Lord Neil Benjamin
WARTER PRIORY and WELDRAKE, a WALTON HALL connection to LORD NEIL GIBSON

"VFMLID=24430852"

Having been born in Walton Hall, Lord Neil B. Gibson's journey in this life began on September 10th, in the year of 1963. As his life continued to flourish, he acquired lands and thus retained his Lord title as demonstrated today. Pursuant to the Law of Property Act of 1925, the titles Lord of Wheldrake and Warter Priory are under the Assignor Asset, claimed as incorporeal rights to the said style and title.

Wheldrake and Warter Priory are within a 25 mile radius as the crow flys of each other.

Built in the Palladian style of 1767 on an island within a 26-acre (11 ha) lake situation on a former moated hall reminiscent of the medieval era, Walton Hall remains a stately home in the county of West Yorkshire, England, adjacent to Wakefield. The home boasts ancestry to the naturalist and traveller, Charles Waterton, converting Walton Hall into the world's first wildfowl and nature reserve. Waterton's son, Edmund, sold the estate.

The Waterton Collection is now in Wakefield Museum.

Waterton Park Hotel enjoys the privilege of having Walton Hall as a part of its establishment, where as prior it functioned as a maternity home in the 1940s, the early 1950s and once more in the early 1960s. 

Walton Hall, with his residence at Cawthorne, was an abode to Ailric, the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Chieftain and ancestor of Charles Waterton, as further described in the Domesday Book, and was the Kings Thane for South Yorkshire. During the first arrival of the Normans to Yorshire, Ailric resided at Walton Hall, alerted of the forthcoming force by a man on horseback. In reaction to the warning, Ailric hastily amassed his retainers and ambushed the mounted Norman knights of Ilbert de Laci, moving via the Tanshelf road to Wakefield, by horseback. However, the Ilbert de Laci knights were superior in armour and weaponry, successfully driving off Ailric's attempted ambush. For approximately 2 to 3 years, Ailric maintained a guerrilla war through his estates in the west of South Yorkshire, until finally Illbert was forced to reach an accommodation with him, resulting in Ailric communicating with the local people and being granted back many of his former estates, including Walton Hall. 

One descendant of this family relation, Sara le Neville, married Thomas De Burgh, the Steward of the Countess of Brittany, Duchess of Richmond. Throughout the year, she lived at Walton Hall, which was one of six manors, including the Silkstone and Cawthorne along with the De Burgh manors in North Yorkshire. Sir Philip de Burgh, in 1333, was granted a license to 'crenelate' his Walton Hall manor house.

The Cawthorne estates and those at Walton, which incorporated Walton Hall, was acquired by the Waterton family through the marriage of Constance Asshenhull, the heiress of the De Burgh family, to Richard Wateron in 1435.

During the era of Sir Robert Wateron, having served King Henry VIII, the hall was three storeys high and came to the waters edge. Sir Richartd Tempest, the father-in-law to Sir Robert Waterton, who was at the Field of the Cloth of Gold with King Henry VIII, was also Steward of the King's manor of Wakefield and involved in the Tempest-Saville Feud. The old watergate is the only part of the old buildings that remain, which has been said to be part of an earlier 14th century structure. At the time, it was the only entrance to be made, which was across a lowered drawbridge. On the second storey and in an L shape, was the old hall as referred by Charles Wateron.

The armorial shields, fastened to the walls and representative of the Waterton family ancestors, is still found in the entrance hallways of Walton Hall. Intermarriage with other prominent Yorkshire families of the medieval age, including the Percys, Barnbys, Wentworths and the Hildydards, among others, became part of the Wateron family lineage.