Kirkstall Abbey, South 1891

Anticipating a Memory of Kirkstall Abbey

In among my family genealogical records is a note that an ancestor of mine named Richard de Berecrofte gave lands to Kirkstall Abbey in the 12th century.  I am SO looking forward to visiting the Abbey next year and taking my own pictures of it!
It is my understanding that my ancestors left the Cliviger area about 1650 for Boston, MA.

I am retiring next year and have lived most of my life in Pennsylvania, USA.  My daughter, Mary, is in the Air Force at Lakenheath AFB, and I will be staying with her. I would be happy to answer any questions.

Happy Day!

Bramley Memories and Me

I lived next door to Mr Dales newsagents on Highfield Road in Bramley. Opposite were rows of terraces in those days with a shop on the end of each terrace. A chip shop on the end of the first row and a newsagents and general store on the end of another - Bowers? I seem to remember. The Barley Mow pub was opposite our house along with the rugby ground and club. I could be wrong but I'm sure I have a memory of trams still running?
In those days the Rossfields and Snowdens were all fields and woods.
I can still remember walking the lenghth of Bramley Town Street with my mum and trying to walk on the raised curbs of the old pavements before the tarmac replaced them! Boy they were high!
Being served in the shops before the supermarkets came.
I remember a piece of land at the far end of Highfield Road - we kids called it the Potato Shed, I loved playing on there and having bonfires!
Raynville Primary School was run by Mr Sargent, he was so lovely.
I used to play in Bramley Fall Woods through the summer - in fact it's where I received my first kiss as a ten year old, thanks to Philip Morley!
We sledged down the hill to the bottom of the Raynvilles in those days as not too many cars and it is a steep hill, bogies in the summer!
Kick can and hop, it was a favourite game of mine along with British Bulldogs!
Bramley Carnival was in its heyday and from our house we got a brill view of all the floats, my cousin being on a float as a carnival queen runner up one year!
The main Carnival though was held on the fields at Bramley Park. A fantastic day on all the rides and shows.
There used to be a Pram Push once a year through Bramley Town Street too, well attended and crazy costumes, I loved this event even more than the carnival floats! Charities benefitted greatly from this event, it's sadly died out now.
Bramley Baths was a great place to meet your pals and the jammie dodgers for a penny were wolfed down in a second!

I was heart-broken when the lovely old shops and houses were pulled down to make way for a supermarket and shopping centre in the mid seventies, oh how they did not appreciate the travisty of it! The shopping revolution came and nothing would stop its progress. Unfortunately for Bramley it never felt the same again. The new houses built to accomodate the Quarry Hill Flats residents were ugly and boring to look at. They still are today. Bramley was a beautiful village back then. Shame.

My childhood - Bramley/West Yorkshire/Leeds/England.

I must have around 7 years old when my mother used to take me along Bramley Town Street, where in those times it was back to back houses and shops. I was taken regularly to the barbers at the top of Town Street, next to the barbers was a police station. In the barbers I was sat onto a small plank across the arms to raise me up. Many kids in those days had a basin cut where the barber put a basin over your head and cut round the basin. I never understood why the barber when cutting my hair would go and serve men at the window, they came to buy a packet of Durex.
On Town St. was the cinema called the Lido "flee pit", Sat. afternoons were good. At the end of Town St. was the terminus, bus num. 77 turned round. Here was another cinema, the posh one, the Clifton.
Bramley had its own rugby league club which played at the Barley Mow, back of the Barley Mow pub, as kids we used to sneak through a hole in the fence and go and watch the game.
I remember being taken to the Bramley band social club over the st. from the Barley Mow. Around there was back to back houses.
In Bramley there was Yates cotton mill, you always knew who worked at the mill because they used to shout when they talked to you.
We used to catch the num. 77 bus from the Broadleas up to Bramley Town St & get off at the top of Waterloo Lane.
One of our favourite pastimes in school hols. was waiting for the thrift grocers van which you entered at the back & was open, we used to wait for it & get a ride up Waterloo Lane. The thrift HQ was at Kirkstall, it's now a BHS store, opposite Archie Gordon sports field.
We spent many happy hours in Bramley Fall Park at the side of Leeds & Bradford Rd. We would spend all day down there in the summer hols. At the bottom was the Leeds & Liverpool canal where we would play on Newley Locks, Kirkstall Locks, get rides on barges, play hide & seek, climb trees, make dens, go swimming in the canal with an old inner tube found somewhere or make a raft which just about stayed afloat.
There used to be a gala in Bramley Fall Park in the summer which was very exciting for us kids.
I remember in November approaching bonfire night we used to go chumping (collecting firewood) in Bramley Fall Wood & cut down silver birch, small trees, & carry them back home over our shoulders over the main Leeds & Bradford Rd.
Where I lived in Bramley - the Sanford estate - looking back all the neighbours knew each other & all their kids.
Broadlea Gardens was where I was brought up at the top of the hill, on this hill was a big tree with a fence round it. If you climbed the tree you would be shouted down. We used to play cricket in the street, three bricks as wickets & 3 gardens & you were out. At the base of the big tree we used to play marbles every summer's night, depending on the season it would be whipping tops or hop scotch. We would go hedge hopping through gardens or play kick out can in the street.
A big favourite for kids was to make a bogie, a good set of pram wheels & some wood and away you went.
When bonfire night came round we used to go raiding at night and pinch other people's logs. Very often you would hear screams of raiders which happened, if you were seen you ran like hell or you would get thumped.
We lived in a 4 bed council house with a massive garden, 4 tall big trees, with just a cast iron fire range for heatng and cooking. We used to take the steel oven plates to bed in winter to warm the bed up, they were wrapped up in a blanket.
Around the streets were gas lamps. There used to be a man with a long stick come round very early on a morning & knock people up by tapping on windows.
At the bottom of Broadlea Gardens were the shops, there was a baker who made his own bread, butcher, fish & chip shop, off licence where you could buy beer if you took your own jug, & various other  shops. There was a public telephone box where you put in I think 4d old money & "a" & "b" buttons. If you ever saw a policeman you ran like hell, depending who he was & what mood he was in he would give you a clout round your ears. At the bottom of Broadlea Hill was Leeds & Bradford Rd, at the side of the road were rhubarb fields or "tuskey", we used to go & nick the rhubarb when in season, all the mothers made rhubarb pie or eat it out of newspaper with sugar. I think these fields were owned by a farmer called Briggs & he used to chase us if we walked through his fields to the canal, but not in winter where he had one field with a big hill where we went sledging. In those days we always had big snow falls, if we weren't sledging we would be making slides down the middle of the roads, there weren't many cars about in those days. It normally took days for the council to come out & spread sand by shovel, or people put ashes down from their coal fires.
Oh the memories.