Parlington History Site

I have a site designed, built and hosted by me specifically for the purpose of providing a comprehensive history of the old Yorkshire Mansion: Parlington Hall, Please click here to visit.

Stained Glass

The Gascoigne sisters, heiresses to the Parlington Estate in 1843 were known for their interest in stained glass and the nearby Almshouses built in the early 1840’s at the behest of the two heiresses is a monument to both the skills of local stonemasons and the artistic talent of glaziers of the day. It is thought that the stained glass however is not the work of the sisters, but believed to have been commissioned by them. However traces of stained glass have been unearthed at Parlington, which could be described as “craft work”, rather than the more formal pieces found in the Almshouses. During excavations in the early autumn of 2007 fragments of glass, only 2mm thick were discovered in the area once adjacent to the Drawing Room and rear of the conservatory.

A Picture of the Stables

Towards the end of 2007, I was contacted by a lady who is the Granddaughter of the last gardener to be employed by the Gascoigne family. He lived in the house which lies north of the old hall, termed the “Gardens House”. Naturally his granddaughter enjoyed playing in the vicinity in her early years when visiting her grandparents, in fact visiting right up until the death of her grandfather in the 1960’s.This has brought to light some of the most informative pictures yet found and over time, as with the stereo images discovered early in 2007, will be the subject of a more complete analysis. But to wet the viewers appetite here is a picture taken in front of the now demolished stable block. The only known image of this structure!

Old Buildings

Parlington Hall in its heyday circa 1880. View of the south elevation, with the west wing to the viewers left, being the remaining structure, having survived the demolitions of the twentieth century.

Some people find old buildings and history a bore! However have you ever considered where your family came from and what the world was like just a few short decades ago, it's all changing very fast, I think often too fast for our own good, so when I came across a place for a new office that was steeped in history I decided to try and find out what I could about the place.

This blog along with the site dedicated to the old Hall is my effort to provide some useful information to anyone who might have an eye for how things once were and to give an insight into a building that was abandoned in the early twentieth century and over a fifty year period slowly disintegrated to finally disappear in the 1960's.

The Ice House

There are some things here at Parlington which are quite unusual and are worth a mention, one, which is the subject of this first blog is the old Ice House. The picture above is a view of the entrance, which in recent years has been secured by the steel grill. The structure is built into an escarpment and is built of brick, it is shaped like a flat bottomed egg. The second image is a virtual representation of the structure, created in Sketchup Pro.



I am unsure as to when the building was last used for the purpose it was built, as the old Parlington Hall was abandoned in 1905, I imagine it was around about that time. Contrary to popular belief I am told it was used for storing ice desserts and ice extravaganzas to impress guests at the Hall, not for hanging sides of venison, beef or other meats. The scale of the structure is truly impressive, being around 16 feet maximum diameter a few feet below the entrance and perhaps 30 feet deep in all.