Ledston

Ledston is a village and civil parish 3 miles (5 km) north of Castleford and 10 miles (16 km) east of Leeds in the county of West Yorkshire, England.[2] The village is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. It had a population of 400 in 2001,[3] which decreased slightly to 394 at the 2011 Census.[1]

Ledston

Main Street, Ledston
Ledston
Ledston
Location within West Yorkshire
Population394 (2011 census)[1]
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCASTLEFORD
Postcode districtWF10
Dialling code01977
PoliceWest Yorkshire
FireWest Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire

Ledston is first mentioned in 1086, and on through the Middle Ages, in forms like Ledestun(e), Ledestona.[4] The name seems to refer to Leeds (or the Old English precursor of this name, Loidis, which denoted a region rather than a town), meaning the tūn ('settlement, estate') belonging to Leeds.[5]

Mary Pannal of Ledston was executed in 1603 as an accused witch.

Ledston Hall
Ledston Hall

Ledston or Ledstone Hall[6] was the home of Lady Elizabeth Hastings, daughter of the 7th Earl of Huntingdon, known as "Lady Betty". The hall was originally a grange and chapel built by the monks of Pontefract Priory. It is a grade I listed building, and several associated buildings and garden features are also listed.[7]

Ledston Hall featured in the television show Most Haunted:Live on 27 October 2007, but was called "Wheler Priory" for security reasons at the time (Wheler being the surname of the last family owning the hall).[8]

Ledston is also home to the Ledston Equine Centre located in the stables of Ledston Hall.[9]

Ledston lies to the east of the A656 road,[2] and there was a railway station named after the village on the Castleford to Garforth line, though this station was actually adjacent to Allerton Bywater Colliery. The village also had a colliery named after it, Ledston Luck, which was connected to the railway via a narrow gauge railway line up to Peckfield Colliery in Micklefield.[10] The colliery, like the railway station, was some distance away from the village from which it took its name, being actually only 0.6 miles (1 km) east of Kippax.[2] Ledston Luck Colliery closed in 1986[11] and the site is now a local nature reserve.[12]

White Horse Inn

The White Horse Inn is a 15th-century public house.[13] It was 2019 regional winner of North East Pubs in Bloom, and supports various local activities such as the Ledston Bloomers and a village scarecrow competition.

References
  1. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Ledston Parish (E04000201)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  2. "289" (Map). Leeds. 1:25,000. Explorer. Ordnance Survey. 2015. ISBN 9780319244869.
  3. Office for National Statistics : Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : Leeds Retrieved 7 May 2017
  4. Ekwall, Eilert (1960). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names (4 ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 293. ISBN 0-19-869103-3.
  5. Watts, Victor; Insley, John; Gelling, Margaret (2004). The Cambridge dictionary of English place-names : based on the collections of the English Place-Name Society (2 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 366. ISBN 9780521362092.
  6. orthwick Catalogue record as an example showing use of older spelling.
  7. Historic England. "Ledston Hall  (Grade I) (1237569)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  8. "Watch Most Haunted Live Season 6 Full Episodes". OVGuide. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  9. "Ledstone Equine Centre". ledstonequinecentre.co.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  10. "SE43 (includes Leeds" (Map). SE43. 1:25,000. Ordnance Survey. 1954.
  11. "Pit closures, year by year". BBC News. 5 March 2004. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  12. "Ledston Luck Yorkshire Wildlife Trust | Love Yorkshire, Love Wildlife". www.ywt.org.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  13. "Home page". White Horse. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.