During the twentieth century the Gascoigne family, like many other large UK landowners were required to address their changed circumstances, especially after the Great War. Taxation and particularly death duties brought into stark focus the need to divest yourself of long held assets to raise funds to satisfy the voracious taxman. Of course many will say that they rightly deserved to be on the receiving end of the increasing demands of the State, and since this is not a political column, we will leave that question aside. But we can look at the effects, The Parlington Estate of itself had lapsed into disrepair after Colonel Frederick Trench-Gascoigne died (June 1905). Following his death the household effects and other items were sold off by way of an auction in the Hall from Monday 24th July to Saturday 29th. The family railway was utilised to assist bidders in getting to the auction from Garforth station. A comprehensive schedule of the auction is in the “Hall” section of the Parlington website.
Thereafter began the long decline of Parlington, surplus to requirements as Frederick’s son had inherited Lotherton Hall after the death of his aunt Elizabeth in 1893. He took residence there and with his wife set about remodelling the place to suit the needs of a country gentlemen of that period.
The Great War, had put massive demands on the country in almost every way, and with the need for armaments a chunk of the Gascoigne estate was leased to the Government who established the shell filling factory at Barnbow. The land from Barnbow right back to Lotherton and beyond all formed part of the large property holding of the family. Indeed the earlier family homes had been at Lazencroft (adjacent to the shell factory) and also Barnbow Hall (demolished in the early eighteenth century) on the hill above the valley, towards Scholes, they even owned the “Spa” in Boston Spa! From the early years of the twentieth century successive sales saw all of this disappear, with the eventual gift of Lotherton to the people of Leeds at the end of the sixties.
On a final note and to bring us right up to the present the owners of Parlington are intent on developing a new settlement, in its first iteration offering 5,000 dwellings. Although this has been whittled down to an initial phase of 792 homes, it is a proposition which has met with unprecedented local opposition. Had the estate owners held the full extent of the Gascoigne lands as at the turn of the twentieth century, one of the limiting factors in their quest to build the new town ~ access, would have easily been overcome via Lazencroft to Barnbow.