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.

The site was occupied by a William Markham, private secretary to Warren Hastings, in 1783.

For many years through the 20th century the property was owned by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). 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, England and Wales' entire electricity transmission network could be controlled from a single control room anywhere in the country. Later in its use as a control centre, it performed as one of the control centres for the Dinorwig hydroelectric storage facility in North Wales.

More recently the Hall has been used for social functions, and in September 2004 planning permission to develop the building for use as a training centre was refused on the grounds that the development would not be sustainable and 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 2km due-west from the A1 and over 6km 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.

External links

* [http://www.leedscivictrust.org.uk/archive.htm Local Government site declaring planning permission refused for development of the site]
* [http://www.clivedencampaign.org/planning/appeals/ Appeal against refusal for planning permission]
* [http://miskai.gamta.lt/vilnius/info/subsites/aber1.html Pollution monitoring at Becca Hall]
* [http://freespace.virgin.net/j.markham/family/docpages/document/d0000/g0000060.html Genealogy for William Markham, former occupant of Becca Hall]