Maltby Area
Hooton Levitt - Maltby - Stone
Maltby is a town and civil parish situated pretty much seven miles due east of Rotherham town centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. It lies on the A631 between Hellaby and Tickhill at the junction with the A634 from Blyth, close to Junction 1 of the M18 motorway. Hooton Levitt is a small hamlet situated to the South of Rotherham Road, and just west of the centre of Maltby. Stone is a hamlet on the road from Maltby to Blyth.
Hooton Levitt
There was a hill fort here in the Dark Ages and the name comes from High town, Hill town or hoo in Saxon times meant house also. The 'Levitt' comes from the family who held the lordship of the manor in the Middle Ages and was added to distinguish this village from others Hootons in South Yorkshire. Prior to 1066 the manor of Hooton had belonged to the Saxon, Buga, and after the Norman Conquest it was granted the Earl of Mortain who retained it and did not let it out. The Domesday Book records that in 1086 in Hoton (or Hotune) there was a mill (worth 28d), 8 villeins and 3 smallholders with 3 ploughs.
In the 12th Century the de Vesci family owned the manor and let it to Richard Fitz Turgis (co-founder of Roche Abbey). Richard's grand-daughter Constance married William de Levet and the name was attached to Hooton to distinguish it from the other Hootons in South Yorkshire. In the reign of Henry V the lords of the manor were the Clifford family, Earls of Cumberland. The third Earl sold Maltby and Hooton Levitt to Sir Edward Stanhope, whose son sold them to Sir Nicholson Saunderson from whom they have descended to the Earls of Scarbrough. There was no resident lord in Hooton Levitt at the time of the 1379 Poll Tax assessment. The most prosperous of the 30 tax payers were John de Whistan, cartwright, and John de Hundeschelf, cloth fuller.
Hooton Levitt did not have its own church and was part of the parish of Maltby.
By the late 18th Century, Hooton Levitt Hall was the home of the Hoyle family. William Hoyle who was clerk to the Cutlers Company in Sheffield married Barbara, heiress of John Fretwell of Hooton Levitt Hall. His grandson William Fretwell Hoyle (b. 1801-86) was a Rotherham lawyer and Steward of the Manors of Rotherham and Kimberworth. He was rumoured to have lost a good deal of his money speculating in tin mines. I have not been able to find out if he still owned the house when he died in 1886 or who owned or inherited it after that. Hooton Levitt Hall was demolished in the 1960s to make way for modern housing. Hooton Levitt Manor House is still there. In 1832 a Methodist Chapel was built in Hooton Levitt.
In 1379 the 30 taxpayers indicate a possible population of about 100 at least some of whom followed trades not wholly connected with farming and the village seems to have been prosperous. The Census of 1901 indicates that the population was 73 and by 1991 it was only 125.
Stone
Since this bit of Rotherham does not appear in my A-Z, I had forgotten of its existence until I passed by the other day. I actually know nothing of its history but since it very close to Roche Abbey to the south and Sandbeck Park to the north it was probably a worker's village. Given its name they probably quarried stone there. The houses are spread over a wideish area and there seems to be no village centre, shop or pubs.