Laughton-en-le-Morthen
Laughton Common
Laughton-en-le-Morthen
Laughton-en-le-Morthen is a delightful village with buildings from the 1400s to the present day. Some of the cottages in Church Lane are said to date back Medieval times, whilst other buildings survive from the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages. Around the area are many small farmsteads typical of the farming community hundreds of years ago. There are two alehouses (one closed). One of the earliest mentions of Laughton is in the will of a Saxon called Wolfric in about 870. The name Laughton is possibly therefore derived from the Saxon for Law Town as evidence suggests that it was a centre of Saxon jurisdiction. It is pronounced Law-ton, though I've hears strangers say Lafton and Lowton. John Speed's map of the West Riding published in 1610 delightfully calls it Leighton in the Mornyng. I've found another meaning in another book as Leac-tun, a herb or vegetable garden. For the meanings of Morthen see the Thurcroft Villages page.
Sadly Laughton does have a downer. Now you expect a village where there are still a number of working farms to have significant farm traffic. Indeed in Laughton there are land rovers and tractors and potato lorries. There is also a lot of traffic, heavy at times, cars and HGVs, which passes through. From where I know not, to where I know not: but it is significant enough to be annoying.
Laughton Schools
Because there was much wealth in Laughton a school was founded here in Elizabethan times. However the weekly fee was one penny which was much too expensive for many of the local families. Another version goes like this. The history of Laughton Endowed School can be traced to 1610 when Edmund Laughton of Throapham and Anthony Eyre gave adjoining plots of land for the construction of a school "for the learning and instruction in learning of the children of the inhabitants of the township and parish of Laughton"
. Further endowments were made by John West, William Beckwith and William Laughton and a house for the schoolmaster was erected 1670. The government of the school was in the hands of a body of local trustees who had the power to levy rates on the inhabitants for the support of the school. In 1820 the Charity Commissioners found that the school was in "ruin and decay"
and the trust deeds had been lost. The trust was re-established but in the mid-19th century it became a Church of England school. The building was extended in 1850 and is still in use a junior school today.
There is another junior school of more modern origin in the village.
Laughton Common
Laughton Common village, a kilometre or so away from the older part of Laughton, has no ancient history but it likely it have been the common land for the villagers. There is a Monks Bridge over one of the many streams (Eel Mires Dike by the look of it) in the area. The monks around here were very busy builders in the Middle Ages so this may indicate that they built a bridge possibly a toll bridge for pack horses way back then. They may well have also drained and diked the local swamp. If you know let me know. Many of Laughton Common's houses are early and mid 20th century workers houses build for the miners at nearby pits such as Dinnington and Thurcroft.