2009 July | Mark Lawton's Generalist's Repository

Hi there all Lawton’s, and interested folks…

This is a new blog about the Lawtonname, coat of arms, some links, history, and a recent visit to Alsager, near Stoke-Upon-Trent, UK, to have a look at the remaining history and roots of the Lawton Name.

If you click on the links, please use the back button to return back here, or open the links in a new window by using the right button click on the link with this, and then select “open in a new window”, left clicking on this, and the link will open in a new window.

The photographs below will enlarge if you click on them, or you can open them in a new window; they are fairly big, and good quality pictures, so I hope that you enjoy them.

We visited the Lawton Hall grounds, with its beautiful lake, and restored historic house, now converted into flats.

I will now pictorially and with some dialogue describe our special day out, with my wife Teresa.

Firstly, I found out the name has a coat of arms, and really beautiful to look at too…

Quoting below…

“The legend of the Lawton family dates back to around the year 1200, when King John was separated from his companions while hunting.

The story is that his horse reared and threw him when it was confronted by a great wolf, the man who helped him gave his name as “Adam De Lauton”, and for saving his life the king granted him all the land that he could walk over in a week. Taking the bleeding wolf as his starting point the king told him “the head of the wolf shall be thy crest,thy deed will go down in history”.”

The Lawton name is also said to mean “a place on a hill”, and the shield and helmet seem the same on the coat of arms, but the surroundings do vary.

The version I am most familiar with is pictured here above.

On to the visit to the Lawton Hall grounds in Alsager…

It was a nice day, and when we approached we noticed that the grounds had been taken over by a housing company; phew!

The hall was saved, and beautifully refurbished.

I’ll now show a series of pictures in and around the estate…

By all means have a look at the links; but below are the actual pictures I have taken of the estate, and some of the flats before they were sold. They were not cheap to buy by any means; but the atmosphere and community were bound to be good I would think, once they were occupied later on by the right people willing to pay the extra for outstanding quality living.

We signed the visitors book, this had to be done, especially as our surname is Lawton.

There are quite a few pictures, so I’ll show them below, after the hall pictures we go onto the pub named after part of the shield “The Bleeding Wolf”, the Robinson’s ales served there were great, and it seemed a lively pub, with an old style traditional interior decor, with character…

After the hall we move onto the pub, which was really nice, and we had a great meal there. It is called “The Bleeding Wolf” which is named after the wolf featured on the Lawton family coat of arms.

Notice the thatched roof, and how old the pub is…