Hall since becoming a museum in 1968. The Hall is licensed to hold wedding and civil partnership ceremonies The Gascoignes and Lotherton Hall Lotherton Hall first came into the possession of the Gascoigne family when it was purchased in 1825 by Richard Oliver Gascoigne. He would have assumed he had secured a male heir, as he had raised two adult sons, one of which he expected to inherit. However in 1842 both of Richard Oliver Gascoigne's sons passed away leaving the Gascoigne estate to be inherited by his daughters. They inherited the following year in 1843, when Richard Oliver Gascoigne died. The sisters divided the Yorkshire estates between them, Mary Isabella took Parlington Hall, whilst Elizabeth took Lotherton Hall. During Elizabeth Gascoigne's ownership, she and her husband Fredrick Mason Trench, the 2nd Baron of Ashtown, who she married in 1852, mostly let Lotherton to tenants, preferring Castle Oliver in Ireland, along with Woodlawn, Lord Ashtown's own family residence in County Galway, Ireland. Lord and Lady Ashtown did however seem to use Lotherton as their Yorkshire seat for a time in the 1850s. On Elizabeth's death in 1893, Lotherton was inherited by her nephew, Colonel Fredrick Richard Thomas Trench Gascoigne who was a noted soldier and traveller. Census returns during the period that Lotherton Hall was let (1842–93) show that Elizabeth and Mary Isabella Gascoigne’s cousin, R.S. (Richard Silver) Oliver (1812–89), grandson of the Rt. Hon. Silver Oliver (1736–98) and son of Robert Oliver (c.1774–1834), was living at Lotherton Hall as head of household in 1851. The widowed Ann Hornby was head of household at the 1861 census. Richard F. Shawe, recorded as living ‘from investment’, was head of household at the 1871 census, with Shawe’s widow, Anna Shawe, a ‘landed proprietor’, being head of household in 1881. Lotherton Hall was unoccupied at the 1891 census. Colonel Gascoigne's wife, Gwendolen, was the daughter of noted engineer Sir Douglas Galton, and also the second cousin and god daughter to Florence Nightingale. Colonel Gascoigne preferred Lotherton Hall to his family home of Parlington, moving many of the furnishings from Parlington to Lotherton. Parlington was later demolished in 1950s. Between 1896 and 1931 the Gascoignes remodeled Lotherton to accommodate their growing family, adding a new dining room, entrance hall, drawing room and servant's wing. In addition to this Mrs Gascoigne designed and built the Edwardian style gardens along the south front. Colonel and Mrs