Summary
Tunnel built to conceal coal traffic from Parlington Hall, 1813, for Richard Oliver Gascoigne
Reasons for Designation
The Dark Arch, constructed in 1813 for Richard Oliver Gascoigne, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is a good and rare example of an early-C19 tunnel set within the designed landscape of the Parlington Estate that was constructed to conceal the estate's coal traffic from the view of the hall and enable unbroken views towards the parkland;
* the tunnel is constructed from high-quality limestone from the estate's own quarries and is a substantial structure that represents a considerable feat of engineering in following the sweeping curve of Parlington Lane;
* it survives little altered.
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.
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. It 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 Dark Arch is a tunnel believed to have been constructed in 1813 for Richard Oliver Gascoigne and was designed to conceal coal traffic on the wagonway so that it was not visible from the hall and gardens. The Dark Arch is included on an 1802 plan of the estate, although it is depicted in pencil, suggesting that it was proposed at this time, but had not yet been built.
Details
Tunnel built to conceal coal traffic from Parlington Hall, 1813, for Richard Oliver Gascoigne
MATERIALS: coursed limestone, probably from the estate's own quarries.
DESCRIPTION: the Dark Arch is a tunnel located at roughly the mid-point of Parlington Lane where the lane is sunk out of view of the former site of the hall in a cutting several metres deep. It is approximately 75m long and follows the slight curve of the lane. It is constructed of coursed limestone with segmental-arched portals at each end incorporating plain voussoirs that spring from quoined jambs. The tunnel interior is similarly detailed with limestone 'brick' walls rising up to a segment-arched vaulted ceiling. The tunnel roof incorporates four air grates that still survive. Attached to the tunnel portals on both sides and running north-east for a short distance alongside Parlington Lane and also south-west towards Gamekeeper's Cottage are high limestone walls with rounded copings that form the walls of the cutting. A section of walling to the north-east of the Dark Arch, which originally linked the Dark Arch to the nearby Light Arch has been removed, but some of the footings survive.
