January 2021 Advertiser Article

Those reading the Parlington articles from previous editions will recall how Richard Oliver inherited the Gascoigne estates after the death of the last “real“ Gascoigne, Sir Thomas in 1810.

Horse racing continued as a primary activity at Parlington under Richard Oliver-Gascoigne (he took the surname on his accession to the estates) and new racing successes were had. Also as the eldest son grew up he took an interest in racing also. Clippings from Leeds newspapers in the early decades of the nineteenth century indicate that Thomas was successful locally at what was at the time Leeds racecourse! You may ask, what, and where, was Leeds racecourse and prior to learning of the horse racing interest of Thomas I could not have supplied the answer.

Whilst researching this period I kept coming across references to the Parlington Cup associated with racing in the locale. Initially I had imagined the racing to be at York, but during the period 1825 – 1835 a considerable number of events were held at a Leeds racecourse named Haigh Park. Which it turns out was beside the River Aire in an area today characterised by industrial warehousing and in later nineteenth century decades was the home of Leeds Copper Works.

If you travel along Pontefract Road towards the city in the Stourton district of Leeds, to the west of the railway bridge on the northern side of the road, still in existence is Haigh Park Road. This terminates amongst a container park, a crane hire company, and other industrial operations. The site of the earlier copper works now flattened. The whole area is one of desolation, and although the River Aire and the Aire & Calder Canal are just a short distance away they are in-accessible from the road on the south side. A trip along Skelton Grange Road, the next junction on Pontefract Road after Haigh Park Road, takes you over the canal, first and then river. Here is a pedestrian access onto the land between the canal and river and a right of way along it which eventually runs into Skelton Country Park.

The canal and riverside walk is a ribbon of green flanked on each side by the waterways and all along the far bank of the canal over to the right is the modern industrial complex, it is hard to imagine that in the early years of the nineteenth century, over on that land, excited horse racing fans would have gathered to watch the flat races. It appears that the eventual decline of the racecourse was largely due to modifications which took place to the river and canal. Of course at that time the canal was a new and thriving form of transport for goods leaving the area.