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The First Village Of Colton
Evidence for settlement at Colton stretches back over two thousand years.
But eventually a significant sized farming hamlet was established by the Anglo-Saxon family of Colla and named Collastun, Colla's farmstead, at that time.
In the Domesday Book of 1085 Colton (DB Latin-Coletun) is described as being 'waste', but it is also listed as having a church, meaning that the area must have been important at one time.
This church would have been on the site of the present day St Mary's at Whitkirk.
By the early 12th century the area was acquired by the Knights Templars, as part of their Temple Newsam estate and it would have been re-populated after that time with farm labourers and their families.
The markings of the original village can be found in the grounds of Temple Newsam house and to the east of the present-day village.
A gap in the houses on the western side of the village marks the site of a medieval tenement site and in other areas of the old village site, excavations in 1980s uncovered pottery dated to the 12th and 13th centuries.
There are also well defined areas of ridge and furrow medieval farming systems, bearing out evidence of the agricultural activity that financed the Crusader knights located nearby.
After the disbanding of the Templars at the beginning of the 14th century, Colton was taken over by Lord Darcy who moved the villagers out in order to create a park for his new house at Temple Newsam.
Darcy was to achieve fame (or infamy!) as the leader of the Catholic uprising against Henry VIII, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace.
He was subsequently executed for his part in the rebellion and his house and estates taken over by the Crown once again.
So, although it was later eclipsed by the Temple Newsam House and estate, it is worth noting that it was Colton that was originally the area of prominence, and it was the people of that village who were responsible for putting food on the table, both at the House, and to many a knight in the Holy Land.
* For more information on ELHAS visit www.elhas.org.uk
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