Although the Fawkes family had lived in Farnley since the 13th century, it was not until Walter Fawkes (né Hawksworth) inherited the estate in 1786 that the designed landscape we see today started to be put in place. Walter died four years later and his son, Walter junior, continued the major remodelling over the next twenty years. Walter was a patron and friend of the artist, JMW Turner, who documented the transformed landscape in a series of paintings that Fawkes proudly carried with him to London to show off his estate. Walter’s descendants have continued to maintain the designed landscape, so it still provides a suitable setting for the Grade I listed Farnley Hall.
Farnley had been part of the archbishop of York’s large estate and in the early 13th century, Fulk de Wakefield acquired half of the tenancy of the lordship or manor there. His descendants, the Fawkes family, maintained this landowning throughout the medieval period but by the late 16th century had started to acquire further land in Farnley. It was probably at this point that the older part of Farnley Hall was built. However it was not until Thomas Fawkes acquired the other half of the manor and further land there in 1686 that the grounds around the hall could be developed.
Throughout the 18th century, the Fawkes family continued to acquire neighbouring estates through purchase and marriage. The estates that Walter Hawksworth inherited from his distant relative, Francis Fawkes, along with his own, therefore gave him and his son substantial funds to carry out their plans for the hall and the landscape. This included creating a large park of over 270 acres to the south of the hall with two entrances from the east and west, a new kitchen garden covering 2.5 acres and a 16 acre lake encircled by plantations to the northeast. Walter’s son, Francis, expanded the park mainly to the east by 1848, almost doubling it in size to 500 acres. His nephew, Ayscough, made further changes in the 1870s, most notably moving the carriageways north of the hall. Although there was some tree felling and digging in the park to due army camps in the grounds in WW1 and WW2, today’s designed landscape remains largely unchanged.