Becca Hall
Becca Hall is a country residence situated in Aberford, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England at OS grid reference Lat.53:50:35N Lon.1:22:08W. It is situated on Becca Lane within the old Gascoigne estate. The house is a Grade II listed building.
History
The house was built in 1783 for William Markham, the son of William Markham, Archbishop of York and the private secretary to Warren Hastings. It descended in the Markham family for several generations until it was sold in 1894 by Ronald Markham to Arthur Thomas Schreiber, who lived there until his death in 1902. His widow remained at the hall until her own death in 1907, when it was sold to a Bradford wool magnate Frederick James Lund, who lived there until 1922, after which it was sold to the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). [1]
Following the privatisation of the UK electricity industry in 1989, ownership of the property passed to the National Grid Company. It was used to house the Leeds Grid Control Centre for the UK's electricity transmission network from 1958 until its operational closure in 1997. Advances in communications technology (including remote substation operation) during this period reduced the requirement for regional control centres. By the time of its operational closure in 1997, the entire electricity transmission network in England and Wales could be controlled from a single control room anywhere in the country. Later used as a control centre, it performed as one of the control centres for the Dinorwig hydroelectric storage facility in North Wales.
More recently, it has been used for social functions. In September 2004, planning permission to develop the building for use as a training centre was refused on the grounds that the development would be unsustainable and would affect local use of the area due to parking requirements.
During 2000, Becca Hall was used to measure background levels of air pollution. The site's rural nature places it 1.2 miles (2 km) due west from the A1 and over 3.5 miles (6 km) due east from the edge of the Leeds urban boundary, and so was ideal for that purpose. The only pollutant recorded was ground-level ozone, compared to levels of SO2, NO2, and PM10s at a site next to the A1.
Becca Hall is now privately owned.
References
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External links
- Local Government site declaring planning permission refused for development of the site
- Appeal against refusal for planning permission
- Pollution monitoring at Becca Hall
- Genealogy for William Markham, former occupant of Becca Hall
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