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West Bretton & The Yorkshire Sculpture Park
A bright early November autumn day was perfect for exploring the old estate village of West Bretton and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP).
I began a very pleasant stroll through the country park which looked splendid in a myriad of autumn colour. The signed route to my left, across the dam bridge of the lower lake and by the Bretton Nature Reserve led to the Longstaffe Gallery where an exhibition by the Glasgow-born artist Kenny Hunter was still running. One of his pieces, a figure of a boy, has been commissioned to stand on a five metre column in a new garden to be created in 2007 at the side of Barnsley Town Hall - a tribute to the contribution of miners to the history of the town.
Returning to the park, I was looking forward toseeing the magnificent bronze sculptures of Henry Moore, and was not disappointed. There can be no better setting for his work. Moore himself had no doubt about the importance of accessibility:
“Sculpture is an art of the open air. I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in the landscape than in or on the most beautiful building I know.”
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 The YSP is also famed for it scupltures by Elisabeth Frink and Barbara Hepworth.
The eighteenth century gardens, parkland and associated buildings around Bretton Hall were developed over a long period of time rather than as a single set piece design. We do know that Sir Thomas Wentworth was employing a professional garden designer and nurseryman, Richard Woods, during a crucial phase of development during the 1760s. Woods, from Chertsey, Surrey was not as famous or therefore as expensive as ‘Capability’ Brown. Interestingly, he also worked, in a fairly piecemeal way, nearby, for John Spencer at Cannon Hall, a country gentleman of relatively moderate means.
Colonel James Moyser of Beverley, said to be a personal friend of Sir Thomas Wentworth, supplied the first designs for a new mansion in about 1720. Moyser was an influential figure in the fashionable Palladian movement that many Yorkshire landowners were adopting. He went on to work at Nostell Priory. The parkland chapel, an interesting Georgian example for our area, dates from about 1744. Extensions and remodelling of the house, for Colonel Beaumont, was the work of the country-house architect Sir Jeffrey Wyatville in c.1815-17. The distinctive bow windows date from this period, as does the fine Camellia House. There were of course further additions during the Allendale era. Basevi’s stable-block (c.1830), described as ‘heavy’ and ‘curiously debased’ by architectural historian Nicholas Pevsner, does indeed look somewhat incongruous in relation to the gentler and more pleasing earlier designs.
Many people will have happy memories of Bretton Hall as a teacher-training college, much respected during the West Riding era of Sir Alec Clegg whose influence is acknowledged near the present resource centre. More recently, the Hall and its nearby facilitates functioned as part of the University of Leeds. Despite a considerable reputation as a place of excellence for its performing arts courses the campus appears to be closing - despite angry protests from many students and educationalists.
 Irrespective of the demise of the Hall, the old parkland and evolving sculpture park should continue to attract a wide range of visitors from all over the world. It is a superb international art, educational and tourist attraction, recently acknowledged when it was short-listed for the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries.
The superb modern Main Entrance incorporates an information point, exhibition areas, shop and self-service restaurant which incorporates a marvellous viewing veranda.
A notable new addition to the YSP site is the Underground Gallery, opened in 2004, and very well worth visiting. Inside, I really enjoyed the experience of James Turrell’s Light Installations, challenging and re-awakening my perceptions. Unfortunately time was against a longer linger but I hope to come again, with more time to appreciate the spiritual aspects of the occasion. Turrell, one of America’s leading artists, was also commissioned by the Art Fund for The Deer Shelter Skyspace, now a permanent feature of the Park.
 The Turrell Light Installations, originally scheduled to close in September 2006, now continue until 7 January. It is also well worth while walking through the Formal Garden area where bronzes by William Turnbull can be seen; and also exploring the art and craft exhibitions in the Bothy and Garden galleries.
Also, do check out the Seasonal Saturday live music events and concerts at the YSP, running until 16 December 2006.
Support for the YSP comes from a variety of charities and organisations but members of the public are most welcome to join and enjoy the benefits of the Friends’ group.
 Winter opening hours for the YSP’s Grounds, Centre and Shop are 10am-5pm. The Restaurant, Underground Gallery, Bothy and Garden Gallery closes an hour earlier; and the Longstaffe Gallery at 3pm. Car Parking is £3 per day. For more information visit www.ysp.co.uk or telephone 01924 832631.
After leaving the park I had a pleasant walk through West Bretton. Far too many cars rush through the village along the Huddersfield Road. It is well worth stopping, perhaps parking in the community centre car park and having a look around. The older buildings are a nice mix of brick and stone, several of them clearly estate-designed. There are some interesting farms. One of them, Town Farm, has an impressive dovecote. The bowling green and cricket ground are considerable assets for local residents and attractive features for all to see, as is the rather unusual church. The old brick village primary school, with its additions and features stands well near the main and a secondary road; and no doubt brings memories to many past and present West Brettoners. Some older residents may remember the village in the Allendale era when Captain Ernest Brewer occupied the lodge and Lt.-Col. Bernard Burbury lived in The Old Parsonage. The Buckley brothers were well-known farmers at Bull Cliff and the Gemmells farmed at Malt Kiln and Bretton Mill.
 The Home Farm (usually a principal farm of an estate) was occupied by Frank Barker. The village once had a couple of shops. One, including the Post Office, was kept by George Hanson, the other by Mrs Charlotte Ellis. Do you remember any of them? I guess there must have been some interesting village characters too.
Going back to the early 1820s West Bretton also had its own pub, appropriately called the Blacksmith’s Arms, run by David Joanson (Johnson?), whose forge was probably one of the most important social as well as practical elements of the village. Three of the farms were occupied by John Richardson, William Schofield and Francis Swift.
West Bretton’s ecclesiastical history is more complex than usual. It once formed part of the ancient parish of Silkstone but was separated from its parochial neighbours by the parishes of High Hoyland and Darton. West Bretton was also linked to another parish: Sandal Magna. The ‘Wakefield’ link was probably the stronger, though the manorial lords were buried at Silkstone. One of the most noted Bretton lords was Sir Thomas Wentworth who died in 1675. His splendid monument, extolling his virtues, can be seen in Silkstone church, provided by his widow, Grace. The distinguished antiquarian Joseph Hunter refers to a contemporary document stating that 4,000 people attended Sir Thomas’s funeral which was said to have cost at least £1200, a huge sum, equivalent to tens of thousands today. In 1679 Lady Wentworth married Alexander, Earl of Eglington (Scotland) who went on to kill a man called Madox, from Doncaster; but in those days titled people could get out of even capital offences through influence and forfeiture.
 A history of West Bretton, by local man John Wilkinson, was published by Bridge Publications of Penistone in 1989. This title of this well-researched volume, “Farmstead of the Britons” is taken from its Anglo-Saxon place-name. The prefix ‘West’ helped to distinguish it from another ‘Bretton’, the village of Burton or Monk Bretton, near Barnsley. Wilkinson’s book is probably now out of print, but worth obtaining if you are interested in the history of the village.
Before leaving, I paused to have a look at the war memorial, sited across from the Manor House, and easily glimpsed from the main road. The names of four young men from the village lost their lives in the Great War are inscribed (I noted the names of three of them: James Boyd, William Jebson and Harry Denton), along with two soldiers (Herbert Brown and Wilfred Ibbotson) from the Second
World War. A small number perhaps, but from a small village and still remembered on Remembrance Day.
Published Winter 2006. All information correct at time of print
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