History Bramham - the village in times past !

Bramham in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

During this period large landowners consolidated their hold on the village and its surrounding parish. The rise of the Benson family, subsequently Fox and Lane Fox from William and Mary's time in the early eighteenth century, has been well chronicled. Their acquisition of a large part of the parish   land and their building of Bramham park, brought, through their continuous ownership‑ a stabil­ity to the area which lasts until the present day. The passing down, in large blocks of land, from earlier to later landlords, and their enclosure of the open fields, allowed by private Acts of Parliament during the time of George II (160‑1810), enabled the parish to retain an agricultural unity unspoilt by urban development. The rural nature of Bramham and its surround­ings has been protected by the ownership of much of its acres by the Headley and Lane Fox families, and latterly in  the eastern part, by John Smith's Brewer; and the University of Leeds for its Department of Agriculture. Though the road network has continued to develop, notably with the growing importance of the A1, Bramham avoided the organisation of the railways. Thus, to the individual inconvenience of the villagers, the nearest railway stations lay at Newton Kyme (for York), Thorner (for Leeds) and Thorp Arch (for Wetherby), all on the York‑Wetherby‑Leeds line of the North Eastern Railways. The development of the Great North Road was continuous throughout this period, when its importance as the premier route between England and Scotland raised the profile of Bramham in common with other towns and villages throughout its length. A staging post less important than Aberford or Wetherby, Bramham nevertheless acquired its quota of beerhouses and brothels as it serviced the needs of travellers from north and south. Many of the village's older buildings bear a history related to this passing trade, as did the six inns registered in Victorian times. Bramham moreover is notable for the striking number of grand houses which he within its boundaries, some predating, but all developed within, this period. More than a dozen such gentlemanly residences remain, each with a history unique yet often interrelated.

The Grand Houses of Bramham

Bramham Park, whose history has been chronicled elsewhere­ was built in the period 1700‑1710 by Robert Benson, first Lord Bingley. whose father had keen granted the extensive lands by William and Mary for eminent public service. During and after Queen Anne's reign, much of the Moor was enclosed and cultivated into delightful park land and prosperous tenanted farms. The original house was badly gutted by fire in 1828, and not restored until 1906‑14, when the rebuilding was carried out using stone from Bramham College.

Bowcliffe Hall,  begun in 1805 by William Robinson, a Manchester cotton magnate, and sold soon afterwards, on his bankruptcy, for £2,000 at public auction. The house was completed around 1825 for John Smyth, before becoming the residence of the Lane Fox family during the period 1828‑1906, after the disastrous fire at Bramham Park. Subsequently it was owned by Mr W G Jackson from 1908 and Mr Robert Blackburn, the early aviation pioneer and manufacturer, from 1920 until 1935. He was chairman of Blackburn Aircraft Ltd, and founder of the flag school at Brough for the training of officers of the Air Reserve. In 1912 he built a single neater twin engined plane. He was also the owner of a plane which won the "War of the Air Trophy" presented by the Yorkshire Evening Post. The fuel companies Hargreaves and then Bayfords have used the house as offices since 1956.

Hope Hall, at one time a home of Sir Thomas Fairfax. of Civil War fame, in the 1640's this was owned by the Reverend J Troutbeck and much later by the Postmaster of Tadcaster, Mr Marshall. From 1852 it was the sporting seat of Viscount Nevill, though owned by the Bramham Park Estate. Latterly the Bramham Moor Hunt Kennels were installed, and the house turned into flats for estate personnel. Beech House,  formerly Beech Grove, owned by Mr George Wright. Beech House, with its annexe. became the Estate Office of the Bramham Park Estate, under its clerk, Mr Benson. Here lived Mr Wagstaff, the General Foreman Mason, a verb‑ considerable man, brought from Birmingham to supervise the re‑building of the Park before its re‑opening in 1907.

Bramham House; was built by a Vicar of Bramham, Rev Robert Bownas, in 1806, and later bought by James Lane Fox for his son. George the Gambler, on his marriage. His son, George the Squire, sold it in 1856 (when he was trying to settle the debts his father had left) to J R Gregson Esq. It was then sold to a Captain Preston who in turn sold it to a Mr C S Robson at about the turn of this century: Just before 1914 it was sold to Major Ingham and later to G T Ramsden of Ramsden's Brewery. In 1947/8 it was sold to the West Riding Council who used it as a Children's Home until it was closed in the late 1980's. Bramham Grange;  nestling beneath the A1 by‑pass on Tenter Hill, the Grange was a house of very consid­erable proportions lived in by various members of the gentry, and owned by the Bramham Park Estate who split it into its present three dwellings.The Manor House, at the top of High Street, was built in the early nineteenth century as a farmhouse. It is said to have a secret passageway running down to the church. 'this is one of Bramham's two haunted hous­es! In living memory W Hick Thackwray, a mineral water manufacturer, lived there, but, on his death, the house was bought by Bramham Park Estate, and con­verted into two dwellings. Wothersome Grange. On the site of an ancient Anglo Saxon settlement to the west of the village, `Squire George' Lane Fox built one of four identical houses for his children during the second half of the nineteenth century. The other three houses lie at Terry Lug (at the northern entrance to the Estate), Clifford Moor (on the A1 about half a mile north of the village) and between Walton and Wighill. Bramham Lodge,  an early nineteenth century house, originally part of the Headley Estate, was lived in by a Mr Bigland, then the Wright family, and then J H Whittaker. Bramham Park Estate bought it and it was lived in by Mr Edmund Harrison, their steward. It became the home of Major Lipscombe, who was Estate Manager to the Lane Fox family, before going into pri­vate ownership in the late 1960's. Tenter Hill Lodge, now Carlton House In early Victorian times Miss Mary Ann Bownas, daughter of former Vicar Robert Bownas, ran a College for Young Ladies in this house. Prospect House, on High Street, has records which show its owners since 1812. A cottage at the back was at some stage incorporated into the house. In recent times Mr Kendrew ran a local business from the house during the Second World War; his sister was known to kill pigs in the cellars!

Bramham Old Hall

The Old Vicarage dates from 1678, its grounds stretching round half the churchyard. Originally considerably larger even than today, it was partly demolished for practical purposes. During the 1960's a new vicarage was built in the grounds, with the older building sold into private hands. Earlier a "Village Institute", now a private bungalow near the Village Hall, was built in the original Vicarage grounds by a former Vicar's wife, Mrs Wadeson, to enable villagers to have a bath there for a few pence. Bramham Old Hall.  The Old Hall is one of the oldest houses in the area, whose central part is thought to date from the Stuart period. (The date 1681 appears over a door lintel.) The inclusion of the Old in its name came about to avoid confusion with Bramham Hall, the name given to Bowcliffe Hall by the Lane Fox family during their residence there. The Old Hall has had a number of extensions, one wing certainly being Victorian. Probably the home of the early Lords of the Manor, the house has a cobbled courtyard which is thought to have been the marching square where the Lord of the Manor exercised his own small body of armed men. In late Victorian times, the then owner, the Rt Hon John Lloyd Wharton, MP for Ripon, gave the Church Lychgate in memory of his wife. Later, Mr Hardcastle was well known for the collection of clocks he kept there. More recent residents have been Mr & Mrs Bowman, Col and Mrs Whittingham, and Mr Tony Clegg and his family. An interesting feature is the garden folly, with flagstaff; this building, which appears to be a ruined medieval tower, is in fact of later nineteenth century construction, containing a three water earth closet, the third at child's level. Oglethorpe Hall; now only visible in an old archway close to more modern farm buildings, this was the seat of an ancient family which flourished from before the Norman Conquest until the time of Cromwell, well over 600 years. The parish's full name, Bramham‑cum‑Oglethorpe testifies to their importance. At the time of the Conquest the Oglethorpe of the day held the prestigious position of Reeve (Steward or Magistrate)of the County. A descendant, Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle, born at Oglethorpe Hall, was present at the burning of Latimer and Ridley, survived the turbulance of Henry VIII's reign, and crowned the first Queen Elizabeth on 15 January, 1559. He is buried at St Dunstan's in Fleet Street, London. Queen Elizabeth visited Oglethorpe in 1572; her signature is on an old commentary held at Newton Kyme Rectory. It was Bishop Oglethorpe who founded Tadcaster Grammar School in 1556. Eventually the family's royal connections told against it, when Cromwell's Parliament confiscated all its estates, giving them to the Fairfax family. Much later they were sold to Lord Bingley Headley Hall;  originally built by Bishop Oglethorpe during the sixteenth century, Headley Hall came into the hands of the Winn family, one of whom was raised in 1797 to an Irish peerage as Lord Headley, Baron Allanson and Winn. The house and lands continued in private ownership until 1903 when they were bought by the Bramham Park Estates. They in turn leased, in the late 1940's, and later sold them to the University of Leeds as the farm for its Department of Agriculture. The Biggin.  Having been in medieval times the site of the Nostell Priory monks' cell, the Biggin housed members of a variety of famous families ‑ D'Arcy, Gascoigne, Fairfax, Goodricke ‑ but notably became the home of Charles Allanson, MP for Ripon. In turn he was succeeded by his relatives the Winn family, one of whom, Sir George Winn, became Lord Headley in 1797. Mr Henry Ramsden lived there in the 1840's. In the mid‑nineteenth century the Biggin was leased and much‑extended as Bramham College. After the college closed with the college buildings dismantled the Biggin reverted to being a house and yet remained within the Bramham Park Estate, lived in by Mr Duncalfe, and the Hon Christopher York before the Second World War. During the war a Miss Brown ran a nursery school there and it was used for a time to house evacuees. Following the war Col and Mrs Lane Fox, Mr and Mrs Oliver, Mr and Mrs Fawcett have lived there. It is still leased by Bramham Park Estate.