Layton Hall

Earlier occupants were the Rawden family, Anne Rawden married Stephen Paslewe of Riddlesden, according to James Palliser in his “Rawdon and it’s History.” Stephen committed suicide at the Hall and a room was subsequently named the Paslewe Parlour.

A family named Oglethorpe were in residence next, then the Hall was sold to the Laytons in 1630.
Before the outbreak of the English Civil War, Francis Layton was Yeoman of the Jewel House to King Charles I, and an unpopular lord of the manor. A combination of his unpopularity and the presence of a number of religious dissenters in the area meant that there was strong support for the Parliamentarian cause locally.
On 23 January 1643, Sir Thomas Fairfax led a Parliamentarian army, up Over lane and along Town Street through Rawdon, 1,000 musketeers and 2,000 clubmen led by Thomas Fairfax with Sir Henry Fowles in command of six troops of horse and three companies of dragoons on his way to dislodge a Royalist garrison from Leeds. Locals came out to cheer Fairfax’s men but they left Layton Hall unmolested as they hurried on towards Leeds.

From 1625 there were two distinct landowning families in Rawdon; the Laytons, strongly Anglican and Royalist, and the Rawdons, sympathetic to dissent.

The name Layton will be familiar to modern-day Rawdon residents: Layton Hall still stands, albeit divided into separate homes, and the name Layton is remembered in the names of several streets nearby.