Wakefield Lodge, including entrance gate piers and attached estate wall, Parlington Estate, Parlington, Leeds

Summary

Lodge to the Parlington Estate, early C19, extended in the late C19 with further late-C20 alterations. Associated former south estate entrance, gate piers and estate wall.

Description

Lodge to the Parlington Estate, early C19, extended in the late C19 with further late-C20 alterations. Associated former south estate entrance, gate piers and estate wall

MATERIALS: render finish, slate roof coverings. Late-C19 brick extension.

PLAN: the lodge has a hexagonal plan with longer elevations on the north-east and south-west sides. A late-C19 single-storey extension is attached to the north-east side.

EXTERIOR: the original part of the building incorporates a plinth and has rendered walls with quoining detail to the corners, a shallow roof with hips to the angles and paired block modillions, and a rebuilt central ridge stack of engineering brick. The three-bay front elevation faces south-west and has a central doorway flanked by six-over-six unhorned sash windows with painted-stone sills. The entrance door has been replaced with a modern composite door, but the original geometric-patterned overlight (now painted over) survives above. Sash windows in the same style as those to the front exist to the north-west, north, west and south-east angles, with blind windows to the south and east angles. Projecting out from the north-east side is a high late-C19 rendered wall incorporating a smaller six-over-six horned-sash window that conceals the rest of the late-C19 extension behind, which is constructed of brick, from view. The extension has a shallow pitched roof for the length of the lodge and a pitched roof to a wider section that projects further beyond the south-east end of the lodge. Historic maps reveal that the footprint is unchanged since the late C19, but changes in brickwork suggest that it was partially rebuilt in the late C20, and a chimneystack is also believed to have been removed at this time. The extension's north-east elevation has a doorway towards the north-west end with a modern composite door flanked by three-over-three horned-sash windows, with a further window in the same style at the opposite end of the elevation and a six-over-six horned-sash window with a flat-arched head to the south-east gable end.

INTERIOR: internally the original lodge is split in half to form two rooms with back-to-back chimneybreasts, and all the doors have been replaced with late-C20 sapele veneer doors. The kitchen was originally in the north-west room, but has been moved in to the south-east room and has modern units. The north-west room is now a lounge with a built-in cupboard and a modern fireplace opening with a wood-burning stove (the kitchen's original cast-iron range was removed in the late C20). Both rooms have hatches providing access to the roofspace. Just inside the main entrance is a small vestibule with a lowered ceiling and a doorway with a stone stair flight leading down to a cellar underneath the south-east room. The cellar has a stone-flag floor and brick and stone shelving. The lodge's north-east wall has been knocked through to incorporate the later extension and create a corridor/hallway. The extension has been modernised and now contains a bedroom, bathroom and utility room.

SOUTH ESTATE ENTRANCE, GATE PIERS and ESTATE WALL: immediately to the south-west of Wakefield Lodge is the former south entrance to the Parlington Estate, which originally connected to the estate's C18 south-east drive, but is no longer in use as an entrance except to serve the lodge. The entrance consists of square gate piers with pyramidal caps constructed of limestone with flanking curving wing walls of coursed limestone with rounded copings and modern timber gates. The south-west section of the estate wall continues for approximately 415m heading south-west and then west to Park House, whilst the north-east section of the estate wall continues for approximately 565m heading north-east and then north to Hookmoor Lodges.

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.

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.

Wakefield Lodge was constructed at some point between 1817 and 1849, most probably in the earlier decades for Richard Oliver Gascoigne. It was extended in the late C19 and further alterations took place in the late C20.

Reasons for Listing

Wakefield Lodge, including entrance gate piers and attached estate wall, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of an early-C19 estate building with a classical design that maintains stylistic continuity with other late-C18 and early-C19 listed buildings on the estate, and the deliberately hidden late-C19 extension highlights the continued importance of impressing the Gascoigne family's visitors and maintaining appearances;
* the exterior retains numerous original features, whilst the interior retains its original two-room plan and cellar with a stone-flag floor and brick and stone shelving.

Historic interest:

* the lodge, entrance gate piers and attached estate wall contribute to the understanding of the functioning of the Parlington Estate in the C19 and help interpret the surviving elements of the estate.

Group value:

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

External Links

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