Bramhope

Coordinates: 53°52′58″N 1°36′34″W / 53.8829°N 1.6095°W / 53.8829; -1.6095

Bramhope is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England, north of Holt Park and north east of Cookridge.

The village is 9 miles (14 km) north of Leeds city centre. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 3,400 and it is in the LS16 Leeds postcode area. It is predominantly made up of large, privately owned houses which tend to be above the average value for properties in West Yorkshire.

Bramhope is in the Leeds North West constituency; its Member of Parliament is Liberal Democrat Greg Mulholland, who won the seat from Labour in the 2005 general election.

History

The earliest known settlement in the area was a British camp established off Moor Road. The Romans built a road through the area from Adel to Ilkley, traces of which remain in a field near Leeds Bradford Airport.

The place-name Bramhope appears first in the Domesday Book as "Bra(m)hop", with later medieval spellings including Bramhop(a) and Bramhop(p)e. The name seems to derive from Old English brōm 'broom' + hōp 'a small valley, side-valley off a larger valley', here referring to a small valley off Wharfedale. In 1086, Bramhope was the manor of an Anglo-Saxon thegn, Uchill. In 1095 the manor passed to Percy family, and in 1165 was sold to Ralph de Bramhope. In the 13th century the monasteries owned much of the land and had granges where sheep were grazed. The monks used tracks, such as Scotland Lane and Staircase Lane, as they travelled from their outlying granges to Kirkstall Abbey.