The villages of East and West Marton, can be traced back in history to the Doomsday Book, where the village was recorded as “Martum”, owned by Roger of Poitou, one of William the Conqueror’s Knights. The Lord of the Manor was Pagamus and he and his family lived here for the next 500 years, becoming known as the “de Martons”.

Poll Tax records of 1379 indicate that Marton was a prosperous community with a total population of 74, including a draper, two tailors, a blacksmith and a weaver.

By 1841 the population had grown to 381 and included 10 cotton weavers, one carder and spinner, a wool merchant, a tailor and two apprentices, four shoe makers, a cordwainer, a hawker, a bank ranger, a drover, a governess and two laundresses.

Following the industrial revolution, the 1861 census indicated that the make-up of community had changed – there was a wheelwright, a coal dealer, a butler and the community’s first postman and policeman! The local village bobby remained a part of the community until the 1970’s.

With the introduction of the combustion engine, over the next few years, transportation became easier. This lead to the disappearance of the traditional village crafts and trades, local shops closed and commuting became the norm, which has been the pattern to this day.

The Leeds and Liverpool canal which goes through the village was constructed over a 46 year period, starting in 1770 and was originally used to take wool exports from Leeds to the docks at Liverpool. Later coal and other essentials were brought by canal. Now the canal is a local tourist attraction and is popular for walking and fishing.

In the 19th Century, after the repeal of the Corn Laws, farming went into decline and many farms could not be let and were taken in hand by the Roundell Family, who owned the land at the time. In 1899, Colonel Roundell decided to build a creamery in Marton to process the milk from the estate farms. Production commenced in 1900.

The Nelson family purchased the estate in 1919 from the Roundells and continued to expand the production of the creamery, until in 1960, the dairy was sold to Associated Dairies (which became Asda). In 1987 it was sold to Unilever, where at the time it was processing 140,000 litres of milk a day. Finally in 1999, the creamery was sold to Yielding Tree (Later known as British Creameries), who continued to the run the operation before going into receivership in 2001. When the efforts to find other business users failed, the site remained derelict until approval was obtained for the present Dairy Meadow development.