Bramham House and Freely Lane - 20 Century
Developments
Before 1924 most of the land ( 7
acres, 3 roods & 6 perches ) along Freely Lane, on both sides, was part of
the grounds of Bramham House at times The
Mansion, at others Bramham Hall .
Their extremities at the
eastern end were the strip of land along Aberford Road , still privately
owned in 2000 , and the boundary with the gardens of Bramham Lodge. At the
western end were the few buildings which climbed Almshouse Hill. From 1924 ,
the sequence of events relating to Bramham House and its grounds were
as follows :-
24 Oct. 1924Captain George
Taylor Ramsden of The Jumples, Halifax ( owner of Ramsden's Stone Trough
Ales ) bought the house and land from Major John Lister Ingham of Wighill
for £9500.
9 Oct. 1936 Captain Ramsden
died whilst out shooting ; a few years later the only son Robert was killed
in a motorcycle accident at Pompocali.
15 Aug. 1947 West Riding C.C.
bought the estate from Thomas Ramsden of Middleton Tower, King's Lynn and
Edward Ramsden of Sands Hill, Sdgefield for £8000. The land now consisted of 16.5 acres, including parcels of land in Bramham ;
Bramham House ; and the 4 houses on The Crag built by George Ramsden for his
employees , on the strip of land which ran from his main grounds through to
Town Hill.
Bramham House itself was used as a Children's Home , while , next
to it, was built the ambulance station. ( Description of Children's Home above. )
Before the reorganisation
of county boundaries in 1973, and the West
Riding ceased to exist , much of e grounds to the north of Freely Lane were bought by
the then ratepayers of Bramham for £3000 , to be used as the village playing
fields and administered by the Village Council, whose leader Cr. Geoff Wood,
with The Hon. Mrs.Marcia Lane Fox, was a prime mover in the acquisition .
The section at the west end
was retained by Leeds as a possible site for a new
ambulance station. This was not pursued , however, and the land was bought
with building permission during the 1990`s.
1 Apr. 1966 Lionel Edgar
Durham of 16, Lyndhurst Rd., Schoes, Leedst bought 0.8 acres at the eastern
corner of the Estate , next to Bramham Lodge gardens, for £1500
, for the building of two houses or bungalows.
30 Aug. 1966 Lionel Durham
sold the 0.8 acres on to Arthur Shepherd ( master butcher ) of 7, Coxwold
View, Wetherby, for 2000.
3 Oct. 1967 Arthur Shepherd
sold this land to K.A.Small Developments ‑for £2200
of a larger sale of £ 5500.
In 1968 the two dwellings presently
occupying this 0.8 acre site were built, The Beeches and The Gables.
The Beeches was bought first
by the Webb family, and subsequently by Jeffery and Christine Ellis in July 1984 and occupied with their two sons David and Steven.
The Gables was built by G.A.
Kaye Ltd. and completed in July 1968.
It was bought consecutively by
Aug,
1968 The Philips family
Sept. 1976 Mrs. Quarmby
Oct. 1986 The Vickers family
Feb. 1995 Brian & Susan Paish
During 1996 , the Parish Council
assisted a group of private residents (BAC‑PAC) to build the Children' s Playground at the western end of the playing fields, by granting the plot
of land and helping to organise funding. The
Council retained the ownership of and responsibility for this playground ,
setting up a sub ‑ committee drawn from the Council and the residents' group
to ensure its proper upkeep.
Full details of these transactions can be found
in the Council records, whose keeper, Parish Clerk Ian Watson , supplied
this information
‑ Initial cost of playground,
completed in Dec. 1996 £ 21,510
3 additional features in Sept.
1998 £ 2,328
£23, 838
VAT was paid but recovered as bills
were honoured through the Parish Council as owners.
Of the total , £12,000 was a
donation from the Foundation for Sports & Arts , and the remainder ( just
over £12,000) was raised
from villagers and local businesses, including £500
from the Parish Council and another £500 from
George Lane Fox.
Bramham House
Children`s Home.
After acquiring the house in 1947 ,
and as a result of the Children's Act of c. 1948 , the West Riding C.C.
opened a home for children in unsafe or unhappy family circumstances .
All
the brothers and sisters of a family were kept together at Bramham House ,
which was not used at this stage as an institution for maladjusted or
delinquent children.
Thus it became, for as long as
necessary, their family home, under a succession of administrators: Mr. &
Mrs. Holmes, Mr. & Mrs. Bradbury, and finally, under this WRCC regime,
Mr. & Mrs. Hale , who has added a note on the Home in their time.
On local government re‑organisation in 1974 Leeds took over the running of the Home , as a result
of which the admission policy changed.
The Hales left, and thereafter
children on remand and delinquents were admitted to join the family groups
still present. This caused many problems. A description of the life of the
children's home was written for the Archive by Mrs. Hale, as above
Footnote :-
Mrs L Hale, Matron at Bramham House from 1968 to about 1974 died on 27th February 2013. Mr Hale died in January 2002.
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