LEPTON is a township, part of which was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1870 out of the parish of Kirkheaton, 4 ½ miles east from Huddersfield on the road to Wakefield, in the union and county court district of Huddersfield, rural deanery of Huddersfield, archdeaconry of Craven and diocese of Ripon. There is a station at Fenay Bridge on the Kirkburton branch of the North Western railway. The township is governed by a local board of health of 12 members. The church of St. John the Evangelist, a Gothic edifice, was erected and consecrated in November, 1868, at a cost of about £5,000, raised by voluntary subscriptions and grants from diocesan and other societies, and consists of chancel, nave and aisles, with 1 bell, and contains 5 memorial windows and an organ. The register dates from the year 1868. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £115, and is held by the Rev. John White;a vicarage has just been erected, at a cost of £1,600. The Wesleyans have a chapel at Cowms, and the Primitive Methodists at Leptonfields. There is a Mechanics' Institute at Lascelles Hall. £11 yearly, left by R. Beaumont esq. is expended in apprenticing boys of the township. The area of the ecclesiastical parish is 1,203, of the township, 1,863 acres, and includes Cowms, Gawthorp, part of Fenay Bridge, Highgate Lane, Lascelles Hall, Leptonfields, Lidgett, Great and Little Lepton, Rowley and Waterloo; rateable value, £6,437; population in 1871, 2,989 of the township; ecclesiastical parish, 1,709.

Schools

A National school was erected in 1830, at a cost of £1,300, which was raised by subscription, aided by a grant from the National Society, Richard Mitchell, master; Miss Hannah Mitchell, infants’ mistress.

Board school, Cowms, master, William Ralph Jones; infants’ mistress, Mrs. Mary Isabella Jones.