Mark’s History: The Haleys – Bramley mill owners who employed hundreds

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Haleys yard bramley
Haley's Yard, Bramley. Photo: Mark Stevenson

If you live on the Landseers in Bramley you are living on land once owned by the Haley Family, writes Mark Stevenson.

The Haley family had been mill owners in Bramley since at least the early 1800s.

Around the 1840s they owned the largest Mill in Bramley, Waterloo Mill and had shares in nearly all of the other Mills in Bramley.

In 1846 John Haley Senior was living in Waterloo Lodge, which still stands today. Haleys Yard in Bramley is named after them.

In the 1840s Haleys Yard looked slightly different from how it looks today and was also probably called something else as well.

The land was owned by William Eyres and William Musgrave but an Issac Haley was renting a House, Shops, Cowhouse and field from William Eyres.

The field is now part of Bramley Park roughly where the Bowling Green is. Today Iassac’s house has gone and the yard has the Haley family name attached to it.

The old workshops and cottages of numbers 2 – 18 are listed along with the large house at the end of the row 333 Bramley Town Street.

Another large house 331 Bramley Town Street with its boundary wall along with No1 Haleys Yard are listed it is thought that the listed building dates from around 1790 to 1800-ish.

John Haley Senior, it would seem, liked to get away from the hustle and bustle of Bramley. He had a farm on Swinnow Moor at Hough Top, roughly where Park Spring Primary School stands today.

The Haley family employed hundreds and were the landlord to hundreds of people in Bramley.

At one time they threw a party for 450 of there workers when a reform bill was passed but they were also tempted by the ‘Darkside’ (or ‘Lightside’, depending on your politics!) and would make their workers vote Tory.

Read more on West Leeds’s past with the Mark’s History column here.

1 COMMENT

  1. Wow, I was wondering where the rest of the park went.so much has changed over the years since I was there. There was a mill back in the 70s located in armley but unfortunately someone burnt it to the ground. Shame my brother and I used to love adventuring in that building, God knows how we got in there but I remember the basement always been flooded.

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