Rawdon is a village within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England.

Rawdons main claims to fame are:

• Rawdon is famous as being the home town of cricketers Brian Close and Hedley Verity.

• Benton Park School in Rawdon is used as a fictional location in the soap opera Emmerdale.

• William Thompson, a Quaker from Rawdon, is claimed to have been the first wool merchant in the country to import Australian wool (in 1808). The wool was coloured in local factories with dye fixing agents  letting the Rawdon entrepreneur and his agents profit from the burgeoning cloth trade. He lived in a house called "The Mount" situated between Town Street and Layton Avenue, which was formerly known as Back Lane. There is still an active Quaker meeting in Rawdon in the original building, built in 1697.

• Frazer Hines ex Doctor Who actor, and ex-Emmerdale star, used to live in the Little London area of Rawdon, though he was originally from nearby Horsforth. Little London is still popular with letting agents as it is the conservation area lying to the westernmost area of Rawdon.

Areas of interest

Rawdon Billing is a well known local landmark that can be seen from a considerable distance.

 

There's an area that is of particular interest to letting agents in Rawdon: The Little London conservation area. Little London conservation area is unique in that the historic area covered by the designation straddles the boundary of the district and one of its neighbours, Bradford. 

Letting agents in Rawdon will tell you that this area was, until the local government reorganisation in 1974, part of a district called Aireborough which was arbitrarily divided between Leeds and Bradford during reorganisation, and is still locally referred to as such. The portion of the conservation area lying in Leeds was designated in 1975 and was extended in 1988. The portion of the conservation area lying in Bradford was designated in 1977. The Bradford designation centres on Lane Head House, built for the steward of Esholt Hall Estate c1710-1720, with its associated cottages, and outbuildings and other mainly late eighteenth century development completing the designation. Little London is at the westernmost tip of the contiguous urbanised settlement of Rawdon which coalesces with Guiseley, the centre of which is approximately 1.5km to the northeast of the conservation area. Greengates, and the edge of the Bradford urban area, is 2km to the south of Little London. The area to the west of the conservation area is rural Green Belt, with Esholt village lying 2km to the west of Little London in the Green Belt.