Denton Hall, Wharfedale 4.08

Denton Hall is an English country house located to the north of the River Wharfe, at Denton, Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England between Otley and Ilkley, and set within a larger Denton estate of about 2500acre, including a village, church, and landscaped gardens. It is a Grade I listed building.HistoryThe written history of Denton goes back to at least 1253, when the then-owner, one Athelstan, made the estate over to the See of York, which already owned manorial rights in nearby Otley.It was subinfeuded at an early date to the Vavasours, and in 1284 Maugerus le Vavasur held the town for a fourth part of a knight's fee of the Archbishops of York, who continued lords paramount. In 1379, according to the poll-tax returns, one Adam Wayte appears to have been then farming the manor, at which time Denton had a more than ordinary reputation for clothes-making and drapery goods. The estate passed into the ownership of the Thwaites family when Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Thwaites, married John Vavasour of Weston, who died in 1482; records show the Thwaites family had been resident in Denton village earlier than that time. Again through marriage, in 1515 the estate passed to the Fairfax family. At the time of Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron, Denton Hall had repute as housing one of the best libraries in Yorkshire . Denton was the birthplace and seat of Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, famous as a general and commander-in-chief during the English Civil War.