The Parlington Estate was regarded over many years as a place of verdant gardens, secret idyll’s, and dense English woodland, securing at its heart the old hall. Many tributes to the delights of the place have been uncovered in the archives of local newspapers. Here is a short extract from the Leeds Mercury of September 1874, “…the beautiful gardens of Parlington. Was ever anything more secluded? Around are noble trees. In front is a tasteful enclosure, gay with blooming flowers, their glowing colours toned down by luxuriant evergreens … The closely-shaven, bright green, velvety grass gives to the foot as if we trod on a soft carpet, and here, their great arms spreading wide apart and so heavy that they have to he propped, are two gigantic cedars of Lebanon.” Stirring stuff!
One over arching fact that is still carried over to this day despite the long decline of the estate since it was abandoned by the Gascoigne family in the early years of the twentieth century, is the abundance of magnificent old trees. The latest to be highlighted is a beech comprising of three parts cleverly spliced together by a young man on one of his walks along the old Flyline just after the end of the Great War. The tree is known affectionately as, “Nellie’s Tree”, created by a young man called Victor Stead from Garforth. The short length of the railway route between the Dark Arch in the west and the Light Arch in the east is the site of his creation, sitting approximately at the point where the railway line and older cart route of Parlington Lane converge. His love for a local girl, “Nellie Mosby”, was the motive of his arboreal endeavours, she responded to his efforts by later marrying him, and there legacy remains to this day, a fine letter “N” formed by the tree right by the side of the lane, viewable by anyone who cares to walk the route.
The delightful love story of the tree and its local affection was enough to have it awarded UK tree of the year in a competition run by the Woodland Trust, having first secured its place as the English Tree of the Year 2018, it now goes forward to the European finals. The efforts of locals in raising the profile of the tree will help with the ongoing battle against a large part of the old estate being destroyed to make way for a new township.