History Bramham - the village in times past !

Bramham over the centuries

Bramham is of ancient origin, owing to its geo graphical position and its subsequent placement close to strategic routes used by generations,from Roman conquerors to modern travellers. Situated just off the Plain of York, and just south of the three fords of the Wharfe vital to Roman communications, Bramham has a history in some respects unusual for a place of its size. Indeed, its being virtually surrounded by private lands, latterly of the Lane Fox family, has  probably saved it from the sort of development  which may yet sweep it up. Meanwhile these brief notes trace some of the important elements in the village's life during the last two thousand years of England's history. Bramham in Roman Times For the Romans, eager to exert control over lands they already dominated, and to extend their conquests, a network of efficient roads was vitally important. From York, their northern capital, their main road westwards to Ilkley ran, via Tadcaster, through Bramham (the Toulston and Thorner roads as they are today). West of the village the road cut past Wothersomc to Pompocali, those strange remains in the nature reserve of Hetchell Wood, before following a route just off the modern road system to Guiseley and Ilkley. Eastwards the Romans travelled up High Street and along the Toulston road toward Tadcaster. The main communication from London to Hadrians Wall and their Scottish pre‑occupations, succeeded in later centuries by the Great North Road, the AI and the A19, was Watling Street. This divided into two branches at Headley Bar (on the A64 between the A 1 and Tadcaster) one route crossing the Wharfe just north of the present Tadcaster bridge, running through the fields north of Copmanthorpe and Dringhouses, to enter York (Eboracum) Via the Knavesmire and Micklegate Bar. The second spur (today, as then, Rudgate crossed Bramham Moor on the edge of the present parish boundary. Its route from Toulston via St Helen's Ford near Newton Kyme through to Aldborough (Isurium) and on northwards largely set the pattern of modern roads. The Romans, like their successors, found the local elevated vantage points across the York Plain almost as useful as the easily accessible limestone, which was quarried for building both York and Aldborough. It was also used for the many villas which are thought to have dotted the countryside in the area, such as that excavated in recent times between West Woods Farm and Collingham Moor, Dalton Parlours. The Saxon Inheritance During the six hundred years of Scandinavian settlement in Yorkshire after the final Roman Emperor was deposed in 476, little was recorded, either locally or elsewhere in Britain. That Bramham continued as a thriving community in Saxon times is clear however from the one lasting Saxon memorial which remains to us, the large oval‑shaped churchyard, whose high walls below the level of the graves mark it quite clearly as of Saxon origin. The discovery, in the 1930's, of a Saxon bone pin, and, more recently, Saxon stones, serve as further confirmation. Whether the stones were part of an earlier church, or whether this Saxon predecessor was wooden, remain a mystery. The importance of the manor of Bramham in Saxon times is shown also by the high value at which it was rated in the Domesday Survey (1086). A mill, to which all local tenants were bound to bring their corn for grinding; a church with a priest; and much woodland and pasture were recorded. The manor included pieces of land in Monochet (probably in the Bramham Park area), Toulston Oglethorpe and Newton Kyme all likely to have been single farmsteads. As Bramham’s connections with the Monks of Nostell Priory grew, it supplanted Clifford as the seat of the local Saxon lord, the last of whom, Ligulf was dispossessed after 1066 by William the Conqueror.

Norman Conquests

The actions of William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, were typical of all successful military conquerors. Having won the crown in 1066, he followed a strategy throughout his twenty year reign based on early movement to suppress possible opponents, cementing loyalty by rewarding his own supporters, and strict imposition of his personal rule. His `harrying of the North' during 1069‑71 largely depopulated Yorkshire and Durham, thus wiping out most of the likely Scandinavian opposition based in these parts, though Bramham seems to have come through largely unscathed. The carving up of the country found Bramham given to one of William's closest allies, his half brother, Robert, Count of Mortain in Avranches (just east of Mont St Michel in western Normandy). Robert's representation on William's immediate left in the Bayeux Tapestry marks not only his success in battle at Hastings, but also his significance in the post‑war social order. The emergence of England as a national entity, and its opportunity for development centuries before other countries, owes much to William's success in ruthlessly defining its boundaries and what lay within them. In this, his survey of every corner of his realm, produced as the Domesday Book (1086), gave an exact account to the King, and an invaluable record clown the ages. Thereafter the ownership of land and property, unrecorded under Saxon rule, was largely written down, so that we can trace what happened to Bramham fairly clearly for the first time. Unsurprisingly, it continued to be handed round the great families, or seized from them, like any other valuable commodity. for several hundred years.

Feudal Bramham

Robert of Mortain sublet the lands of Bramham to Nigel Fossard whose family held a good deal of property about York and Doncaster. The heiress of the family, Johanna daughter of William Fossard was married to Robert de Turnham a great soldier and Crusader, who in 1191 was one of the commanders of the fleet at the siege of Cyprus. After the Crusades Sir Robert was given a castle in France and while he was away King John seized the manor of Bramham together with other lands. Shortly after the death of King Richard, King John restored to Robert de Turnham some of the stolen lands but it was not until 1208 that he appears to have recovered Bramham when he presented the King with two beautiful Spanish war‑horses. Robert de Turnham died in 1210, leaving a daughter, Isabella, who in time became the wife of Peter de Mauley a famous man in his time. Lands in Bramham seem to have been in the hands of the de Mauley family during the 13th Century though long before this some of the land had been given to Nostell Priory.

Bramham in Church Hands

The two overriding political influences in England throughout the Middle Ages (the 500 years between William's Conquest and the time of Henry VIII) were the great lords, of whom the king was greatest, and the Church. This latter, in two respects, played a significant part in Bramham's history, through its connections to Nostell Priory, and its proximity to York. In 1133 Aldewald, Prior of St Oswald's, Nostell, was said to have been the first holder of the prebend of Bramham, soon after lands in the manor of Bramham were granted by Robert Fossard to Nostell between 1126 and 1129. The priory at Nostell seems to have acquired further gifts of land in the manor of Bramham between 1 133 and 1190. The Prior appointed the priests and held lands at Headley, Huphusum (Hope Hall), and a large area which is now within the Bramham Park estate. The monks of Nostell also owned the village mill, and had pasturage for 360 sheep on the common moors of Bramham, together with permission to create rabbit warrens, a valuable source of food. When they held property at some distance from the Monastery, they built a cell, or small monastery, there. Bramham Biggin (to the west of the AI, just outside the east entrance to the Bramham Park estate) is the site of a cell built by the canons of Nostell, and Monk's Style in Bramham Park marks the line of communications tictn between Nostell Priory and its Bramham house. In the grounds at Bowcliffe Hall lies another small medieval chapel built by the monks of Nostell. It is dedicated to Saint Michael in memory of Mont St Michel on the Normandy coast, doubtless in deference to the Lord of the Manor. Bramham remained mainly under the influence of Nostell Priory Until the Suppression of the Monasteries by Henry VIII (1536‑1539) in his political quarrels with the Pope which created the Church of' England. The healthy state of the village can be judged from its being, at this time, Nostell's most valuable possession, with annual rents amounting to £72.19 10d. The site of Nostell Priory and much other property that had belonged to the monastery was granted by Henry at a low price to Thomas Legh, one of the Crown commissioners appointed to visit religious houses. This grant covered the site of the manor of Bramham called Bramham Bygginge with all lands and tenements belonging to the manor including pasturage and rabbit warrens; also two parts of one meadow‑ called the Applegarth and the woods called the West Wood and the Rakes in Bramham. Both lie to the west of the Al, the former opposite Clifford, the latter within Bramham Park, opposite Camp hill. Thomas Legh, having no interest in the manor beyond mere land speculation, disposed of his holdings to Sir James Blunt who in 1566 sold it to John Browne, Esq. Subsequently the descendants of Sir John Winn succeeded, inheriting the estates of his cousin Charles Allanson of Bramham Biggin. George Winn was created Baronet in 1776 and assumed the arms of and name of Allanson. He was made Lord Headley in 1797. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Rectory of Bramham came into the hands of the Crown and, in 1546, was granted by Henry VIII to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford. The influence of the secular Church was almost as strong in Bramham as that of the monastic Church. By 1125 a further monastic cell had been established, this time by the Holy Trinity Priory, York, at Headley Grove; between 1155 and 1180 three acres of land in Bramham was given to the Hospital of St Peter, York, together with a mansion with half an acre of ground; and Agnes Fossard granted land in Bramham to the nuns of St Clements York, who received further land gifts later. The Dean and Chapter of York Minster also had rights in Bramham. They instituted the vicars that were presented by the Canons of Nostell and, after the disolution of' the monasteries in 1536‑1539, payments were made out of Bramham Rectory of 4 shillings to the deacons and choristers of York Minster, 30 shillings to the bailiff of St Peter's and 20) shillings to the Vicars Choral of York Minster. In fact these annual payments were such a drain on Bramham, that 20 parishioners later took the opportunity provided by the Commonwealth to petition Oliver Cromwell for a return of back‑payments; they were granted £40.

All Saints Church Bramham

Bramham Church, the oldest and central building in the village, has witnessed so many events throughout the ages, and the church documents and registers provide a good insight into village life. Early history is provided by the York Visitation Records and our own church records go back to 1586. The present church, dedicated to All Saints, was built in about 1150 but during the time that Nostell Priory had such an influence over Bramham that church was enlarged, from a small unaisled building with a tower to its present shape, with two aisles, and a spire which was probably added in the latter half of the thirteenth century. The embattled parapet to the tower and the parapets to the nave roof were added in the fifteenth century. Considerable, though less fundamental, work has been carried out on All Saints throughout its history, sometimes by gift of its patron, latterly the Lane Fox family, but also by public subscription. Victorian adaptations and repairs were made in 1853. costing over £1,000, with a further £400 on repairs to the chancel in 1866. The considerable alterations of 1935 were followed by further repairs during the mid‑70's. It was one brought from a closing Methodist Chapel in Darlington. The church has not been without its natural disasters. Twice it has been struck by lightning since records began, the first time on Saturday 30 June 1827 when the parish register reports: The electric fluid struck the church steeple and tore away several of the stones, entered the belfry and broke the bell stays, tearing away the woodwork with much violence. The second time was in 1902 when the tower and spire were damaged, calling for a considerable amount of repair and renewal. On Christmas Day 1874, a heating stove caused a fire, by which the Tower was severely damaged and the single dial clock and the peal of three old bells perished. Renewals included the four belfry windows, a new peal of six bells, sadly now rarely heard, and the present three‑dial clock. This latter was built in 1876 by Potts of Leeds, who have maintained it continuously to this day The Churchyard, probably now being used for at least the third time, is of notable size and oval shape, crossed by a public footpath. The impressive Lych gate dates from 1902, the Wharton family memorial. John Wharton, resident of Bramham Old Hall and long‑serving church warden, was MP for Ripon. 'the large crucifix was a memorial to Lord and Lady Bingley of Bramham Park, dedicated by Dr Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, in May 1965. Over the centuries natural, often unplanned, growth has filled the churchyard with interesting flora. Many wild flowers are protected thus, and the ancient yew 'trees or their forebears were used for making the famous English longbow. Notably the cherry trees which stand on small mounds towards the eastern end mark the sites of mass graves from the Wars of" the Roses and Civil War battles. Major renovation of the churchyard in tile early to mid‑1990’s, carried cut by volunteers led by villagers Alan Booth and Jim Cook, aims to protect these and other notable futures whilst making future maintenance easier. The church records are full of interesting information about the churchyard, and therefore about aspects of life in the village. Many entries certify that people had to be buried in wool shrouds according to an Act of 1678, passed to help the wool trade. In May 1684 the freeholders of Bramham agreed that the burying fee with a coffin was two shillings, from which the Vicar could take six pence. Burial of a corpse without a coffin was eighteen pence, with the Vicar's share one shilling. The Vicar was obliged to christen anti bury all the poor of Bramham free of charge. There was available a parish coffin, used for carrying the corpses only as far as the graveside. It is interesting to note the diseases from which Bramhamers died in former times. Many children, for example, died of measles. In the June‑November period of 1778 seven villagers died of smallpox, one child of teething problems, and deaths were recorded from a putrid sore throat, putrid fever and dropsy. Many people were recorded as having died of 'a decline'. Again, in October‑November 1781, seven died of smallpox. Throughout the Middle Ages, and even into Victorian times, various types of plague visited the village. No records exist of what happened in Bramham during the Black Death of 1348‑9, when, in two years, nearly a half of England's population was wiped out. Bramham's position on main roads north and east‑west must, however, have made the villagers especially vulnerable to disease brought by travellers, particularly those fleeing from main population centres where plague took a firm hold. For example, during the 1660's Great Plague in Charles II's time, huge numbers fled London up the Great North Road, some settling in Bramham. As late as 1826, a particularly hot and dry summer. when no rain fell for four months until September, the records state: This summer Bramham was sorely visited by sickness. Nearly thirty persons died of cholera and upwards of three hundred persons were more or less afflicted. ‑ an interesting reflexion of the size of the village, as well as its health.

Bramham Moor

Bramham Moor was reputed to be a wild and desolate place. After the Romans left it was probably a large area of common land on the edge of the cultivated ground surrounding the village. It remained a no man's land until the Count of Mortain claimed it as part of William the Conqueror's gift after 1066 and before the Domesday Book of 1086. It was here that a couple of hundred years later the Canons of Nostell Priory had their sheep pasturage and rabbit warrens. Bramham Moor was the site of a major battle in 1408, and was often in use as a place for gathering and exercising troops, right through until the (treat War of 1914‑18. Throughout the centuries before 1800, at which point, like much of England, the Moor was enclosed, forming many individual plots, it was well known as a resort of footpads and highwaymen, especially as two arterial roads crossed it. The dip, halfway between Bramham village and Toulston Lodge, was particularly notorious. The Moor was also the home of herds of half‑wild animals. Bramham itself served as stopping place for mail coaches and travellers, hence its many coaching inns and houses of ill repute, in the old days. The famous highwayman, Nevison is said to have used it as a regular rendezvous; indeed the Black Horse Inn, now the farm just south of Bramham Crossroads near the Shell garage, was a place where he is reputed to have rested his famous mare during his ride from London to York. Probably because of the eminence Of' the emerging Benson family who had settled in Bramham, during the reign of Queen Anne, Bramham Moor was famous as the site of a race course. On 22 December, 1702 a gold cup valued at One hundred guineas was given by Her Majesty to be run for on Stubbing Moor near Wothersome. The field was entirely for six year olds and their mounts, twelve stone gentlemen. The races lasted a week and must have been quite an event with cock fighting contests and various side shows. However the sport of racing progressed, a permanent ground was fixed for Yorkshire on the Knavesmire in York, and Bramham's course fell into disuse. Nevertheless the advantages of the area appreciated by the Romans still held good in Victorian times. It is recorded that John Watson of Malton declared that, from the middle of Bramham Moor, a man could see ten miles around him, within which area there would be enough stone to build ten cities. There was much clay, sand and coal, and two iron forges. There was lead, and three navigable rivers within those ten miles, as well as many forests stocked with deer. He noted too, in this desirable area, no fewer than seventy gentlemen's houses. The stone John Watson mentioned was not restricted to the Moor, for there were quarries all around, even within the village itself; up Tenter Hill, along the Clifford Road near the present Junior School, and next to the Old Hall for example. The Bramham magnesian limestone, with its rosy blush at sunset, has always been found attractive, though it has not been so productive as the great Toulston quarries of Smaws Lords and Jackdaw, from which so much of York's walls and Minster have been built.

The Battle of Bramham Moor: 19 February 1408

This battle, often referred to as Camp Hill, ranged over the area bounded by Camp Hill (near the University pig farm on the A1), Headley Ball (the University Farm), and Oglethorpe hills (the highest point of the Moor, either side of the road to Toulston The background was typical of the time; a succession of Kings had been pressed to establish their position over great Lords almost as strong as themselves. Thus Henry IV, who had had his predecessor, Richard II, starved to death in Pontefract Castle, was constantly beset by opponents who felt he had usurped the throne. Leaders of the faction campaigning for the claim of the Yorkist Princess Phillipa were Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland (father of Harry Hotspur of Shakespearean fame) and Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshall of England. Percy, having raised a force from his territories in the North, marched into Yorkshire, crossed the Wharfe at Wetherby, and met the King's forces under the Sheriff, Sir Thomas Rokeby, close to the A1 entrance to the University Farm. Even today a fragment of a Roman road running north‑west and south‑east exists at the spot; a line of entrenchments, pointing towards Headley Hall, lies between this spot and Holloway Leys Wood behind Paradise Farm just to the north. The battle raged across the whole Moor and, although both sides fought with courage and determination, as the trained soldiers of the Sheriff began to get the better of the rebels, the Earl's forces fled in all directions. Earl Percy was slain on the field and Lord Bardolf his deputy, died of his wounds soon after. Their bodies were cut into quarters and displayed in the principal towns of the kingdom. In the rebel army were the Abbot of Hales and the Bishop of Bangor. The former, taken in complete armour, was executed, but the Bishop, not appearing in the vestments of war, was spared. In the early years of the nineteenth century a ring and seal were found which were supposed to have belonged to one of these ecclesiastical warriors. The dead from this battle were buried in communal graves at the cast end of Bramham churchyard where the cherry trees stand today. The bottom of a cross which was the memorial to this battle lies at the edge of the wood on the right hand side of the dip in the road from Bramham to Toulston moved from its original position close by. For this victory Sir Thomas Rokeby received the manor of Spofforth, with everything appertaining, from a grateful King Henry, whose position thus secured for himself and his son, Henry V.

Bramham in the Wars of the Roses

The Lancastrian dynasty fell again into a position of weakness under Henry VI, who inherited as a child, and was by inclination a pious scholar rather than a warrior. By the 1450's the Yorkists had, furthermore, recovered their strength, so that in 1455 open warfare broke out, with the nation split again. A crucial battle, the bloodiest ever to be fought on British soil, resulted, at Towton, in a snow storm, on Palm Sunday, 29 March 1461. Over 100,000 troops were in the field with, once again, the Percy's playing a leading role, this time unexpectedly joining the Yorkist cause and altering the balance. As Cock Beck (by the new golf course at Cocksford) was in spate, and no quarter had been declared, many of the defeated Lancastrian army were trapped, and either drowned or put to the sword. In those days battles ranged over a very wide area and the fugitives from this battle took refuge in many of the surrounding villages or were slain whilst running away. It is easy to imagine the terror of the inhabitants of the villages as slaughter went on all around them. It is believed that some of the dead from this battle were also buried in communal graves at the East end of Bramham churchyard. In all, over 30,000 men were killed at Towton, the battle which secured the throne for the Yorkist Edward IV. Today  one can walk the battlefield and imagine its course, from the memorial just outside Towton down between the ridges where the two armies faced one another, to the bend in Cock Beck from which escape was so difficult.

The Civil War around Bramham

In an abortive rebellion in 1569 against Queen Elizabeth I, Bramham folk were certainly involved when 1600 horse soldiers and 4000 foot soldiers assembled on Clifford Moor under the Earls Of Northumberland and Westmoreland. However the next major warfare in the area was the Civil War which arose during the deposition of Charles 1 by Oliver Cromwell and the English Parliament. The Fairfax family, with many other gentlemen of the West Riding, took sides with Parliament. On 27 September 1642, the old Lord Fairfax, having attempted to be neutral but finding it impossible, accepted the post of Commander in Chief for the Parliament in Yorkshire with his son, Sir Thomas, as Commander-of-Horse. Sir Thomas's homes included Toulston Lodge, part of Tadcaster Grammar School, and Hope Hall along the Thorner road. The first skirmish fought in Yorkshire was at Wetherby when Sir Thomas Fairfax accompanied by some three hundred foot and forty horse soldiers was attacked by about twice that number of Royalists creeping out of the woods. Fairfax had been preparing to ride to Tadcaster but he managed to hold the enemy with only a few pikemen. When the rest of the forces realised what was happening, a short struggle took place during which Fairfax's powder magazine was blown up. The Royalists, believing this was the opening of cannon fire, fled back to York via Tadcaster Bridge with Fairfax chasing them. They would have had to pass through the parish of Bramham and as there was a lot of activity around Tadcaster Bridge, the local folk must have been drawn into action. A further battle followed at Tadcaster Bridge in December 1642, when the Earl of Newcastle, with a force of 7,000 men and several pieces of cannon, occupied the position north east of the bridge. Fairfax with only 800 men, was strongly entrenched around the south west foot of the bridge. For six hours Fairfax and his men withstood the Royalist pressure; reserving their fire until the last moment, they used it with deadly effect and the Royalists were driven back. Although Fairfax had to withdraw, he took possession of Tadcaster on the following day and held it until the siege of York. However Fairfax was less successful at the battle of Seacroft, fought at Whinmoor. Retreating gradually across Bramham Moor before a larger Royalist force, Fairfax and his men were trapped by a second group which reached the area from the north side of Bramham. As the Royalists attacked from front and rear, the Parliamentary forces fled, were slain or taken prisoner, with Fairfax just able to escape into Leeds. The climax of the civil wars came a few miles to the north east of Bramham, at Marston Moor in July 1644, when Cromwell and his Ironsides defeated the main Royalist army, before he became Lord Protector of England after the execution of king Charles I. Prior to this battle Cromwell is reputed to nave trained his Ironsides on Bramham Moor, and to have recruited local young farmers whose riding skills made them ideal cavalry. Once again, after the battle, victims were certainly buried in Bramham churchyard. As, by now, records were being kept, it is possible to name three soldiers whose remains rest here, Samuell Allan, Robert Johnson and Thomas Mirole.