Gildersome
Encyclopedia
Gildersome is a village and civil parish
in the City of Leeds
metropolitan borough
5 miles (7 km) south west of Leeds city centre
in West Yorkshire
, England
.
It is situated midway between Leeds
, Wakefield
and Bradford
but is considered part of Morley
in the LS27 (Leeds (Morley)) postcode area while the village telephone numbers
are "0113", the Leeds prefix.
Gildersome was an Urban district
, established in 1894. In 1937 it was absorbed into the Municipal Borough of Morley
. In 1974 the borough was abolished and combined with neighbouring authorities in the City of Leeds. Although the village is still classed as part of the Morley urban area in the census, it is technically separate, and is not governed by Morley Town Council
. In 2004 a civil parish was established and the village now has a parish council. Gildersome is in the Morley North ward
, which elects three councillors to Leeds City Council
, and is in the Morley and Outwood
parliamentary constituency.
Gildersome is one of the highest parts of the Leeds district area at 171 metres above sea level (Hart Hill).
The M621 motorway
begins at M62 motorway
junction 27 which is Gildersome. The A62
Leeds to Huddersfield
(Gelderd Road) also runs by the village.
Gildersome has many services such as a library, doctors, fast food restaurants, laundrette and a small Co-op store
. A playground sits next to the library. A war memorial is situated on the village green. Perhaps slightly unusual for a village of its size, it has always had a number of schools, right through its history. At present, there are two primary schools; Gildersome Primary and Birchfield County Primary. The schools are both feeder schools to a range of high schools in the area, as the village is allocated centrally between the likes of Farnley High School, and the Morley Schools.
Gildersome has a largely sporting community, especially within football and cricket sectors. The village team, Gildersome Spurs, trains and plays teams in football from an early age, and holds an annual gala. The cricket club, located at the top of Street Lane, has been successfully operating for decades. In 2007, they broke records, when their junior team played four matches, one in each country in the space of 12 hours, a feat which was recorded by local and national media. In September 2007 Gildersome entered Rugby League
with a team playing in the CMS Yorkshire league
Division 4.
Gildersome has changed in size and population a lot over time, and has changed beyond recognition in 100 years, when the village was a thriving mining community with many local pits. A lot of the original mining locations remain, such as the 'brownhills', a large area of land which separates Gildersome from neighbouring Drighlington
. The provisions created for the miners, including the increased number of housing remain today, including the town houses and terraces built on Street Lane.
A lot of the land has also been redeveloped. The land on which Mill Lane and its subsequent housing now sits was, as the name suggests, a large industrial area, with Maiden Mills built on the site. Originally, there was a flax mill, but during an incident in 1914, the mill burnt down, and a new one was built. In the 1990s, the land was cleared and re-developed for housing.
The first church in the village, Gildersome Baptist Church
Chapel was constructed in 1707. It was built for public worship with an intended capacity of 250 people. In 2007 there were many celebrations and events to coincide with the 300th year anniversary of the original place of worship. In 1866, for a cost of approximately £2,000, a new chapel was built, much larger than the original. It was opened on 2 May 1866, and the original building remains. However in recent years, the church was redeveloped, with the adjoining halls and facilities being converted into flats. The original hall was renovated, with a new and modern interior and brand new facilities. Through grants, volunteering schemes and assistance from various sources, the graveyard has also been converted into a community garden, which encourages local school children to learn more about the environment and nature.
Turton Hall in Gildersome (now three residential dwellings) was a prominent and wealthy school, for higher education students, during the 1700s. It is said that preacher John Wesley
visited and preached in the dining room. The Hall returned to private ownership in 1879, and remains a Grade II listed building, with several TPO's (tree preservation orders) covering the grounds.
Gildersome also used to have two fully functioning railway stations. One was on the GNR line from Wakefield to Bradford which ran at the turn of the century, and it was located at the Cross Roads at the top of the village (towards Morley). This station closed in 1962 along with Drighlington
& Adwalton
. In the recent roundabout replacements a tunnel on the GNR line was uncovered and then resealed. The second station was on rooms lane and was on the Leeds to Huddersfield LNWR "Leeds New Line" opened in 1900. This station closed in 1923 to passengers. Gildersome tunnel (LNWR) was recently visited by the L.H.E.S http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=22824
On 4 February 1974, the village and surrounding area gathered widespread national attention, when there was a coach bomb
, on the M62 motorway
which passes the boundary of the village. 12 people including soldiers and members of their families, died in the incident, which the media claimed to be the work of the IRA
.
For more information surrounding the history of the village, local history books about Morley and the surrounding area, along with newspaper references are always good points of information. However, for a more-indepth and photographic history, then the community books created by Gildersome Baptist Churches during the 90's are excellent points of research;
"Gildersome Past & Present" and "Gildersome....Do You Remember?"
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
in the City of Leeds
City of Leeds
The City of Leeds is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Leeds City Council, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. The metropolitan district includes Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell,...
metropolitan borough
Metropolitan borough
A metropolitan borough is a type of local government district in England, and is a subdivision of a metropolitan county. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts, however all of them have been granted or regranted...
5 miles (7 km) south west of Leeds city centre
Leeds City Centre
Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, England. It is within the Leeds Central parliamentary constituency, represented by Hilary Benn as MP since a by-election in 1999...
in West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
It is situated midway between Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
and Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
but is considered part of Morley
Morley, West Yorkshire
Morley is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies approximately south-west of Leeds city centre. Together with Drighlington, Gildersome, Churwell, Tingley and East/West Ardsley, the town had a population of 47,579 in...
in the LS27 (Leeds (Morley)) postcode area while the village telephone numbers
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
The UK telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, is the system used for assigning telephone numbers in the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies...
are "0113", the Leeds prefix.
Gildersome was an Urban district
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
, established in 1894. In 1937 it was absorbed into the Municipal Borough of Morley
Morley, West Yorkshire
Morley is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies approximately south-west of Leeds city centre. Together with Drighlington, Gildersome, Churwell, Tingley and East/West Ardsley, the town had a population of 47,579 in...
. In 1974 the borough was abolished and combined with neighbouring authorities in the City of Leeds. Although the village is still classed as part of the Morley urban area in the census, it is technically separate, and is not governed by Morley Town Council
Town council
A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....
. In 2004 a civil parish was established and the village now has a parish council. Gildersome is in the Morley North ward
Wards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
, which elects three councillors to Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...
, and is in the Morley and Outwood
Morley and Outwood (UK Parliament constituency)
Morley and Outwood is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
parliamentary constituency.
Gildersome is one of the highest parts of the Leeds district area at 171 metres above sea level (Hart Hill).
The M621 motorway
M621 motorway
The M621 motorway is a short loop of motorway in England that takes traffic into central Leeds between the M1 and M62 motorways. It is the second longest motorway in the United Kingdom to carry a three digit number although it carries more junctions than any other three digit motorway within the...
begins at M62 motorway
M62 motorway
The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22...
junction 27 which is Gildersome. The A62
A62 road
The A62 is a major road in Northern England that runs between the two major cities of Manchester and Leeds.The road is approximately 40 miles long. It runs north east from Manchester through Failsworth and Oldham then Saddleworth before crossing the Pennines at Standedge into West Yorkshire...
Leeds to Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
(Gelderd Road) also runs by the village.
Gildersome has many services such as a library, doctors, fast food restaurants, laundrette and a small Co-op store
The Co-operative Group
The Co-operative Group Ltd. is a United Kingdom consumer cooperative with a diverse range of business interests. It is co-operatively run and owned by its members. It is the largest organisation of this type in the world, with over 5.5 million members, who all have a say in how the business is...
. A playground sits next to the library. A war memorial is situated on the village green. Perhaps slightly unusual for a village of its size, it has always had a number of schools, right through its history. At present, there are two primary schools; Gildersome Primary and Birchfield County Primary. The schools are both feeder schools to a range of high schools in the area, as the village is allocated centrally between the likes of Farnley High School, and the Morley Schools.
Gildersome has a largely sporting community, especially within football and cricket sectors. The village team, Gildersome Spurs, trains and plays teams in football from an early age, and holds an annual gala. The cricket club, located at the top of Street Lane, has been successfully operating for decades. In 2007, they broke records, when their junior team played four matches, one in each country in the space of 12 hours, a feat which was recorded by local and national media. In September 2007 Gildersome entered Rugby League
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
with a team playing in the CMS Yorkshire league
CMS Yorkshire league
The CMS Yorkshire League is a series of rugby league divisions in the traditional county of Yorkshire.The league is run by the British Amateur Rugby League Association...
Division 4.
History
Gildersome is thought to be a corruption of Guelderzoom in recognition of Dutch immigrants fleeing from Guelderland around 1751 who found asylum in the area.Gildersome has changed in size and population a lot over time, and has changed beyond recognition in 100 years, when the village was a thriving mining community with many local pits. A lot of the original mining locations remain, such as the 'brownhills', a large area of land which separates Gildersome from neighbouring Drighlington
Drighlington
Drighlington is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan district, West Yorkshire, England. The village lies 5 miles south west of Leeds and 4 miles south east of Bradford...
. The provisions created for the miners, including the increased number of housing remain today, including the town houses and terraces built on Street Lane.
A lot of the land has also been redeveloped. The land on which Mill Lane and its subsequent housing now sits was, as the name suggests, a large industrial area, with Maiden Mills built on the site. Originally, there was a flax mill, but during an incident in 1914, the mill burnt down, and a new one was built. In the 1990s, the land was cleared and re-developed for housing.
The first church in the village, Gildersome Baptist Church
Gildersome Baptist Church
Gildersome Baptist Church, Gildersome, West Yorkshire, England, is one of the oldest churches within the Gildersome/Morley area, having in 2007 celebrated 300 years of preaching...
Chapel was constructed in 1707. It was built for public worship with an intended capacity of 250 people. In 2007 there were many celebrations and events to coincide with the 300th year anniversary of the original place of worship. In 1866, for a cost of approximately £2,000, a new chapel was built, much larger than the original. It was opened on 2 May 1866, and the original building remains. However in recent years, the church was redeveloped, with the adjoining halls and facilities being converted into flats. The original hall was renovated, with a new and modern interior and brand new facilities. Through grants, volunteering schemes and assistance from various sources, the graveyard has also been converted into a community garden, which encourages local school children to learn more about the environment and nature.
Turton Hall in Gildersome (now three residential dwellings) was a prominent and wealthy school, for higher education students, during the 1700s. It is said that preacher John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
visited and preached in the dining room. The Hall returned to private ownership in 1879, and remains a Grade II listed building, with several TPO's (tree preservation orders) covering the grounds.
Gildersome also used to have two fully functioning railway stations. One was on the GNR line from Wakefield to Bradford which ran at the turn of the century, and it was located at the Cross Roads at the top of the village (towards Morley). This station closed in 1962 along with Drighlington
Drighlington
Drighlington is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan district, West Yorkshire, England. The village lies 5 miles south west of Leeds and 4 miles south east of Bradford...
& Adwalton
Adwalton
Adwalton is village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. It is south west of Leeds and is now generally regarded as part of the larger village of Drighlington...
. In the recent roundabout replacements a tunnel on the GNR line was uncovered and then resealed. The second station was on rooms lane and was on the Leeds to Huddersfield LNWR "Leeds New Line" opened in 1900. This station closed in 1923 to passengers. Gildersome tunnel (LNWR) was recently visited by the L.H.E.S http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=22824
On 4 February 1974, the village and surrounding area gathered widespread national attention, when there was a coach bomb
M62 coach bombing
The M62 coach bombing happened on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England, when a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded in a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members. Twelve people were killed by the bomb, which consisted of of...
, on the M62 motorway
M62 motorway
The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22...
which passes the boundary of the village. 12 people including soldiers and members of their families, died in the incident, which the media claimed to be the work of the IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
.
For more information surrounding the history of the village, local history books about Morley and the surrounding area, along with newspaper references are always good points of information. However, for a more-indepth and photographic history, then the community books created by Gildersome Baptist Churches during the 90's are excellent points of research;
"Gildersome Past & Present" and "Gildersome....Do You Remember?"
Trivia
- Gildersome Primary School's emblem which is placed on the uniforms and school-related products, is a phoenixPhoenix (mythology)The phoenix or phenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in the mythologies of the Arabian, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indian and Phoenicians....
. The school was initially built in 1984, to educate the students of the merging Gildersome Junior School and St Peters Infant school, allowing children to be taught from reception age, through to 11. However the philosophy behind the Phoenix comes from the fact that both schools suffered terrible fires, in the 70's and 80's. The new school was seen as a new beginning, and the Phoenix was chosen as an emblem, which remains to this date. A revised edition was designed in 2003, for multimedia purposes. - During the war years, on the land on which the Green Park sits, at the bottom of the Gildersome Primary drive, there was a public air-raid shelter.
- Winston Churchill once made a visit to the village, stopping on the boundary between Leeds (city centre) and Morley, where he "meeted and greeted" people near St Bernards (now on Gelderd Road)
- Gildersome gained national widespread attention in 1663, when a foiled plot aimed at taking over the city of Leeds, and other strongholds in the Yorkshire area came to the attention of the public. It is now commonly known as the Farnley Wood Plot, but many of the conspirators came from the Gildersome area. In conjunction with this plot, many people were arrested and held captive at York. Three who managed to escape were brought back to Leeds for immediate execution. Some people go as far to say, that the land on which one of the plotters house used to stand, along with the original plantains, is now haunted.