West Bretton
Coordinates: 53°22′12″N 1°20′24″W / 53.370°N 1.340°W
| West Bretton | |
Jan2006.jpg) War Memorial, West Bretton |
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 West Bretton
West Bretton shown within West Yorkshire |
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| Population | 546 |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SE285135 |
| Metropolitan borough | City of Wakefield |
| Metropolitan county | West Yorkshire |
| Region | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WAKEFIELD |
| Postcode district | WF4 |
| Dialling code | 01924 |
| Police | West Yorkshire |
| Fire | West Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire | |
West Bretton is a village and civil parish in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It lies 7 miles (11 km) from Wakefield, close to junction 38 of the M1 motorway. It has a population of 546.[1]
There is a school in the village, West Bretton Junior and Infant School, and a church, which is a Anglican-Methodist local ecumenical partnership. There is no pub in the village, but at Midgley, there is the Black Bull; the Station pub and the Old Post Office pub are nearby. The closest shop to the village is the Blacker Hall farm shop, which sells local produce.
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[edit] History
[edit] Toponymy
Bretton is the farmstead of the Britons and derives from the Old English, Brettas and ton. It was recorded as Bretone in the Domesday Book of 1086 and West Bretton in 1200. [2]
[edit] Bretton Hall
Bretton Hall was built about 1720 by Sir William Wentworth, assisted by James Moyser, in 500 acres (2.0 km2) of lakes and parkland. The Beaumont family, the Viscounts Allendale acquired the hall in 1792 employing John Carr, the Horbury born architect, to remodel the library and dining room in 1793. The hall was enlarged between 1811 and 1814 and the stables built from 1842 to 1852. The hall and other buildings and bridges in Bretton Park are Grade II listed structures. In 1949, the hall became Bretton Hall College, a teacher training college, which was later affiliated to the University of Leeds. It closed in 2006. Bretton Hall is owned by Wakefield Council.[3]
[edit] Governance
Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the chapelry of West Bretton was partly in the parish of Sandal Magna in the wapentake of Agbrigg and Morley and partly in the parish of Silkstone in the wapentake of Staincross. It became part of the Wakefield Poor Law Union in 1837.[4][5] West Bretton became part of Wakefield Rural District, created in 1894 and abolished 1974, when it became part of the City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.[6]
[edit] Geography
The River Dearne flows west to east through its landscaped valley in Bretton Park where it is dammed forming two lakes. West Bretton is on the A637 Barnsley to Huddersfield road, south west of the junction with the A636 Wakefield to Denby Dale road and close to the M1 motorway, which passes to the east of the village.
[edit] Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, consists of 0.80 square kilometres (200 acres) of landscaped ground with a large collection of sculptures including some by Elisabeth Frink, some by Auguste Rodin, and others by local sculptors Barbara Hepworth, born in Wakefield, and Henry Moore, born in Castleford.[7]
[edit] Sport
West Bretton Cricket Club is located 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.[8] In 2007 the club celebrated its centenary year, and marked the occasion by inviting the former England wicket-keeper turned artist Jack Russell to visit the ground and paint a landscape of the pitch and clubhouse. A team from the club recently won the Copmanthorpe 8s tournament in Copmanthorpe, York. The ground is a classic example of village cricket, with its picturesque setting adjacent to the sculpture park.
[edit] References
- ^ Office for National Statistics : Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : Wakefield Retrieved 2009-09-12
- ^ Mills 1998, p. 53
- ^ A history of Bretton Hall, Wakefield Council, http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/CultureAndLeisure/ParksAndOpenSpaces/BrettonCountryPark/BrettonHall.htm, retrieved 2010-03-29
- ^ Lewis, Samuel (1848), "Bretton, West", A Topographical Dictionary of England (British History Online): pp. 357–362, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50827#s15, retrieved 2010-03-29
- ^ Wakefield Workhouse, workhouses.org, http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Wakefield/Wakefield.shtml, retrieved 2010-04-03
- ^ Unit History of West Bretton, Vision of Britain, http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10401367&c_id=10001043, retrieved 2010-04-03
- ^ Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, http://www.ysp.co.uk/view.aspx?id=369, retrieved 2010-03-29
- ^ West Bretton CC, West Bretton CC, http://www.westbrettoncc.com/, retrieved 2010-03-29
- Bibliography
- Mills, A. D. (1998), Dictionary of English Place-Names, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280074-4
[edit] External links
Media related to West Bretton at Wikimedia Commons
