Layston

{{Short description|Deserted village in Hertfordshire, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}

{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}

File:Layston Church - geograph.org.uk - 2935.jpg, now converted to a house]]Layston is a former village and parish located about a kilometre north-east of Buntingford in Hertfordshire, England, at 51°57′50″N 0°00′45″E.

In 1931 the parish had a population of 724.{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10171090/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Layston AP/CP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=24 October 2022}} On 1 April 1937 the parish was abolished and merged with Buntingford, part also went to form Hormead.{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10171090|title=Relationships and changes Layston AP/CP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=24 October 2022}}

Its former church, St Bartholomew's, became derelict but is the subject of a restoration project. People connected with the church include:

• Thomas Crouch, who was baptised in St Bartholomew's in 1607
• Robert Wogdon (January 1734 – 28 March 1813), founder of the gunsmith firm Wogdon & Barton, who was buried in the chancel with his wife, who had died in 1805
• Rev. Jonathan Gilder and Mary Brazier, who were married there in 1759; their daughter Sarah, baptised there in 1767, became (posthumously) the maternal grandmother to New Zealand suffragette Catherine Fulton
• Claud Lovat Fraser (15 May 1890 – 18 June 1921), who was buried in the churchyard. File:St Bartholomew, Layston, Herts - Ruin - geograph.org.uk - 368062.jpg
• Joseph Ironmonger Snoxell (1743-1810) of Stanmore, Middlesex, married Martha Moore (1740-1785) in the church on 15 November 1763. He owned or leased farms in Great and Little Stanmore, and Hatch End, Middx; Hitchin and Watford, Herts; and Barton, Cambridgeshire. Husband and wife are buried next to the ruined church at Stanmore, where there are memorials to them.

There is a state-funded primary school, Layston First CE School.