The History of Gildersome
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  • Old Photos
    • Branch End & Town Street
    • Turton Hall
    • Green & Finkle Lane
    • Town End, Harthill, Bottoms
    • Church St to Moor Head
    • Gelderd Road & Railway
    • Street Ln & The Street
    • Odds and Ends
    • Artist's Works
    • Recently Added
  • History
    • Name Origin
    • 1066
    • Medieval
    • Gildersome Park?
    • Iron-Working
    • Greathead Family
    • Saml Greatheed
    • Morley Chapel Protest
    • Farnley Wood Plot
    • Joshua Greathead
    • 1500s to 1700s
    • Industrial Revolution
    • 20th Century
    • I Remember Gildersome
    • Religion >
      • Quakers
      • Methodists
  • Events
    • Roman Coin
    • Luddites in Gildersome
    • 1850's in Newspapers
    • Parsonage Attack
    • The Great War >
      • War Memorial Dedication
      • Gildersome's Fallen Heroes
      • 1918
      • PoWs
    • Railway
  • Places
    • Manor House
    • Park House
    • Turton Hall
    • Harthill House
    • Old Hall
    • The Woodlands
    • Highfield Mill
    • Saint Peter's
    • Baptist Church
    • Gelderd Road
    • Schools >
      • Old National School
      • New National School
      • New School on the Green
      • The Board Schools
    • Poorhouse
    • Andrew Hill Farm
  • People
    • Famous People
    • Hudson's Holiday
    • Infamous People >
      • Arthur Brook
      • Highwayman Nevison
    • Families >
      • The Bilbrough Family >
        • Bilbrough Family Intro
        • James 1713
        • James 1742
        • John 1745
        • William 1742 / Family > >
          • Thomas 1798
        • James 1782
  • Census
  • Maps
  • Home
  • Old Photos
    • Branch End & Town Street
    • Turton Hall
    • Green & Finkle Lane
    • Town End, Harthill, Bottoms
    • Church St to Moor Head
    • Gelderd Road & Railway
    • Street Ln & The Street
    • Odds and Ends
    • Artist's Works
    • Recently Added
  • History
    • Name Origin
    • 1066
    • Medieval
    • Gildersome Park?
    • Iron-Working
    • Greathead Family
    • Saml Greatheed
    • Morley Chapel Protest
    • Farnley Wood Plot
    • Joshua Greathead
    • 1500s to 1700s
    • Industrial Revolution
    • 20th Century
    • I Remember Gildersome
    • Religion >
      • Quakers
      • Methodists
  • Events
    • Roman Coin
    • Luddites in Gildersome
    • 1850's in Newspapers
    • Parsonage Attack
    • The Great War >
      • War Memorial Dedication
      • Gildersome's Fallen Heroes
      • 1918
      • PoWs
    • Railway
  • Places
    • Manor House
    • Park House
    • Turton Hall
    • Harthill House
    • Old Hall
    • The Woodlands
    • Highfield Mill
    • Saint Peter's
    • Baptist Church
    • Gelderd Road
    • Schools >
      • Old National School
      • New National School
      • New School on the Green
      • The Board Schools
    • Poorhouse
    • Andrew Hill Farm
  • People
    • Famous People
    • Hudson's Holiday
    • Infamous People >
      • Arthur Brook
      • Highwayman Nevison
    • Families >
      • The Bilbrough Family >
        • Bilbrough Family Intro
        • James 1713
        • James 1742
        • John 1745
        • William 1742 / Family > >
          • Thomas 1798
        • James 1782
  • Census
  • Maps
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By Charles Soderlund                           © 03/2014
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​​Gildersome is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds 5 miles (7 km) south west of Leeds city centre in West Yorkshire, England. 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.
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​My mother's family, the Bilbroughs, lived in Gildersome for over one hundred and twenty years (1770 - 1900). While researching my family's history, I accumulated a great deal of material related to their village. Since Gildersome's history on the internet has been sparse, piecemeal and often incorrect, I hope this website will bring together those web references and my own research, in a logical and interesting yet informative manner. 
Special thanks go to Brian Appleyard in Perth, Australia and John Bedford in West Yorkshire for all their help !
The History of Gildersome is looking for readers to contribute stories, facts and photographs, especially from the 1960s back. If you feel you have something relevant and copyright free, please contact me:
​ Charles Soderlund 

Primary Works About Gildersome and Nearby Morley History:

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​"History of Gildersome and the Booth Family" ​: Written by Philip Booth and completed in 1920. Though it contains some detailed genealogy on the Booth family of Gildersome, it also is the best source for historic fact. I urge all those interested in Gildersome history to read it or at least browse its pages. In 1999, Damian Fox did a reprint, cleaning up mistakes and formatting errors. This completely searchable digital copy presented here is that reprint, digitized by Peter Booth.     
​Click on the cover page above.

Please Note!
Special thanks go to Andrew Bedford, the History of Gildersome's contributing writer, and my friend!

​SEE WHAT 'S  NEW:    Click here

Links to Pages in this History:
Old Photos
Around Gildersome​​    Under Construction
Branch End and Town Street  
Turton Hall and College Ave  
​The Green, Greenside and Finkle Lane
Town End, Harthill and the Bottoms
Church St, to Moor Head   Under Construction
Gelderd Road and the Railway
Street Lane and The Street  Under Construction
Odds and Ends    (miscellaneous items)
Recently Added  New 02/2023

History:
Origin of the Name
Gildersome and the Normans 
Gildersome as a Medieval Deer Park  
Ironworking in Medieval Gildersome  
Gildersome in the Middle Ages
The Morley Old Chapel Protest 1663  
Farnley Wood Plot  
​​Joshua Greathead
Reminiscences

Events:
A Roman coin and a Roman road        New
Robbers Attack The Parsonage
Luddites attack Gildersome  
1850s Scrapbook
1918 in Newspaper Clippings
The War Memorial Unveiled 
The Roll of the Fallen 1914-1918
Gildersome’s Kriegsgefangenen   

Places:
The Manor House   
Harthill House
Turton Hall 
Park House
The Woodlands
Highfield Mills   
The Old Hall
Gildersome's Workhouse   
The New School on the Green  
Gildersome’s Old National School 
Gildersome's New National School
Gildersome's Board Schools
St. Peter's​
Baptist Church
Andrew Hill Farm 

People:
People with a connection to Gildersome
Highwayman John Nevison 
Hudson's Holiday to the Lake District
Gildersome's Gentleman Burglar
Greatheads and Scatcherds in Gildersome (new)

Gildersome in old:   Maps
Census and  Lists

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"Morley, Ancient and Modern" : ​Written by William Smith F.S.A.S. published in 1886.      Searchable.
​Other relevant titles by Smith are:
"Old Yorkshire"
"The Registers of Topcliffe and Morley in the West Riding"
"Rambles About Morley"                                                                               Click on the cover page right.

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"History of the Baptist Church at Gildersome" : Compiled by William Radford Bilbrough and published in 1888. Not Searchable.
This copy was in the safe in the office of Gildersome Baptist Church. The church wardens were kind enough to let me photograph the pages with my digital camera. The lighting was bad and I was in a rush so I missed a page or two and others are blurry. Oops! It's a big file and takes a little bit of time to load. Sorry!  
​                                                                                  
                                                   
Click on the cover page right.

Other Interesting Links:

Norrison Scatcherd's  "History of Morley"

"The History of Morley Old Chapel and Its
​Ministers, from the Earliest Times"


Morley & District Family History Group

Morley Community Archives
GENUKI - UK & Ireland Genealogy- Batley Parish

 Life in Old Yorkshire

  Weaving in Old Yorkshire

 Gildersome War Memorial Transcription

​​"Journey of a Lost Manuscript"

The History of Gildersome endorses this new book:

For More: Click Here​
The rediscovery in a country town in Australia of a 16th century manuscript believed destroyed by fire.            by Lorraine Smith
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PictureClick on photo to go to the Website.
​ABOUT THE STORY
When an old parchment was found inside a copy of Alice in Wonderland in a second-hand bookshop, everything about it was a mystery.
​
Discovered to be an Elizabethan manuscript, this is the enthralling story of its travels from Gildersome, Yorkshire in 1583 to Warrnambool, Victoria in 2013.
​
It is a journey with so many twists and lucky escapes it should be a novel - but this is a true story.

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 © Charles Soderlund 2019