Parlington

Parlington Hall was the seat of the Gascoigne family, Aberford near Leeds in the county of Yorkshire, in England.

The Parlington estate has a number of interesting features: the grade II* listed Triumphal Arch, designed by Thomas Leverton and built around the end of the Eighteenth Century, which is unique in commemorating the victory of the American colonialists over the British in the American War of Independence. An inscription on both faces of the arch reads, "Liberty in N.America Triumphant MDCCLXXXIII"; a tunnel known locally as the "Dark Arch", which was built to shield the inhabitants of the hall from traffic passing along Parlington Lane, still intact almost two hundred years later; an underground icehouse, also intact — a testament to Georgian brick construction.

The Parlington estate was acquired by the Gascoignes from the Wentworth family in 1546. The hall was modified by successive family members, before it was abandoned in the early years of the twentieth century it was a culmination of alterations by Sir Edward Gascoigne (early eighteenth century), his son Sir Thomas Gascoigne the last baronet (late eighteenth century), Richard Oliver-Gascoigne (early nineteenth century) and last by Isabella and her husband Frederick in the mid and late nineteenth century. The extent of the mansion by the turn of the twentieth century, its mixed architecture and myriad of materials presented an incoherent design, perhaps only improved by the highly regarded landscaped gardens, often cited in local newspaper articles. Sadly after it was abandoned the incremental demolition between the second decade of the twentieth century and the late nineteen fifties destroyed any ability to determine the age of the earliest parts of the property, most of that seen in any photographs is later than the seventeenth century.

Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 8th and last Baronet, succeeded his brother in 1762. Sir Thomas was M.P. for Thirsk from 1780 to 1784, for Malton in 1784 and for Arundel in 1795. He was also a keen breeder and trainer of horses and with Sir Thomas Stapleton won the St Leger Stakes in 1778 with Hollandoise and the same race twenty years later with his home-bred colt Symmetry. He supported the cause of American Independence and built a commemorative arch to the American Victory in the War of Independence, thought to be modelled on the Arch of Constantine in Rome, at the entrance to the estate.

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