Walton, Leeds

Walton
Walton
	; St Peter's Church, Walton
	Walton Location within West Yorkshire
Population	225 (2001 census)
Civil parish	Walton;
Metropolitan borough	Leeds ;
Metropolitan county	West Yorkshire ;
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber ;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
	List of places UK England Yorkshire Coordinates: 53°55′26″N1°19′36″W / 53.92389°N 1.32667°W

Last updated April 13, 2022

Walton is a village and civil parish 2 miles (3 km) east of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England. It is adjacent to Thorp Arch village and Thorp Arch Trading Estate. The village is in the LS23 Leeds postcode area, post town WETHERBY. The nearest locally important town is Wetherby, with Tadcaster and the large village of Boston Spa nearby. Walton has a population of 225.^[1] increasing slightly to 225 at the 2011 Census.^[2]

The name Walton comes from settlement/farmstead of Wealas - native Celts which is what the new Anglo Saxon speaking peoples called the native inhabitants of England. There is strong evidence that in many areas of England taken over by Germanic speaking settlers, the native British (Wealas) remained undisturbed, farming the same land they did when the Romans left. Over time they just adopted or forgot their Celtic tongue (similar to Old Welsh/Cornish) for the language and culture of the newcomers in order to climb the social ladder or were coerced to do so. It was in the Anglo Saxon interest that the native British carry on as usual to ensure the economy produced food and goods for the new landowners.

For a while in the 1990s there was a plan to develop Walton into a New Town. Although this plan was never put into practice, the plan could still be brought back onto the table due to the land being still available and the communications in the area being even better.^{[ citation needed ]}

The village has one public house, The Fox and Hound. This suffered a fire recently. The village is overlooked by the eight-storey buildings of the British Library on the Thorp Arch Trading estate. The trading estate was a former Royal Ordnance Factory, Thorp Arch, and it houses the local corporation (Leeds City Council) recycling centre, the British Library Boston Spa, George Moores furniture factory, a sewage works and retailing park (containing Empire Direct, DFS, The Sofa Company, The Greenery Garden Centre and many other retailers). The retail park once housed a Miller Brothers before the company liquidated and a Texas Homecare.

There are now speed cameras on the Walton Road, between Wetherby and Walton (the only ones in the area).^{[ citation needed ]} The village also has a small church. Not being on a main road or itself having any notable features, Walton is little known outside of the Wetherby area of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough.^{[ citation needed ]}

Walton was once on the Harrogate to Church Fenton Railway Line, until it was dismantled under the Beeching Axe in the 1960s. The village itself never had a railway station, the nearest being in Thorp Arch. The village is both commutable for the cities of Leeds and York.^{[ clarification needed ]}

Folklore

The village was once famous for its 'rag well', the water of which was said to cure eye ailments. This name arose from the custom of tying strips of cloth ('rags') as momentoes to the tree by the well.

Swift Nicks, a notorious highwayman is said to have fallen asleep one day by the well and was surprised by a group of local men who had come to arrest him. He escaped by pointing a 'burrtree gun', or stick, at them. Thinking that it was a real gun, their courage deserted them and they ran off like frightened cattle. Since then, it seems that local men are often referred to as "Walton calves".^[3]

Location grid

Related Research Articles

Boston Spa is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Situated 3 miles (5 km) south of Wetherby, Boston Spa is on the south bank of the River Wharfe which separates it from Thorp Arch. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 4,006 rising to 4,079 in the 2011 census.

Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England, close to the county's border with North Yorkshire and lies approximately 12 miles from Leeds City Centre, 12 mi (19 km) from York and 8 mi (13 km) from Harrogate. The town stands on the River Wharfe, and for centuries has been a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road midway between London and Edinburgh.

Ledsham is a village and civil parish 4 miles (6 km) north of Castleford and 11 miles (18 km) east of Leeds in the county of West Yorkshire, England. The village is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough and near to the A1 Great North Road. It has a population of 162, increasing to 181 at the 2011 Census.

Linton is a village 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-west of Wetherby in West Yorkshire, England, in the parish of Collingham and the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. At the 2011 Census the village fell within the Harewood ward of the City of Leeds Council. It lies between Wetherby and Sicklinghall, on the north bank of the River Wharfe, opposite Collingham on the south bank.

Barwick-in-Elmet is a village in West Yorkshire, 7 miles (11 km) east of Leeds city centre. It is one of only three places in the area to be explicitly associated with the ancient Romano-British kingdom of Elmet, the others being Scholes-in-Elmet and Sherburn-in-Elmet.

Walton or Walton d'Eiville is a small hamlet just south of Wellesbourne in the civil parish of Wellesbourne and Walton, in the Stratford-on-Avon District, in the county of Warwickshire, England. It is next to the River Dene and is most notable for Walton Hall which is now a hotel and spa. It is home to the Hamiltons who own the land and many of the villages houses. The village comprises 15 cottages, plus the old estate office, forge, school house, farm, and the old laundry. There has been some kind of settlement at Walton, on the little river Dene, between the Fosse Way and Wellesbourne, since the Iron Age times. The field to the south of the House, the site of the deserted village of Walton d 'Eivile, is still known as the Old Town.

Walton is a settlement and former civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, lying between the rivers Orwell and Deben. It is now part of Felixstowe parish. In 1911 the parish had a population of 4226.

Bramham is a village in the civil parish of Bramham cum Oglethorpe in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England.

Wetherby was a rural district in the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1894 to 1974. It was named after the town of Wetherby.

Spofforth is a village in the civil parish of Spofforth with Stockeld in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England, about 3 miles (4.8 km) north west of Wetherby and 5 miles (8 km) south of Harrogate on the River Crimple, a tributary of the River Nidd.

Loidis, from which Leeds derives its name, was anciently a forested area of the Celtic kingdom of Elmet. The settlement certainly existed at the time of the Norman conquest of England and in 1086 was a thriving manor under the overlordship of Ilbert de Lacy. It gained its first charter from Maurice de Gant in 1207 yet only grew slowly throughout the medieval and Tudor periods. The town had become part of the Duchy of Lancaster and reverted to the crown in the medieval period, so was a Royalist stronghold at the start of the English Civil War.

Collingham is a village and civil parish 2 miles (3 km) south-west of Wetherby in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 2,991.

Walton is a village and civil parish in Warrington, Cheshire, England.

Walton is a village and civil parish, on the Polden Hills, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Street in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Asney.

Thorp Arch Trading Estate is a trading estate, with both industrial and retail space, 3 miles (5 km) south-east of Wetherby in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. The estate occupies the major part of the site of a former Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF), ROF Thorp Arch, in the parishes of Thorp Arch and Walton. There is evidence of its former use around the site which was similar in layout to the former ROF Aycliffe in Darlington, County Durham.

Thorp Arch is a village and civil parish near Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough.

Boston Spa Academy is a coeducational secondary school for pupils aged 11–19 years old on Clifford Moor Road in Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England. It is larger than other secondary schools in the area, with 1500 students on roll, including 350 in the sixth form. Boston Spa and neighbouring Wetherby High School have large catchment areas and take pupils from much of north and east Leeds.Over recent years, the proportion of pupils attending Boston Spa Academy from the local areas has significantly increased as the reputation of the school has improved following on from significant improvements in performance. In 2019, Boston Spa was placed in the top 5% of schools nationally and for sixth form was in the highest 250 performing providers in the country.

The recorded history of Wetherby, a market town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England, began in the 12th and 13th centuries when the Knights Templar and later the Knights Hospitallers were granted land and properties in Yorkshire. The preceptory founded in 1217 was at Ribston Park. In 1240 the Knights Templar were granted by Royal Charter of Henry III the right to hold a market in Wetherby. The charter stated the market should be held on Thursdays and an annual fair was permitted lasting three days over the day of St James the Apostle.

Thorp Arch railway station was a station in the parish of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, on the Harrogate–Church Fenton line. It opened on 10 August 1847 and served nearby Thorp Arch as well as Boston Spa. The station closed to passengers on 6 January 1964 and completely on 10 August 1964.

Wetherby is an electoral ward of Leeds City Council in north east Leeds, West Yorkshire, covering the town of Wetherby and villages including Boston Spa, Bramham and Thorp Arch.

References

↑ Office for National Statistics : Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : Leeds Archived 19 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 10 September 2009
↑ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
↑ Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain, Russell Ash and others, The Reader's Digest Association Ltd., 1973.

External links

Media related to Walton, Leeds at Wikimedia Commons

The ancient parish of Walton : historical and genealogical information at GENUKI .

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Office for National Statistics : Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : Leeds Archived 19 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 10 September 2009

[2] "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 1 March 2016.

[3] Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain, Russell Ash and others, The Reader's Digest Association Ltd., 1973.

[1]

[2]

[3]