Lotherton Chapel Lotherton chapel is an ancient little building, dedicated to St James. It is believed to date back to the twelfth century, though it has been much altered since. It is of a simple, twocell plan typical of that time. The plan can clearly be seen from the outside and consists of a wider nave and a narrower chancel, the two being separated by an interior wall. The chapel s oldest features are the north doorway (opposite the present entrance) and the three small, round-headed windows at the east end, to the right of the entrance and on the north side of the chancel. The doorway is no longer used. It is quite elaborate, with a moulded arch and water-leaf capitals which were once supported on shafts or pillars. It was clearly the main entrance to the building and this confirms what the map tells us, that most of the village was on the north side. The larger, square headed windows in the south side of the nave and chancel are much later, probably sixteenth or seventeenth century. At the west end, under the belcote, the remains of old foundations can be seen which indicates that the building once extended further in this direction. The bell itself is dated 1777. Above: North door of the chapel
Lotherton Chapel before restoration In the late Victorian period the chapel fell into disuse and decay. It was restored in 1913 17 by Colonel FRT Gascoigne, the owner of the estate. He made an agreement with the Archbishop of York by which the Church of England continued to own the building, but he became responsible for its maintenance, gaining the right to use it as a family chapel. It is still Church property. The chapel is now entered from the south side. To the left of the entrance, against the west wall, is a stone basin, raised on a pillar. It is thought either to have been a stoup for holy water or a piscina for washing communion vessels. The water-leaf which is carved on the capital, or headstone of the pillar is similar to those which frame the north door and the stoop is probably of about the same date, late twelfth or early thirteenth century. The font in the north-west corner of the building, on the other hand, is a plaster copy, probably taken from a medieval example which the Gascoigne family saw on their foreign travels. Behind it is a flag, which flew from Lotherton Hall when it was used as a military hospital during the First World War. The reredos or altar back-drop, on the north wall, is thought to be north Italian or south German, late seventeenth century. This, too, was collected by the Gascoignes from abroad. The central figure of St George is a modern replacement. He stands flanked by two martyr saints. Interior of the chapel, looking east 7
Colonel FRTT Gascoigne with his grandson Douglas Wilder Gascoigne on the steps of the terrace at Lotherton, late 1930 s. Private collection To the right of the reredos is a simple slate tablet to Lady Gascoigne, who died in 1979 and was the last member of the family to live at Lotherton Hall. She was the wife of Sir Alvary Gascoigne and together they made the Gascoigne Gift of the house and its contents to the City of Leeds in 1968. Next in sequence on this wall is a memorial to Colonel Gascoigne which is adorned with a second figure of St George. He died in 1937 and the statue commemorates him as a great patriot and devotee of the British Empire. On the opposite, south wall is a wall tablet, in seventeenth century style, to Mrs Laura Gwendolen Gascoigne, the Colonel s wife, who survived her husband by twelve years and died in 1949.A lady of great talent and determination, she herself was the matron of the military hospital. The wall which divides the nave from the chancel is old but not original, though there would certainly have been a wall in this position when the chapel was first built. Against it, on the north side, stands the pulpit. This is early seventeenth century and dates from around the time when King James I ordered that pulpits should be placed in churches for preaching. Its sounding board (acoustic canopy) is somewhat later and looks too grand for the chapel; it may have come from elsewhere. Opposite are a simple lectern and clerk s desk, combined into one piece of furniture. Before the chapel was restored the pulpit stood here too. 8 Lotherton Hall from the air, 1967. Behind the formal gardens are the old kitchen gardens and orchard where the Bird Garden is now
The entrance to the chancel is flanked by memorials to Sir Alvary Gascoigne, who died in 1970 and his only son Douglas Wilder Gascoigne, who was killed in the Second World War. Had Douglas lived, Lotherton might still be a family home; as it is, the line of Gascoignes has died out in Yorkshire after more than seven hundred years. Over the chancel entrance is a rood, the image of Christ on the Cross flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist. It was designed in 1920 by the famous church architect Ninian Comper and erected by Colonel and Mrs Gascoigne as a memorial to the soldiers treated at Lotherton Hospital who were later killed in action. The east window of the chapel has been somewhat enlarged from its original narrow, round-headed shape.the stained glass group of the Virgin and Child is a memorial to Mrs Gascoigne s sister, Evelyne Cunliffe who died in 1928. She is separately commemorated by a stone tablet on the chancel s north wall. During the restoration of 1913 17 some very interesting medieval plasterwork was uncovered in the chancel, including a band of shields above the altar and red lines, imitating the joints of masonry, within the splay of the east window and the north window of the chancel. Medieval churches were nearly always plastered and painted on the inside. The treatment of the window is designed to give the impression that it is made of stone which was expensively cut into regular blocks, rather than the coarse rubble which was actually used. The altar is a seventeenth century German oak chest which Colonel Gascoigne brought from Cuxhaven in 1915.The oak settle on the south side of the chancel is Victorian, but it is designed to look much older and it is partly made up of pieces of genuine earlier work. Above: The east window of the chapel Below: Sir Alvary and Lady Gascoigne, c19?? 9
The Old House & Parkland The Old House from the south 10 The old house now occupies the south-east corner of the stable block. It is not open to visitors but the back of it, with its complicated silhouette, can be seen from the stable courtyard. Its name is apt, for it is by far the oldest domestic building on the estate. Parts of it date back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and even perhaps to the late medieval period (fifteenth century). With its L-shaped plan it looks from the outside like a typical old Yorkshire farmhouse and we know that in the Victorian period it was the Home Farmhouse of the Lotherton estate. Later it became servants accommodation. The Stable Block and Motor Houses The Stable Block was created and developed by Colonel Gascoigne in 1905 06 from the old farm buildings, in order to move the stables from the back of the Hall. The main courtyard had a glass roof which has long been removed. On the west side a second courtyard was created with accommodation for both motor cars and horsedrawn vehicles. In recent times steps have been built to give direct access to this courtyard from the car park, but originally the only entrance was via the stable court, through the arch beside the café.
Red deer in the park The Park, Deer Park and Carriage Drive The Lotherton estate is entered from the Towton Road, through a sweep of parkland which was probably laid out in the early nineteenth century. The mature beech trees which can be seen on both sides of the drive may date from that time. Some of those in the deer park, on the south side, are nearing the end of their lives and breaking apart. This is thought to be due to the technique of clump planting, by which a group of saplings are planted together so that they grow into a single trunk. The mature tree develops more quickly that it would have done otherwise, but it also has weaknesses which show in later life. The deer park is quite a recent development, having been created in 1982 83 when a herd of fallow deer was moved over from the Temple Newsam estate, another historic property owned by the City of Leeds. Later they were joined by a herd of red deer and only these remain. The picturesque lodge at the entrance dates from 1908 when Colonel Gascoigne created a new entrance to the park. An old photograph shows a single, wooden entrance gate, far simpler than the present pair of wrought iron ones. Above: The lodge on Towton Road Below: The entrance gates to the gardens 11
The Arrival of the Gascoignes The hall today appears very much bound up with the Gascoigne family (see pages 13 21) but, comparatively speaking, they were new arrivals, having bought the estate only in 1825. The history of the house before that time is complicated and obscure, and we do not know when it was first built.there was a mansion house at Lotherton in 1727 which may have stood on the same site, but no part of the building which is visible now is nearly so old. A fascinating photograph taken c1900, before the house received its last extension, shows a modest late-georgian house facing westwards, towards the chapel, with the central part of the present building attached. This may have been the home of Thomas Maud or Maude, who is named as the owner of the estate on the Jeffery s map. Nothing further is known about him. Lotherton Hall from the west, c1900 About the year 1790 the estate was bought by John Raper, a banker from York. He extended the house eastwards by erecting what is now the central section of the building, which is marked by a semicircular bay window. Raper died in 1824. His son and heir John Lamplugh-Raper had property elsewhere and decided that he did not need Lotherton, so he put it up for sale. 12 Right: The Hall from the south, c1905, showing the gardens newly planted
The Arrival of the Gascoignes The new owner of the estate in 1825 was Richard Oliver Gascoigne. The Gascoignes are a very old family which is believed to have come from Gascony in France, hence the name. It is claimed that they arrived in England in 1067 with the Norman Conquest, although this cannot be proved. By the early 1200s a branch of the family was established at Harewood, to the west of Lotherton. They acquired a curious coat of arms with a fish s head placed vertically on the shield from a story that one of the Gascoignes had saved a girl from drowning in the lake at Gawthorpe, near Harewood village. The lake had pike in it, which is the fish shown. Above: Portrait of Sir John Gascoigne, First Baronet 1637 (detail) Left: The Gascoigne coat of arms showing the pike s head 13
Gascoigne Family Houses The west yorkshire gascoignes had five houses in all. Lotherton is one of the smaller ones; it is by far the most recent and it is the only one to survive. The others can be located on the first Ordnance Survey map of the area which was published in 1849. At Lasingcroft, near Scholes John and Anne Gascoigne were living in the sixteenth century. John died in 1557 and an inventory of the house was compiled on his death.the document lists the rooms which had movable contents and tells us what was in them, but nothing further is known about the house. At Gawthorpe near Harewood, the Gascoignes had a fine house which is shown in this recentlydiscovered drawing. Gawthorpe was demolished in the eighteenth century to make way for the present Harewood House which was built close by, but family tombs survive in Harewood church. Among them is that of Lord Chief Justice Gascoigne who died in 1419. He appears in Shakespeare s play, Henry IV, Part II. Gawthorpe Hall A61 Leeds River Wharfe A659 A58 Parlington Hall Lasingcroft Barnbow Hall Wetherby A64 Lotherton Hall Garforth Parlington Hall Sir John Gascoigne lived at Parlington Hall, about three miles west of Lotherton, on the far side of Aberford village and the Great North Road. The family bought the house in 1545 and kept the estate until 1964. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was their main residence. The house was abandoned in 1905 and most of it was demolished in 1952. A1 Gawthorpe Hall from the south in 1727. Engraving by????. Courtesy The Harewood House Trust 14