A recent purchase of a facsimile of a notice of compensation to the dependants of a miner, Eder Gee, killed at work in the Garforth Colliery in July 1916, adds to the compilation of data I am collecting about the collieries owned by the Gascoigne family. I have underway a major article about the mines which will be added to the history site in due course.
It seems odd that a tragic event in Garforth should have a marked effect on the number of visitors and hits on my Parlington history site but whilst viewing the stats and looking at the Google Analytics pages, I noticed that the reason for the upsurge was because many people were searching Google with the following keywords: “Garforth, Murder”, and using those same words I discovered that the Parlington site was listed on the first page of Google, leading to a reference in the unlikely titled “Oddness” section where I relate a tale of witchcraft, the murder of a Gamekeeper, and also the more recent (1975) discovery of a buried corpse near the former lake, below Parlington Hollins!
Garforth, on the east of Leeds, has grown considerably in the post WW2 period and has had for many years a vibrant Historical Society. I was first introduced to the society by the former secretary Ron Sudderdean. Over the last few years I have given talks about Parlington on at least three occasions, each time offering new discoveries. Well today whilst looking at my site stats on Google Webmasters Tools I discovered that a link to the Parlington History Site was coming from Garforth Historical Society this is a new venture for them I’m sure, I hope they can publish much of their collection in time, meanwhile drop by and view the site, don’t forget to bookmark it!
If you enjoy the walk along Parlington Lane, from the junction with the old Great North Road in Aberford, west under the Light Arch, along and behind, the Dark Arch, or if you are unafraid of spooks, through the mud inside the arch; then past the Gamekeeper’s Cottage and along past the two Staithes Cottages, and down the hill to Throstle Nest. You will generally be looking at the landscape and features as points of interest. If however your gaze catches the glint of glass in the grass! It may be a circular polaroid photographic filter [67mm ᴓ]dropped inadvertently by a friend of mine during a walk this last weekend. If you are lucky to make such a find, he will be eternally grateful should you return it to him! Just let me know and I will do the rest.
Sisters’ Pit Garforth, Postcard view, probably around the beginning of the twentieth century, taken from the road bridge, which is still in use today.