James Lees-Milne, the country house diarist, and a man well versed in the associations and lineage of those who live in England’s great houses, was caught off guard when he called at Loton Park in 1953. After visiting Sir Richard Leighton, the present baronet’s father, he recalled his host’s remark:

At Loton, positioned as on the very border with Wales, it is perhaps an easy mistake to make as the very distant past is almost inextricably caught up in the present and never seems far away. In part, this is due to the house itself where, with almost every generation, a different style has been employed with an ease and confident distinction which, perhaps surprisingly, creates a harmonious whole.

However the Leighton family ancestry, which is demonstrated in heraldry throughout the house, is so encompassing of Shropshire and Welsh history that it proves to be the great unifier. The Leighton family claims descent from a Saxon ancestor called Tihel, or Tiel. They later took their patronymic from the village where they held lands on the banks of the River Severn near Buildwas. As early benefactors to Buildwas Abbey, they came into the Loton property through the marriage in the fifteenth century of John Leighton of Church Stretton with Ankoret, or Angharad, the daughter and heiress of Sir John Burgh. Ankoret’s possessions, including Wattlesborough and Loton, were extensive and her ancestry was similarly rich; her grandmother, Lady de Burgh, was sister and heiress of Foulk, Lord of Mawddwy, member of an ancient Welsh tribe descended from Maredudd, Prince of Powys in the twelfth century who had succeeded in uniting the whole of Powys under his rule.

Politics, soldiering and public service all figure significantly in the Leightons’ own family history, and the family has produced a remarkable twelve generations of Members of Parliament who have served the interests of Shrewsbury and Shropshire. Ankoret Leighton’s husband was one of these, representing Shropshire in the late fifteenth century.

By the late seventeenth century, the family was seated primarily at Wattlesborough Castle and the baronetcy that was conferred on Edward Leighton in 1693 is ‘of Wattlesborough’.