Country Life Magazine

A reader of the Country Life magazine sent a letter to the editor about a painting they had of Parlington, a water colour, I was later contacted and asked if I could supply a picture for the magazine for their response to the the reader. The picture below is of the item in the September 2nd 2009 edition. The reply was provided by a Mr Scott of Merseyside. I requested that the magazine publish my web site address to accompany the item, this they did as you can see in the image of the magazine page below.

Link to the Country Life magazine web site: here

Sadly some of the information in the response article is erroneous, firstly the use of the words “given up by the Gascoignes in 1905”, rather suggests they were somehow forced to relinquish it. Whereas the house was left to slowly deteriorate, and used as a source of building materials, by the heir to the estate, following the death of his father at Parlington in 1905. The son, who had been born at Parlington in 1851, had taken residence at Lotherton Hall after he had inheriteded it following his aunt’s death in 1893.

Secondly the reply continues, “used by the army in the Second World War, and demolished, bar the west wing and the Triumphal Arch, in the 1950’s.” This suggests that the hall was intact and used by the army during the war, which was not the case. The parkland was used by the army, see article here on the main site, and the hall, parts demolished since before the First World War, was inhabited, in the west wing, by two households.

The Country Life article continues, “The wing on the right [the Drawing Room], was designed by Carr of York”. I am not aware that this was a design of his. Then, “The main block dates from the seventeenth century onwards.” No, yet another error, it was built in the early eighteenth century, circa 1723 by Sir Edward Gascoigne.

The parts of the hall which remained inhabited, as noted in the earlier paragraph were known as, “The Parlington Hall Cottages”, and the attached extensive range of stables, brewery, loose boxes, etc. all remained intact until the late 1960’s. Thereafter they were sliced off the west end along the wall between a store room, which remained, and the Saddle Room, which was demolished with all the structures to the west. By the 1950’s the Drawing Room on the extreme east was derelict and standing alone, and the central block built in the 1720’s was also derelict and free standing. Both the latterly described elements had stood empty and derelict for years. They were removed and the entire area was levelled, sometime, perhaps a year or so, before the estate sale on 2nd October 1964. Then at the time of the sale the two semi-detatched properties (the West Wing) were offered as lot 1 with some 15.4 acres, described as “IDEAL FOR THE ERECTION OF A HIGH-CLASS RESIDENCE”. The demolition order, being a part of an outline planning approval was never enacted, so the hall was and is technically still in place, but clearly nothing like the edifice that once occupied the spot!