West Bretton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

near

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It lies close to junction 38 of the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

at Haigh. It has a population of 546, reducing to 459 at the 2011 Census. There is a school in the village, West Bretton Junior and Infant School, and a church, which is an Anglican-Methodist local ecumenical partnership.

History

Toponymy

Bretton derives from the Old English ''Brettas'', the Britons and ''tūn'' meaning an enclosure, farmstead, village or estate. The Briton's farm or settlement was recorded as ''Bretone'' in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' of 1086 and ''West Bretton'' in 1200.

Manor

This part of Yorkshire was laid waste in the

Harrying of the North The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate northern England, where the presence of the last House of Wessex, Wessex claimant, Edgar Ætheling, had encouraged An ...

after the

Norman conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...

. Most of West Bretton was granted to the

de Lacy de Lacy (Laci, Lacie, Lascy, Lacey, Lassey) is the surname of an old Norman family which originated from Lassy, Calvados. The family took part in the Norman Conquest of England and the later Norman invasion of Ireland. The name is first recorde ...

s, lords of the

Honour of Pontefract The honour of Pontefract, also known as the feudal barony of Pontefract, was an English feudal barony. Its origins lie in the grant of a large, compact set of landholdings in Yorkshire, made between the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the co ...

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...

and a small part to the Manor of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

. After the devastation, growth was slow but more land was eventually cultivated to sustain a growing population. A water-powered corn mill was recorded in 13th century and in 1379 there was a smith. The population at this time was approximately 70 people and one family had adopted the surname "de Bretton". The de Bretton, Dronfield and Wentworth families became pre-eminent and Sir Willian Dronfield held the manor when he died in 1406. Swein de Bretton granted the right to pasture 200 cattle and sheep on land north of the village to the monks of

Byland Abbey Byland Abbey is a ruined abbey and a small village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England, in the North York Moors National Park. History It was founded as a Savigniac abbey in January 1135 and was absorbed by the Cistercian order ...

. The population suffered the effects of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

in 1350. Richard Wentworth inherited the manor and hall in 1477. His great grandson, Sir Thomas Wentworth was Henry VIII's Knight Marshall and keeper of

Sandal Castle Sandal Castle is a ruined medieval castle in Sandal Magna, a suburb of the city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, overlooking the River Calder. It was the site of royal intrigue and the setting for a scene in one of William Shakespeare ...

. An oak bed from this time, supposedly slept in by the king, is preserved at

Temple Newsam Temple Newsam (historically Temple Newsham), () is a Tudor- Jacobean house in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. The estate lends its name to the Temple Newsam ward of Leeds City Council, in which it ...

. The old hall, on a different site to the present hall, was recorded on

Christopher Saxton Christopher Saxton (c. 1540 – c. 1610) was an English cartographer who produced the first county maps of England and Wales. Life and family Saxton was probably born in Sowood, Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

's Yorkshire map of 1577 but its exact location is unknown. Bretton Hall - geograph

Thomas Wentworth fought with the

Royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

and was captured at the

Battle of Naseby The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main ...

and his estates confiscated. His estates were returned and he was knighted in 1660 when the monarchy was restored.

Bretton Hall Bretton Hall may refer to: *Bretton Hall, Flintshire, former fortified manor house on the England/Wales border *Bretton Hall, West Yorkshire, country house in West Yorkshire, England *Bretton Hall College Bretton Hall College of Education was a h ...

was built by Sir William Wentworth who inherited the estate in 1706. He was a Captain of Horse in the Trained Guards in the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Franci ...

. He was buried in the park chapel. Sir Thomas Wentworth (1735–1792) transformed the parkland to what it is today. He changed his name to Blackett, his mother's name, when he inherited the Blackett fortune. He was unmarried but his illegitimate daughter Diana, wife of Lt Colonel Thomas Beaumont MP for Northumberland inherited the estate. The Beaumonts' main residence was Bretton Hall and a considerable amount of money was spent on it during their time there. Their son Thomas Wentworth Beaumont was Liberal MP for seats in Stafford and Northumberland and supporter of the

Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament, Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major chan ...

. His son Wentworth Blackett Beaumont spent more time in the north east where he owned more than 14,000 acres of land as well as the Bretton estate. He was ennobled as Baron Allendale of Allendale. His son Wentworth Canning Blackett Beaumont was MP for Hexham and a lord-in-waiting to

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. Born duri ...

. Wentworth Henry Canning Beaumont made Bretton his home. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the hall was used by the military and maintenance cost rose leading to its sale to the

West Riding County Council West Riding County Council (WRCC) was the county council of the Administrative counties of England, administrative county of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1974. The council met at County Hall, Wakefield, County Hall i ...

in 1947 followed by the estate land ten years later. The National Union of Mineworkers had wanted to turn it into a convalescent home.

Agriculture

The West Yorkshire Archaeological Society has documents relating to the

three-field system The three-field system is a regime of crop rotation in which a field is planted with one set of crops one year, a different set in the second year, and left fallow in the third year. A set of crops is ''rotated'' from one field to another. The tec ...

that operated in the village in

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

times. Its fields were enclosed by 1759. Home Farm was built by 1800. Other farms were Town Farm and Manor Farm. Evidence of brewing is the old malt kiln at the farm of the same name.

Industry

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries Matthew Wentworth bought "all the myne, and delff of ironstone" around Bentley Grange, the Byland Abbey property. Though the ironstone was exhausted by the mid-1600s, smithies continued to operate fuelled by charcoal. The furnace at Bretton supplied

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silic ...

to Colnebridge,

Wortley Top Forge Wortley Top Forge is an historic former finery forge and ironworks originally dating back to the seventeenth century, although evidence suggests iron working took place in the vicinity as early as the fourteenth century. It is situated in the m ...

and

Kirkstall Kirkstall is a north-western suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, on the eastern side of the River Aire. The area sits in the Kirkstall ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds West parliamentary constituency, represented by Rachel Reeves. Th ...

in 1728. The furnace at Bretton was taken over by the Cockshutts of Wortley and pig iron was produced there in 1806 but the site had closed by 1820. Attempts were made to exploit coal which outcropped in Bretton but were small in scale. A mine was operated by Thomas Wood in 1806, Bretton Colliery managed by Tweedale and Watson paid rent to the estate in 1820s and

bell pit A bell pit is a primitive method of mining coal, iron ore, or other minerals lying near the surface. Operation A shaft is sunk to reach the mineral which is excavated by miners, transported to the surface by a winch, and removed by means of a b ...

s, the Gate Royd Pits, (near the

motorway service area Motorway service areas in the United Kingdom and Ireland, also known as services or service stations, are rest areas where drivers can leave a motorway to refuel/recharge, rest, eat and drink, shop or stay in an on-site overnight hotel. The vas ...

) operated in 1849, The Jagger Brothers who owned Emley Colliery opened shafts on Malt Kiln Farm between 1856 and 1871. Where millstone grit outcropped it was quarried, mostly between the 17th and 19th centuries and is the building stone for farmhouses and boundary walls. There was a brickworks producing rustic red bricks from fireclay outcrops near Bower Hill Lane. From 1723 until 1737 William Harrison who had moved from

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. T ...

was making pots in the village.

Governance

Historically part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, the chapelry of West Bretton was partly in the parish of

Sandal Magna Sandal Magna or Sandal is a suburb of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England with a population in 2001 of 5,432. An ancient settlement, it is the site of Sandal Castle and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. It is south from Wakefield, north of Ba ...

in the

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...

of Agbrigg and Morley and partly in the parish of

Silkstone Silkstone is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, between the towns of Barnsley and Penistone. The parish includes the village of Silk ...

in the wapentake of Staincross. It became part of the Wakefield poor law union in 1837. West Bretton became part of Wakefield Rural District, created in 1894 and abolished 1974, when it became part of the

City of Wakefield The City of Wakefield is a local government district with the status of a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Wakefield, the largest settlement, is the administrative centre of the district. The population of the City of ...

Metropolitan District Council.

Geography

West Bretton covers of hilly land from to above sea level. It is at the watershed of the Rivers Dearne and Calder. The River Dearne flows west to east through the landscaped valley in Bretton Park where it is dammed to form two lakes. The underlying geology is that of the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

period and comprises 18 coal seams of

coal measures In lithostratigraphy, the coal measures are the coal-bearing part of the Upper Carboniferous System. In the United Kingdom, the Coal Measures Group consists of the Upper Coal Measures Formation, the Middle Coal Measures Formation and the Lower Coal ...

and the Tankersley ironstone seam. Millstone grit outcrops were quarried for building stone and

dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...

boundary walls. West Bretton is on the A637

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

road, south west of the junction with the A636 Wakefield to

Denby Dale Denby Dale is a village and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is 10 miles (17 km) to the south-east of Huddersfield and 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Barnsley. The village is the main villa ...

road and close to the

, which passes to the east of the village.

Education

Sir Thomas Wentworth (who changed his name to Blackett) built a school sometime after he inherited the estate in 1763. Sir Thomas paid a schoolmaster £20 per year. It became a national school and was used as a Sunday School. In 1865–1866 it had 65 pupils and when education was made compulsory to the age of 13 in 1881 there were 100. West Bretton J & I School, with 89 pupils on roll aged from 3 to 11, occupies the original

Grade II-listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

school house.

Bretton Hall College Bretton Hall College of Education was a higher education college in West Bretton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It opened as a teacher training college in 1949 with awards from the University of Leeds. The college merged with the Univ ...

opened in 1949 as a teacher training college, and specialist arts college of higher education. Among its more well known alumni are the TV comedy team known as The League of Gentleman, writers Colin Welland, Kay Mellor and John Godber and educationalist Sir Ken Robinson. John Godber wrote a play about life as a drama student at the college, It Started With a Kiss. The college offered University of Leeds degrees and was later, subsequently affiliated to the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

but closed in their care in 2007.

Religion

West Bretton was divided between the parishes of Sandal Magna and Silkstone and a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

was built by the Dronfields in 1358. St Bartholemew's Chapel was mentioned in a will of 1406. In 1744 the old chapel was replaced on a different site by the present Park Chapel which contained the Wentworth's family pew. It was given to the Diocese of Wakefield in 1959.

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

came to the village in 1811. A cottage, rented from the estate, was registered as a place of worship for Protestant

Dissenter A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Usage in Christianity Dissent from the Anglican church In the social and religious history of England and Wales, and ...

Primitive Methodists The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

in 1861. Methodists and

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

s created a

local ecumenical partnership In England and Wales, a local ecumenical partnership (or project) is a partnership between churches of different denominations. First piloted in 1964, over 850 now exist to promote unity between different Christian denominations. The missiolo ...

, the Church in West Bretton, in 1982. It uses the mid-19th century Methodist premises.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The

Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbar ...

, consists of of landscaped ground with a large collection of sculptures including some by

Elisabeth Frink Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in ...

, some by

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

, and others by local sculptors

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...

, born in

, and

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

, born in

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins the ...

Sport

West Bretton Cricket Club on Park Lane and has two teams in the Pontefract & District Cricket League, in Divisions 2 and 5. The Sunday side plays in the Barnsley & District Sunday League, in Division 1. In 2007 the club celebrated its centenary year, and marked the occasion by inviting the former England

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

turned artist Jack Russell to visit the ground and paint a landscape of the pitch and clubhouse. In 2021 West Bretton Football Club was founded by members of the cricket club. They play in the Barnsley & District Sunday League Division 1.

References

Bibliography * * *

External links

West Bretton Parish Council website
{{authority control Villages in West Yorkshire Civil parishes in West Yorkshire Geography of the City of Wakefield