Place:Rawdon, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Rawdon is now a civil parish and a village in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It sits on the River Aire and on the A65 road south of Yeadon.

Rawdon was an urban district until 1937 when it was merged with other local places (Guiseley, Hawksworth in Guiseley, Yeadon) to become Aireborough Urban District. Historically, it was located in the ecclesiastical parish of Guiseley in the Skyrack Wapentake.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Rawdon. Wikipedia expands considerably on the details given above.

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).

"RAWDEN, or Rawdon, a village and a township-chapelry, in Guiseley parish, [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands on an acclivity, on the N side of the river Aire, near Apperley [railway] station, and 6 miles N E by N of Bradford; has a post-office under Leeds; and gives the title of Baron to the Marquis of Hastings.

"The chapelry comprises 1,535 acres. Real property: £7,167. Population: 2,576. Houses, 495. [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. Low Royd, Westfield House, Knotfield House, Benton Park, Woodlawn, Cragwood, Acacia, and Summerhill are chief residences. Cloth manufactureis carried on.

"The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ripon. Value: £140. Patron: Sir R. Jephson, Bart. The church was restored in 1864. A mission church is at Rawden. There are chapels for Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists. There are also a Baptist theological college, built in 1859, at a cost of about £10,000; a Quakers' training school, for 30 children of either sex; a Wesleyan school for the sons of ministers, with accommodation for about 150; a middle class school for sons of the professional and mercantile classes; national schools for boys, girls, and infants; a Church institute, a mechanics' institute, a working men's club, and charities £15."

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Rawdon. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Guiseley provides a list of useful resources for the local area.