Walton, Leeds
Walton | ||
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Metropolitan county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Walton is a village and
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
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
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
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
See also
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.