Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:
Q1. Pocklington
Q2. Carlton Towers
The initial clues seem to place us in the town of P[o][c]klington, in one of the Eastender's favourite parts of the big British island, namely the East Riding of Yorkshire. An anti slavery campaigner, who was born c 1759, is probably William Wilberforce. According to some of his biographies, he was educated at Hull Grammar School, Mr Chalmer's school in Putney (London) and c 1771 to 1776, he was a boarder at Pocklington school. Pocklington canal, from some of the sources I checked, appears to have opened for business c 1818 and joins the river Derwent, to the south west of the settlement.
The garden with over one hundred varieties of Water Lily is known variously as 'Stewart's Burnby Hall Gardens & Museum' or 'Bu[r]nby Hall Gardens' and it looks like a good ol' Norman boy called Henry I was the king who was born in Se[l]by c 1068.
This is where things now become a little tricky, for the abbey at Selby has two 14th century windows and a twentieth century window with some glass that originates from the medieval period. The windows listed on the abbey's web page are: 'The Je[s]se [W]indow' (c 14th Century), 'The Washington Window' (14th century glass but thought to have been constructed c 15th century and is a depiction of the coat of arms of the family of the first president of the United States of America, George Washington) and the 'St Germain' window which was trashed by 'ooligans during the commonwealth period, when a temporary republic was declared by the Roundheads. This window contains some of the original glass from the medieval period but a lot of it is newer as it was rebuilt later (c 20th century) by a Miss Standering, so the one which is the best fit for the given clues, is the Jesse Window.
A two hundred and fifteen mile long path which passes through Selby, is probably the [T]rans Pennine Trail and a village (not a town) where a battle was fought c 1645 to the west of Selby is most likely 'Sh[e]rbur[n] in Elmet', which again looks like a fraicas involving both cavalry and infantry, which occurred during the English civil war, an encounter in which the Parliamentarians were only just victorious.
South South East from Sherburn In Elmet, would bring us to the town of 'Kn[o][t]tingly' (which fits with the tangle hint) where the Aire and Calder navigation seems also to be named the 'Knottingly & Goole canal'.
James Bond's enemy in this case is not Blofeld, Largo, Goldfinger or Scaramanga but the malevolent eugenecist Hugo Drax ( as played by Michael Lonsdale) in the film Moonraker (c 1979). The 'D[r][a]x' power station (opened c 1974) lies around six miles or so north east of where the canal has two names on the OS map. Now assembling the clues and trying to match them to a Gothic stately home which originates to c 1614, gives:
1. P[o][c]klington O C
2. Bu[r]nby Hall R
3. Se[l]by L
4. Je[s]se [W]indow S W
5. [T]rans Pennine Trail T
6. Sh[e]rbur[n] in Elmet E N
7. Kn[o][t]ingly O T
8. D[r][a]x R A
A stately home which lies around a mile or so south of the Drax power station and which fits the description of Gothic dating back to c 1614, is 'Carlton Towers' and the letters extracted from the clues, when re-arranged, fit with the name of this house.
N.B Due to the number of people who normally write poison pen letters in green ink posting on his page, the Eastender has moved to moderated comments but rest assured, if you have a non abusive comment or quip relating to the puzzle and its solution, he will endeavour to publish it.
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