks' with a segmental arched span incorporating plain voussoirs that springs from quoined jambs and a substantial flush ashlar impost band that was added to raise the bridge in 1837. Above the arch's spandrels there are no parapets and the arch is topped by flat copings. Attached to the bridge on both sides and running north for a short distance alongside Parlington Lane and south-west towards the nearby Dark Arch are high limestone walls with rounded copings that form the walls of the cutting with ramped sections adjacent to the bridge. A central section of walling to the south-west, which originally linked the Light Arch to the nearby Dark Arch has been removed, but some of the footings survive.

Sources

Books and journals
Lock, A, Catholicism, Identity and Politics in the Age of Enlightenment. The Life and Career of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 1745-1810, (2016)

Websites
Parlington Hall, Aberford, West Riding, Yorkshire, England, accessed 18 January 2018 from http://www.parlington.co.uk

Other
Various archival material, including maps, plans, surveys, letters and account ledgers for the Parlington Estate. Available at West Yorkshire Archives Service

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