Village of the Week: Rawdon was the enclave loved by Yorkshire's Victorian mill barons

While classed as a rural village in some circles, it is has spread out somewhat with modern development, retail and business.

And then there is the A65 Rawdon Road.

For years it has been the bane of the life for any commuter making the journey towards Horsforth and Leeds city centre and then going back again in the evening.

From 7am it begins to slow and crawl with traffic for a good couple of hours and again from school ending until well into the evening.

It seems such a waste of time to queue like that, how many hours of your week are spent looking at brake lights I wonder? But then if you have no other choice to get to work and school then it is what it is.

The pollution cannot be healthy and they say farms are the worst. I read that a study by University College London had found that agriculture contributed 38 per cent of particulate pollution in Leicester.

They ought to spend a rush hour here.

However, while you are waiting to navigate Horsforth roundabout there is a lot to look at.

It offers one of the most panoramic views you’ll find in the area (and makes for some incredible morning and evening skyscapes) looking over Rodley, Farsley, Calverley and the wild Pennines beyond.

At night when you can see the bright lights of these places but also swathes of darkness you are reminded that Rawdon is one of those places that bridges rural and urban.

It also has some of the grandest houses this side of the city – and when you wonder why someone would buy a house on the Rawdon Road then a glimpse at Rightmove will give you an idea.

Properties that come up for sale around here are easily topping £1m but the views from the front are for miles and the backs take you to some sort of secret world.

Between Rawdon and Apperley Bridge – a village that is technically Bradford – are a myriad of woodland lanes, private and unadopted roads and sprawling country houses set within extensive land and hidden by tree lined gated driveways.

Rarely do these houses come up for sale and you can easily imagine they have been within the same family seat for generations in a similar vein to what are considered the region’s stately homes.

Known as Cragg Wood, it is a conservation area, and an exclusive rural suburb of Victorian villas with special architectural interest that would have been built in the 19th century, for the wealthy wool and cloth merchants of Leeds and Bradford.

Then you have the more obvious high street type part of the village.

Rawdon Town Street gets off to a great start with the local pub. The Emmott Arms. A few years back it was closed on and off but is back open now and a village like Rawdon, needs a pub like The Emmott.

It also needs the Village Bakery, an independent and long-standing shop. It reminds me of the traditional bakeries from the 80s and 90s perhaps – long before neon signs and American influences.

Think cream horns, quiches, currant slices, jam tarts and flat cakes that don’t make your eyes water at the till.

There’s a post office, convenience store, hair dressers, barber, primary school and a parish church. Rawdon St Peter’s Church which was built as a chapel of ease for the parish of Guiseley in 1645, is at the end of Town Street. The church we see today is pretty much as a result of a re-build in 1864.

On Harrogate Road there are a few other businesses, restaurants and my absolute favourite – Croissant d’ Or, a genuine French patisserie with a cabinet of breads, pastries and cakes and I challenge anyone to leave empty handed or hungry.

There are a couple of other gems of heritage and outdoor space.

Rawdon Billing is a hill heading towards Yeadon and Leeds Bradford airport and from the top of which you can also enjoy extensive views – York Minster is visible on a clear day.

There are a series of paths and trees that wind to the top where the remains of a quarry and works from Second World War buildings can be found.

Little London is almost a little village within the village and is identifiable by its uniform streets and stone terraces, blackened by time but giving off an air of an era past.

Perhaps for this reason it has been designated a conservation area with part lying in the City of Leeds and part in the City of Bradford.

However, Rawdon’s history starts well before local government re-organisation. There are claims there was human settlement around the Bronze Age but more relatable history shows that a fter the dissolution of the monasteries the greater part of Rawdon passed to the Crown.

Afterwards, land changed owners several times until two thirds of the Manor of Rawdon, all of the Manor of Yeadon and two fifths of the Manor of Horsforth were acquired by Francis Layton.

One of Rawdon’s most famous residents was cricketer, Hedley Verity dubbed one of the all time greats. He was born in 1905 and made his debut for Rawdon in the cricket league in 1921.

He played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939 when the outbreak of war finished his career. He joined the Green Howards and was made a captain. During the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, he was severely wounded and captured. He died from his injuries as a prisoner of war.