Martha Hatfield (or Hatfeild - there seems to be some dispute about the spelling) daughter of wealthy landowner Anthony Hatfield fell into a coma. Whilst in this state she was said to have
uttered "many glorious truths concerning Christ, faith and other subjects"
. Since this was 1654 and Martha was only 11 years old, word soon spread and many visitors came to hear
Martha's pronouncements. Remember that this was the period after the English Civil War and fundamental Christianity, not to mention gullibility, was widespread. Martha recovered a year later and
remembered nothing of what she had said.
The body of John Cooper was found in Hooton Lane in 1864. A year later the last man publicly hanged at Armley Jail in Leeds was a man named Sargison who was convicted of Cooper's murder but swore his innocence to the last.
On the night of the great Sheffield Blitz two German bombs landed near the centre of Laughton Village. They did not explode and whilst the bomb disposal team were considering what to do with them, a local farmer dragged them away from the village with his tractor. The following day Lord Haw Haw announced that the village of "Lafton" had been destroyed, lucky wasn't it that nobody had told the villagers of 'Lawton' who were still all there.
This information and these stories have been collected by local historian Roy Newman.