Editing Walton Hall, West Yorkshire (section)

== Early history ==
Walton Hall, and a residence at [[Cawthorne]], were home to the Anglo-Saxon chieftain Ailric, who is mentioned in the [[Domesday Book]] and was the King's Thane for [[South Yorkshire]]. When the [[Norman people|Normans]] came to Yorkshire, Ailric was at Walton and was alerted by a man on horseback that they were coming in force. He amassed his retainers and on horseback they ambushed the mounted Norman knights of [[de Laci|Ilbert de Laci]], who were moving on the road from Tanshelf to Wakefield. The better armoured and armed knights of Ilbert de Laci resisted the attack. For two to three years Ailric maintained a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla war]] out of his estates in the west of South Yorkshire, until de Laci was forced to come to an accommodation with him, whereby Ailric would communicate with the local people and de Laci would return many of his former estates, including Walton Hall.{{cn|date=August 2023}}

A descendant of this family, Sara le Neville, married Thomas De Burgh, the Steward of the Countess of Brittany, Duchess of Richmond. Walton Hall was one of six manors, including the manors at [[Silkstone]] and Cawthorne and the De Burgh manors in [[North Yorkshire]], that she lived at through the year. In 1333, Sir Philip de Burgh was granted a [[licence to crenellate]] his manor house at Walton.

The Waterton family acquired the Cawthorne estates and those at Walton including Walton Hall, with the marriage in 1435 of Constance Asshenhull, the heiress of the De Burgh family, to Richard Waterton.<ref name=":0" />

In the time of Sir Robert Waterton, who served [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], the hall came to the water's edge and was three storeys high. Sir Robert Waterton's father-in-law was Sir Richard Tempest, who was with Henry VIII at the [[Field of the Cloth of Gold]]. His father-in-law was Steward of the King's manor of Wakefield and involved in the Tempest–Saville feud. The only part of the old buildings that remain is the old watergate, which is said to be part of an earlier 14th-century structure. At that time it was the only entrance across a drawbridge. The old oak hall referred to by Charles Waterton was on the second storey and was in an L shape.{{cn|date=August 2023}}

The entrance hall at Walton Hall has armorial shields on the walls representing the ancestors of the Waterton family. The Waterton family intermarried with other prominent Yorkshire families of the medieval age, including the [[Percy family|Percys]], the Barnbys, the Wentworths, the [[Hildyard baronets|Hildyards]] and others.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.barnby.info/Places/Britain/BarnbyHall.html|title=Barnby Hall, Cawthorne, Yorkshire, barnby.info|accessdate=14 February 2021}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=199-spst_1&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18#-1 Spencer Stanhope Muniments, Sheffield Archives, The National Archives]{{dl|date=August 2024}}</ref>
[[File:Charles_Waterton_by_Charles_Wilson_Peale,_1824,_National_Gallery,_London.JPG|thumb|276x276px|[[Charles Waterton]] by [[Charles Willson Peale|Charles Wilson Peale]], 1824, [[National Gallery]], London]]