Place:Lofthouse with Carlton, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Lofthouse is a village between the cities of Wakefield and Leeds, both now in West Yorkshire, England. The village falls within the Ardsley and Robin Hood ward of the City of Leeds Council. It is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough but with a Wakefield postal address. It is mentioned as Locthuse, also as Loftose in the 1086 Domesday Book.

Lofthouse has good road connections to its nearby boroughs as well as to the rest of Northern England. It can be found on the main A61 Leeds-Wakefield road and off the junction between the M62 motorway and the M1 motorway, known locally as the "Lofthouse interchange". Lofthouse Gate and Outwood are neighbouring villages on the A61 towards Wakefield and are in the Wakefield Metropolitan Area. Towards Leeds there is the village of Robin Hood.

There are two churches, Christ Church (Church of England) and Lofthouse Methodist Church.

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portmouth Department of Geography).

"LOFTHOUSE, a village, a township, and a chapelry in Rothwell parish, [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands 1 mile E of the Leeds and Wakefield railway, and 3 N of Wakefield; and has a station, jointly with Outwood, on the railway, and a post office under Wakefield.

"The township contains also the hamlets of Ouzlewell-Green and Robin-Hood. Acres: 1,088. Rated property: £2,443. Population: 2,028. The property is divided among a few. The manor, with Lofthouse House, beLongs to J. Charlesworth, Esq. Lofthouse Hall is the seat of P. Ramskill, Esq.

"Stone is quarried at Robin-Hood and Lee-Moor. Large quantities of vegetables are sent to the markets of the neighbouring towns. Cordage and twine are spun.

"The chapelry contains also the township of Carlton, and is sometimes called Lofthouse with-Carlton. Acres: 1,916. Rated property: £4,351. Population: 2,099. Carlton was the seat of a family called Hunts, who took their name from their addictment to the chase; and it has soap-works and cordage-makers. The living is a [perpetual] curacy in the diocese of Ripon. Value: £120. Patron: the Vicar of Rothwell. The church was built in 1840; is a plain structure, in the early English style; and consists of nave and chancel, with bellturret. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a national school in Lofthouse, and a Wesleyan chapel and a Primitive Methodist chapel in Carlton."

Research tips

• British History Online (Victoria County Histories) do not cover the West Riding of Yorkshire
• GENUKI has a page on all three ridings of Yorkshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. The list is based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and there may have been a number of alterations to the parish setup since then. However, it is worthwhile information for the pre civil registration era. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and the submitter is very firm about his copyright. This should not stop anyone from reading the material.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Yorkshire West Riding, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.

• Map of the West Riding divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of West Riding divisions in 1917 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. In other counties, the map for 1900 has been used, but it is not coming up in Vision of Britain's list.
• Map of West Riding divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time

• The above three maps indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.
• Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire, England page.
• In March 2018 Ancestry announced that its file entitled "Yorkshire, England: Church of England Parish Records, 1538-1873" has been expanded to include another 94 parishes (across the three ridings) and expected it to be expanded further during the year. The entries are taken from previously printed parish registers.