Wibsey Farms::

 
 

In 1745 the Lord of the Manor of Royds Hall,  Edward Leedes put several farms which were part of his Wibsey estate on the market.  They were bought by Sir Thomas Wentworth (later Blackett) of Bretton Hall.  Later Edward Leedes rented back some of the Mineral Rights. 

 

The Low Moor Company who bought his estate, following his bankruptcy and death also rented the Mineral Rights. 

In the 1820's and 1830's their were a series of court cases between Colonel Thomas and Lady Diana Beaumont of Bretton Hall and the Low Moor Company.  The cases revolved around the wording of an agreement made in 1790 and focussed on who were the tenants of certain farms at various periods.  Masses of evidence was gathered and duplicate documents obtained  and much of it survives in the Bretton Archive which is now at the Yorkshire Archaeological Society at Claremont, Leeds. 

When the Colonel and Lady Diana died their son sold off a lot of the Bretton land holdings in various parts of Yorkshire.  Two Land Sales in 1833 and 1855 included property at Wibsey and resulted in yet more lists of tenants, but more importantly land in Wibsey was released for building and the village began to expand in directions it never could before.

There are lists of tenants for different dates and although their names and the names of some of the fields might change it is possible to identify the same holdings over many years.

 

 

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