West Bretton

Bretton derives from the Old English Brettas, the Britons and tūn meaning an enclosure, farmstead, village or estate.[3] The Briton's farm or settlement was recorded as Bretone in the Domesday Book of 1086 and West Bretton in 1200.[4]

This part of Yorkshire was laid waste in the Harrying of the North after the Norman conquest of England.[5] Most of West Bretton was granted to the de Lacys, lords of the Honour of Pontefract by William I and a small part to the Manor of Wakefield.[6] 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".[7] The de Bretton, Dronfield and Wentworth families became pre-eminent and Sir Willian Dronfield held the manor when he died in 1406.[8]

Swein de Bretton granted the right to pasture 200 cattle and sheep on land north of the village to the monks of Byland Abbey.[9] The population suffered the effects of the Black Death in 1350.[10] Richard Wentworth inherited the manor and hall in 1477.[11] His great grandson, Sir Thomas Wentworth was Henry VIII's Knight Marshall and keeper of Sandal Castle. An oak bed from this time, supposedly slept in by the king, is preserved at Temple Newsam.[12] The old hall, on a different site to the present hall, was recorded on Christopher Saxton's Yorkshire map of 1577 but its exact location is unknown.[13]

Bretton Hall

Thomas Wentworth fought with the Royalists in the English Civil War and was captured at the Battle of Naseby and his estates confiscated. His estates were returned and he was knighted in 1660 when the monarchy was restored.[12] Bretton Hall 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. He was buried in the park chapel.[14] 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.[14]

The Beaumonts' main residence was Bretton Hall and a considerable amount of money was spent on it during their time there.[15] Their son Thomas Wentworth Beaumont was Liberal MP for seats in Stafford and Northumberland and supporter of the Reform Act 1832.[16] 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.[15] Wentworth Henry Canning Beaumont made Bretton his home.[17] During the Second World War the hall was used by the military and maintenance cost rose leading to its sale to the West Riding County Council in 1947 followed by the estate land ten years later.[18] The National Union of Mineworkers had wanted to turn it into a convalescent home.[19]

The West Yorkshire Archaeological Society has documents relating to the three-field system that operated in the village in medieval times.[20] 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.[21]

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 to Colnebridge, Wortley Top Forge and Kirkstall in 1728.[22] The furnace at Bretton was taken over by the Cockshutts of Wortley and pig iron was produced there in 1806[23] but the site had closed by 1820.[24] 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 pits, the Gate Royd Pits, (near the motorway service area) operated in 1849, The Jagger Brothers who owned Emley Colliery opened shafts on Malt Kiln Farm between 1856 and 1871.[24]

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.[25] From 1723 until 1737 William Harrison who had moved from Burslem was making pots in the village.[26]