Rawden or Rawdon, West Riding of Yorkshire
Historical Description
Rawden or Rawdon, a village and a township-chapelry in Guiseley parish, W.R. Yorkshire. The village stands on an acclivity, on the N side of the river Aire, near Apperley Bridge railway station, and 6 miles NE by N of Bradford. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Leeds, and gives the title of Baron to the Marquis of Hastings. The township was formed into a local government district in 1879, and is governed by an urban district council. It comprises 1559 acres; population, 3077. Rawdon Hall was the seat of the Earls of Moira, and is now a farmhouse. Layton Hall was the seat of the Laytons, and has been converted into working-men's dwellings. There are a considerable number of handsome residences overlooking the valley of the Aire. Woollen and cloth manufacture is carried on, and there are stone quarries. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Ripon; net value, £141 with residence. The church was rebuilt in 1864, and the organ was enlarged and repaired about 1881; the building consists of chancel, nave, S aisle, and tower, and contains several stained windows and an ancient font. There are Congregational, Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels, and a meetinghouse for the Society of Friends. There are also a Baptist Theological College, built in 1859 at a cost of about £10,000, a Quakers' training school for forty boys and thirty girls, a Liberal club, a Mechanics' institute, a Wesleyan school at Woodhouse Grove for sons of ministers, and a convalescent home belonging to the Bradford Infirmary, erected in 1876 by Sir H. W. Ripley, Bart., at a cost of £20,000, on high ground commanding fine views.
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for the West Riding of Yorkshire is available to browse.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following West Riding newspapers online: