WATTON, a parish in Driffield district, E. R. Yorkshire; 1¾ mile SSW of Hutton-Cranswick r. station, and 5½ S by W of Great Driffield. Post town, Driffield. Acres, 3,720. Real property, £4,952. Pop., 343. Houses, 51. The property is divided among a few. A nunnery stood here in 686; and was destroyed by the Danes about 870. A Gilbertine abbey was founded, on the site of the nunnery, by Eustace Fitz-John, in 1149; went, at the dissolution, to the Dudleys; and is now represented by a portion of its buildings, in early Tudor architecture, converted into a dwelling-house. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value, £60. Patron, R. Bethell, Esq. The church is tolerable.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))