You can often hear woodpeckers in the trees around Parlington, knocking seven bells out of a branch or bough, but you rarely see them. However, “Woody the frequent flyer to the peanut island on a pole” has become a garden favourite but less so to the more common birds queuing in the surrounding bushes awaiting their turn on the feeders.
Recent excavations in the area of the Dining Room at the old Hall have uncovered some spent 303 calibre cartridge cases. Thus far two have been unearthed, one in much better condition than the other, the picture below is of the two cartridges.
The spent cartridges point to the occupation during World War Two of the Army at Parlington. But who were they shooting at, are the two cartridges found so far those which were NOT collected after the firing took place! Will we ever know! But if we travel back some decades, the area beyond the house to the south side was a deer park and amongst the features of this place were the occasional shooting parties. At one such event in 1870 on the 18th June a gardener’s labourer, named Edward Cotton, while acting as a marker at a private rifle range at Parlington Park, near Leeds, was accidently shot by Lieutenant Colonel Gascoigne. The marker had left the rifle butt whilst firing was proceeding and without receiving any signal. The ball passed through his body and killed him on the spot. [An extract from the Leeds Mercury or the Leeds Intelligencier]
Whilst walking in the vicinity some years ago, beyond the line of the shooting range I came across a lead bullet which had hit something extremely hard like a brick surface, as it was flattened like a pancake. This was perhaps of the same type of ammunition that killed the unfortunate Edward Cotton.
The cartridges were found in the excavation of the ground in the location highlighted by the blue rectangle.
I decided to retire one of the servers, an old original series one Apple XServe, I say old it’s about 5 years. However the retirement plan worked out to be more messy than I had hoped. Everything including a multitude of sites were re-located on a new server at a different venue, all was well until I discovered that everything on the new system required case sensitivity, whereas on the Unix based Mac it did not, that is to say the database calls and referenced files, which had been uploaded by clients might have been mypicture.JPG whereas it should have been mypicture.jpg. No much difference but it has caused a real problem changing file and database references but not other syntax, across literally thousands of files.
Parlington.info suffered this problem with image files, or so I thought, but then I discovered it was not that which was the problem but that the file system permissions were different on the two servers, so this site has had a lack of images for some time now. My apologies to any readers.
The sudden arrival of three or four inches of snow prompted many people to get out their cameras this Easter, here are a few taken locally and a couple by a friend, who sent them by email.
Additional photos are available here: my dotmac account
The Triumphal Arch on the Parlington Estate
The former Almshouses
The gatehouse to the Almshouses.
Having set up the Yorkshire Speakers Directory a few months ago I wanted to add more to the site so I decided to put a bookshop in place for local books and things of local interest.
For those who walk the picturesque route along Parlington Lane, you may have noticed that the lake which lies just beyond the Gamekeeper’s cottage, to the south east, has been emptied, to allow work to remove the build-up of sediment.
To ensure I had a record of the event I slipped along to take a few photos, which are available here. Whilst there I took some time to look at a pipe inlet which runs towards the Gamekeeper’s cottage, this was until work started, covered by a steel filter, which is shown in the collection of images associated with this post. I believe it was used for gas purification in the small gas works which stood adjacent to the cottage, the gas production was for Parlington Hall and probably ceased before or around the time the Hall was abandoned following the death of Col. F.C. Trench-Gascoigne in 1905.
Whilst looking round the lake, quite near to the pipe inlet I noted earlier, I was surprised to find a piece of marble protruding from the black mud. closer inspection revealed it to be a piece of blue/grey marble skirting the same as pieces found in the excavations of Parlington Hall, so it must have been thrown there years ago when the demolition was in progress. The value of masonry and the like was cast away with the demolition must have been substantial.
During the Second World War the inhabitants of Aberford, contributed towards the cost of a Supermarine Spitfire and in June of 1941 an aircraft, a Mark Vb serial number: P8640 was delivered to RAF Brize Norton. A recent enquirer, Johnny Lyttle of Aberford asked if I knew anything about the aircraft.
Being off topic I had not pursued the history of the plane, however I recalled a picture of the plane in a book produced some years ago, titled “Aberford in Times Past” by A.G.Bennett, T. Hayton, K.Hewitt. The entry gave a serial number for the aircraft, so I passed this to Johnny with the suggestion that the MOD might be able to provide more information on the life of the plane. He took up the baton and has been successful in discovering some of the history of the aircraft.
The image is courtesy of Aberford in Times Past, a Countryside Publication, which for those interested has an ISBN number of 086157 115 0
The following is what the RAF Museum sent about the plane:
“Probably named after the village of Aberford, West Yorkshire, Mk. Vb
P8640 was taken on charge at No.6 MU Brize Norton on 2 June 1941 and
delivered on the 26th to No.609 (West Riding) Sqn at Biggin Hill,
engaged on sweeps and bomber escort operations. These duties continued
with its transfer on 6 September to No.92 (East India) Sqn, also at
Biggin Hill, until being sent to No.610 (County of Chester) Sqn at
Leconfield on 15 November for convoy patrols.
On 26 March 1942 Plt Off S. Lanunski P0419 (Polish) of No.1 Delivery
Flight collided with a stationary lorry on the arrow perimeter track at
Kidlington, being unable to zig-zag in the usual manner in order to see
ahead. Although the damage was only classed as Category A, it was flown
to No.1 Civilian Repair Unit later the same day for repairs, returning
to No.6 MU Brize Norton on 1 June to be despatched on the 20th to High
Ercall.
On 12 September it was allocated to No.308 (Polish) Sqn at Heston, but
as this unit was away at armament practice camp, it joined No.302
(Polish) Sqn also at Heston, coded WX-G, engaged on sweeps and bomber
escort duties. On 8 November P8640 was Category B damaged while being
flown by Flg Off E. Horbaczewski P0273 when it was struck by the
propeller of W3702 (WX-A Category A, Plt Off M. Muszynski P2011) while
returning from Circus 235. Both aircraft returned safely to Heston
where W3702 was repaired on site and P8640 sent on the 17th to Air
Service Training for repair, awaited collection on 8 February 1943 then
delivered to No.15 MU at Wroughton on the 20th.
On 13 May it was sent to Vickers for fuel system modifications, being
delivered to No.33 MU Lyneham on 21 June, then returned two days later
to No.15 MU Wroughton, being issued on 7 July to No.416 (RCAF) Sqn at
Digby for Ramrod and Rodeo operations. It was taken to No.3501
Servicing Unit at Cranfield on 15 July, returning to No.416 Sqn three
days later only to be involved in a minor accident on the 20th and
repaired on site. It had joined No.2 Tactical Exercise Unit at
Grangemouth by 9 November, when the engine failed and a forced landing
was made, Category B damage being repaired at a civilian repair unit.
It is next recorded with No.186 Sqn at Tain on 10 February 1944. This
unit was renumbered No.130 (Punjab) Sqn at Lympne on 3 April and began
operating bomber escort duties and also patrols.
On return from a patrol on 28 April Flt Sgt C.H.T. Clay swung on landing
to avoid an overshoot and hit a floodlight post, Category Ac damage
being repaired on site by 23 May. P8640 was then sent to Scottish
Aviation at Prestwick on 8 June, to be waiting for collection on 15 July
and delivered to No.8 MU Little Rissington on the 25th. The aircraft
was despatched on 2 May 1945 to No.6 MU Brize Norton, from where it
joined No.1 Air Gunnery School at Pembrey two days later. On 15 June it
was relegated to No.33 MU Lyneham, being despatched on 4 September to
Portsmouth Aviation to be struck off charge six days later.”
From Gifts of War: Spitfires and other Presentation Aircraft in Two
World Wars. Henry Boot and Ray Sturtivant, I.S.O. An Air-Britain
Publication. RAF Museum Library Ref: X003-9116.
One snippet of information that has never been corroborated is that during the First World War an aircraft landed in Parlington Park, reputedly from the aerodrome at Headley Bar, just north of Hazelwood Castle. One of the hangers is still in existence!
Frozen cobwebs on a particularly cold winter morning in February 2008
More shots from around Parlington on that spectacular February day. Here
It seems that although a reasonable number of visitors pass through this site and the average time spent on the site is around 6 minutes (which is good for a web site), few people make any comments!! I set the site up so people could get involved, but that is not happening, it’s just me stating this or that. I had hoped for more.
If you are a visitor, and you have something to say, please get involved.
A quick shot with a Sony Ericsson mobile phone, whilst passing the arch as the sun was setting today at 5.00pm, reminded me to carry a half decent compact camera at all times. The phone camera whilst better than nothing is a very ponderous device and although 2 mega pixels is frustratingly grainy!
