Picture
Use pull down menus above to navigate the site.

Maps of Gildersome                                                               

1577 Map by Christopher Saxton  (a portion) Morley is below Ledes. Farnley Wood is shown above Morley and Gildersome would have been to the left of Morley and below Farnley Wood. I took the following from the Leodis Photographic Archive "Saxton was brought up at Dunningley in West Ardsley. He was educated at Cambridge University and then served as an apprentice map-maker to John Rudd, the vicar of Dewsbury, around 1570. Saxton is famous for making the first national atlas and his great achievement was noted by Queen Elizabeth I. She gave him the rights to publish his maps in his own name in 1577 to avoid plagiarism.  Saxton has since been described as ‘the father of English cartography’."
From ​"The West Ridinge of Yorkeshyre with The most famous and fayre Citie of Yorke described 1610" :  
In this portion of the map of Yorkshyre, the Gildersome area is almost dead centre in the middle of the map. Gildersome, of little consequence, is not shown. Adwalton and Morley, each having a church, are depicted and Bruntcliffe (an important crossroad) is present even though it's of lesser size.          
​                             From a parchment reproduction that I own. Click on map to see the full version.
Circa 1700. The road from "Manchester to Derby". "Gilderson" is at the bottom of the third panel from the left. Interesting is that the "Quaker's Sepulture" in Bruntcliffe was added to the map.   From a reproduction that I own.
1720 Warburton's Map - A hundred and twenty years after the first map above, Gildersome is important enough to be shown by a simple dot.                                                                                         Map Courtesy of romanroads.org
Gildersome 1739
Made about 20 years after Warburton's map above. Though lacking place and street names this map is fairly accurate and shows the concentration of buildings around The Green (#20).  
Click on the map above to see the original.
"An Eye Map of Gildersome with ye adjacent Lanes as it appeared A.D. 1739," attributed to Joseph Dickinson, a well known surveyor and mapmaker. Dickinson lived at Gildersome in a house adjacent to the Green across Town St. from today's Bownass' shop. When he wasn't  mapmaking, he was an active member and benefactor to the Gildersome Quakers. It was drawn in the last year of his life and was probably commissioned as a survey map showing the location of the new highroad from The Street to Farnley, later to become Street Ln, Church St and Gildersome Ln. The open area on the map where today's streets run, was called the "waste" and animals of the less fortunate were free to graze there. At that time, The Street had several farms which were not depicted on the map.

Below is a list of places, most of which can be identified. If you can help with omissions or corrections please get in touch through the contact information at the bottom of the page.         Maps courtesy of WYAS .
1.  The Street (Wakefield/Bradford Rd)
2.  Toll Gate
3.  Stone Pitts?
4.  Nipshaw Lane
5.  Mine or Colliery
6.  Stone Pitts Lane  (Old entrance to Gildersome)
7.  The writing says: "Streets Lane  Highroad thru
      Gildersome". 
8.   Possible early Finkle Lane entrance.
9.   Finkle Ln. before shortcut, dashed lines above.
10. Park Farm
11. Park House & Nook
12. Old Quaker Meeting House
13. Halstead House (Old John Smith's House)
​14. Ebenezer Hill House?
​15. Collock Road to Philadelphia
​16. Megget Farm
​17. Highfield Farm
​18. Old Inn
​19. Harthill House
​​20. Location of The Green & large Thorn Tree
​21. Old Hall
22. New Hall (Turton Hall)?
23. Joseph Dickinson's House
​24. ? 
25. Cana House (Nathaniel Booth's)
26. Croft House (Location of today's Library)
27. Entrance to Harthill House
28. Sharp's House & Farm
29. Town End House
30. Town End House
31. Town End House
32. Manor House. Leeds Road & Bottoms
33. Stoney Gate & Lepton House
34. Reyner's Fold
35. Roger Croft
36. Scatcherd's Farm (Joshua Greathead's)
37. Booth House (pre Moorfield House)
38. Baptist Church
39. Booth Farm?
40. Baptist Manse?
41. ?
42. Scott Farm
43. ?
​44. Royal Oak
​45. To Farnley
Gildersome 1771   It's interesting to note that Gildersome has two entrances, one from Morley Hole across Dean Beck and the other thru Old Coal Pit Rd via Nepshaw Lane.  

Map by Thomas Jeffreys
1782 Bowle's Post-Chaise Companion  Gildersome is at the bottom, third column from the left.
Click here to see the Title Page                                                                                             From a page that I own.
Gildersome and vicinity circa 1820s - With features that appear in the 1800 and 1824 Survey Maps. The fields and buildings in those two maps are numbered but unfortunately the key to both are missing. See map below.
​                                                                             Map courtesy of the Gildersome Library
1. Extension of Reidley Ln.
2. Pond above Street Langley Ln.
     Below.
3. Toll Bar 
4. Egland Hill
5. Tingle Wood
6. Gamble Royd Beck
7. Nipshaw Lane
8. Reidley Ln.
9. Lumb Bottom
10. Dean Wood
11. Dean Bridge
12. Clubbed Oaks
13. Windmill
14 Dam and Pond
15. Fish Pond
16. Green with Thorn Tree
17. Quaker School
18. Large Dam and Pond
19. Scribling Mill with Pond and 
        Quarry.
20. To Morley
21. Rooms Bridge, to Leeds
22. Nova Scotia, the Vicarage
23. Leathley Wood
24. Quarry
25. Mad Dog Lane
26. Boggard Lane
27. Hart Hill Lane
28. Stoney Gate (waste)
29. Major Spring Wood
30. Royal Oak
​31. Street Lane
The Circa 1820s Map Zoomed In.
1. Windmill
2. Reidley Lane
3. Dean Bridge
4. Old Hall
5. Dam & Pond
6. Fish Pond
7. Fore Door House
8. Park House
9. Hudson's Nook
10. Hall Fold
11. Turton Hall
​12 Scribling Mill
13. Griffin Inn
14. High Field Farm
15. Quaker School
16. Harthill House & Blacksmiths
17. Green with Thorn Tree
18. Sharp's House & Mill
19. Croft Farm
20. Armitage  Mill
21. Manor House & Pinfold
22. Hart Hill Ln.
23. Mad Dog Ln.
24. Quarry
25. Boggard Ln.
26. Lepton Place
27. Stoney Gate
28. Wood Well
29. Springfield Farm
30. Baptist Church
31. Scott Green
32. School
33. Spring View & Rock House
34. St Peter's
35. Lord's Waste
36. Grove House
Batley Parish circa 1860s                                           Source Unknown
Gildersome circa 1850  This map was made by Alfred Bilbrough (1819 - 1891), who was born in Harthill House and eventually became its owner. Alfred was an accomplished artist and it appears he copied this map from either the Ordnance Survey or the Tithe Map. I added the place names and the numbers, many of which can be found in the 1851 and 1861 Census for Gildersome.      Click to Enlarge                    
                                                                                       Map courtesy of the "Bilbrough/ Town Collection" WYAS Leeds.
Gildersome 1852 Ordnance Map & 1836-1851 Tithe Information  - The names and numbers of the fields have been added to this version.
Click on map above to view a larger version.  Click on the small map, right, to see the key to the owners, occupiers and other tithe map  information.          
​                             Info provided b y Leeds Tracks in Time.
1908 
The General Gildersome Area Circa 1913
1937 Ordnance Survey     from a map that I own.