The Layton Collection

THE THOMAS LAYTON TRUST & LAYTON'S COLLECTION

Great Road in the County of Middlesex

A plan of the Great Road from Tyburn to Uxbridge and from Brent Bridge to Brentford in the County of Middlesex, surveyed in 1769 by Thomas Lediard, the agent and surveyor for the Commission for Streets and Waterways. It shows the route of the turnpike road running west through Kensington and Acton to Uxbridge, with a branch running south into Brentford from Hanwell. The local connection would have been of interest to Thomas Layton. Collection no 1779

The Collection

Thomas Layton collected books, coins, and archaeological items (usually described as ‘antiquities’) for 70 years. In that time he had accumulated what has been described as “probably the largest collection of London antiquities ever amassed by a single individual”.

The vast majority of items are believed to have been bought at auctions. Some came to him from his men working on the river. His businesses provided opportunities for finds from dredging, building of bridges and embankments along the banks of the Thames, for which Layton paid good money. Even by the standards of the day Layton kept poor records of where items were found. Despite this, the collection is considered highly important particularly to archaeologists and pre-historians.