A walk along Parlington Lane, from Aberford opposite Lotherton Lane, the road rises quite steeply before levelling off after about 30 metres. It does this because in the past it was the terminus of the Aberford Railway, and if you wander over to the right you will find a large retaining wall, above the former coal staithes, which separates the landscape, running along the line of the lane for a good distance. These structures are essential parts of the railway from the mines in Garforth which initially operated by gravity, and took advantage of the drop in elevation to permit trains to be moved off by horse, before the animal leapt on a dolly cart at the rear and the whole train glided down to Aberford at a leisurely pace.
Being a railway the change in level tends to be slight, so at Aberford the railway siding took preference over other means of transport, and that still persists to this day despite it being some 94 years since it was abandoned. Following the lane you come to a Lodge, a stone Georgian house. Built I imagine to keep sway over the many mares and foals of Sir Thomas Gascoigne which grazed in the low valley, through which albeit largely in a culvert is the Crow River. The property sits on the edge of a long disused quarry.
Moving along past the lodge the lane on the left takes a slightly higher route than the railway which tracked along in the cutting next to the stone wall. Around half a mile there is a stile which enables you to pass to the main driveway into the estate, affording the opportunity to take a different route back to Aberford, via Cattle Lane, and then back on to the Main Street. However you are near the Light Arch and therefore can continue past a larger disused quarry, and an adjacent pinfold with the stone walls still standing. The lane slopes down and curves left then right before the Light Arch where the line of the railway coincided with the road.
The arch was built in the eighteenth century to carry an estate road from Parlington Hall to the Great North Road at Hook Moor. During the time that the railway was turned over from the gravity system to accommodate a new steam locomotive, “Ignifer” the bridge was partly dismantled and the arch raised by adding a deep course of stonework, thus enabling the new train to pass beneath. The next episode will detail the section to the Gamekeeper’s Cottage.