Bretton Hall
Encyclopedia
West Bretton
West Bretton is a village and civil parish in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It lies from Wakefield, close to junction 38 of the M1 motorway. It has a population of 546....
near Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England. It housed Bretton Hall College (1949–2001) and was a campus of the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
(2001–2007). It is a Grade II* listed building.
History
The present building replaces an earlier hall on the same site, and was designed and built around 1720 by its owner, Sir William Wentworth, assisted by James Moyser. In 1792 it passed into the Beaumont family, (latterly Barons and Viscounts AllendaleViscount Allendale
Viscount Allendale, of Allendale and Hexham in the County of Northumberland, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 5 July 1911 for the Liberal politician Wentworth Beaumont, 2nd Baron Allendale...
), and the library and dining room were remodelled by John Carr in 1793. A new wing by Sir Jeffry Wyattville
Jeffry Wyattville
Sir Jeffry Wyattville was an English architect and garden designer. His original surname was Wyatt, and his name is sometimes also written as Jeffrey and his surname as Wyatville; he changed his name in 1824.He was trained by his uncles Samuel Wyatt and James Wyatt, who were both leading architects...
was added in 1811-14, and monumental stables designed by George Basevi
George Basevi
Elias George Basevi FRS was an English architect. He was the favourite pupil of Sir John Soane.-Life:Basevi was the youngest son of a City of London merchant, also named George Basevi...
were built between 1842 and 1852. The hall was sold to the West Riding County Council in 1947. Before the sale, the panelling of the "Henry VIII parlour" (preserved from the earlier hall and dating to the 1530s) was given to Leeds City Council and moved to Temple Newsam
Temple Newsam
Temple Newsam is a Tudor-Jacobean house with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
house.
The hall is set in 500 acres (2 km²) of lakes and parkland which is the home of the 224 acre (90 ha) Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England is an open-air gallery showing work by UK and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...
and the 100 acre (40 ha) Bretton Country Park, a designated Local Nature Reserve
Local Nature Reserve
Local nature reserve or LNR is a designation for nature reserves in the United Kingdom. The designation has its origin in the recommendations of the Wild Life Conservation Special Committee which established the framework for nature conservation in the United Kingdom and suggested a national suite...
since 1994, which also houses sculptures.
College
In 1949, the hall opened as Bretton Hall College, a teacher training college founded by Alec CleggAlec Clegg
Sir Alexander Bradshaw Clegg, also known as Alec Clegg became the innovative Chief Education Officer of the West Riding of Yorkshire County Council for whom he worked from 1945 to 1974.Clegg, the son of a Derbyshire schoolmaster, attended Long Eaton Grammar School, Bootham School in York...
specialising in innovative courses in design, music and the visual and performance arts. It later became an affiliated college of the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, which validated its degrees. Its graduates include Richard O'Brien
Richard O'Brien
Richard Timothy Smith , better known under his stage name Richard O'Brien, is an English writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. He is perhaps best known for writing the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and for his role in presenting the popular TV show The Crystal Maze...
, Louisa Leaman
Louisa Leaman
Louisa Leaman is a writer and behaviour expert based in London UK.In 2004 she won a writing competition in the Times Educational Supplement. This led to a publishing deal with Continuum International Publishing. She has since had five books published...
, Kay Mellor
Kay Mellor
Kay Mellor, OBE is an English actress, scriptwriter, and director best known for her work on several successful television drama series.-Early life:...
, Colin Welland
Colin Welland
Colin Welland is a British actor and screenwriter. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his script for Chariots of Fire ,,,....
, John Godber
John Godber
John Harry Godber is an English dramatist, known mainly for his observational comedies. In the 'Plays and Players Yearbook' for 1993 he was calculated as the third most performed playwright in the UK behind William Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn. He has a wife and 2 children.-Biography:Godber was...
, Comedian Ray Peacock
Ray Peacock
Ray Peacock is a comic performer, best known for the Peacock and Gamble Podcast. He came to prominence in the Big and Daft comedy trio, BBC London radio series, three consecutive years of sell-out Edinburgh Festival shows and their own series for the BBC's PlayUK, Terrorville.In 2007 Ray began...
(Ian Boldsworth), Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson is an author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies...
, David Rappaport
David Rappaport
David Stephen Rappaport was an English actor, probably one of the best known dwarf actors in television and film...
, Mark Thomas
Mark Thomas
Mark Clifford Thomas is a left-wing English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter from south London. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s. He is best known for political stunts on his show, The Mark...
, Jonathan Kerrigan
Jonathan Kerrigan
Jonathan Kerrigan is an English actor well known for his portrayal of gay nurse Sam Colloby in the BBC medical dramas Casualty and Holby City, and as police officers in the series Merseybeat and Heartbeat....
, Esther Hall
Esther Hall
Esther Hall is an English actress who has had high profile roles in a number of television dramas.Born in Manchester in 1970 and brought up in Cheshire, she took A levels in Manchester before training in Theatre Arts for three years at the University of Leeds Bretton Hall College where she gained a...
, Christopher Barlow, the comedian and actress Emma Fryer
Emma Fryer
Emma Fryer is a British stand-up comedian, actress and writer from Coventry, best known for playing Tania in BBC Three's Ideal, Janine in E4's PhoneShop and Gaynor in BBC 2's Home Time, which she co-wrote with Neil Edmond....
, Queer as Folk
Queer as Folk (UK TV series)
Queer as Folk is a 1999 British television series that chronicles the lives of three gay men living in Manchester's gay village around Canal Street. Both Queer as Folk and Queer as Folk 2 were written by Russell T Davies...
actress Carla Henry
Carla Henry
Carla Henry is a British actress, most famous for her role as Donna in Queer As Folk.Her performances in the stage productions such as Storm and Habitat and On the Shore of the Wide World have seen her tackle a wide variety of roles...
, the pop band The Research
The Research
The Research were a band from Wakefield, England. The members were : Russell 'The Disaster' Searle , Georgia Lashbrook , and Sarah Williams...
, three of the four League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen (comedy)
The League of Gentlemen are a quartet of British dark comedy writers/performers, formed in 1995 by Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith...
creators/performers, Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
, Steve Pemberton
Steve Pemberton
Steve James Pemberton is an English actor, comedian, writer and performer, most famous as a member of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...
and Reece Shearsmith
Reece Shearsmith
Reeson "Reece" Shearsmith is an English actor and writer. He is most famous for his work as part of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...
, Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
's Emily Kirk
Emily Kirk
Emily Kirk was a fictional character in ITV Soap opera Emmerdale. She was played by Kate McGregor....
actress Kate McGregor
Kate McGregor
Kate McGregor is an English actress best known for her role as shop keeper Emily Kirk in ITV's Emmerdale. She played the role from 1999–2005, at which point she took maternity leave and returned to the show in October 2006....
, Shelley Conn
Shelley Conn
-Early life and education:Conn was born in Barnet, Greater London of British and Sri Lankan descent. The great niece of actress Merle Oberon , Conn trained at Bretton Hall...
, This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
s fashion expert John Scott, educationalist Wil Edmunds
Wil Edmunds
William Glyndwr "Wil" Edmunds OBE is a retired Welsh educationalist. He was Principal of Coleg Ceredigion and then Principal/Chief Executive of Deeside College 1997-2004, during which time the college was the first Further Education college to be awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize...
, the acclaimed Chotto Ookii Theatre Company
Chotto Ookii Theatre Company
Chotto Ookii Theatre Company are a physical theatre company based in Leeds, England. It comprises performer/directors Matt Rogers, Kathleen Yore, Rebecca Devitt, Jake England-Johns and Rebekah Caputo...
and Louisa Stanley.
Most significantly it was from Bretton Hall College that Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England is an open-air gallery showing work by UK and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...
emerged. Founded by one time Bretton Hall lecturer Peter Murray CBE, YSP has become a leading international art centre renowned for art and performance in the landscape.
The College was in financial difficulty, and, with the support of the Higher Education Funding Council for England
Higher Education Funding Council for England
The Higher Education Funding Council for England is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the United Kingdom, which has been responsible for the distribution of funding to Universities and Colleges of Higher and Further Education in England since...
(HEFCE), it merged with the University of Leeds in August 2001. The majority of the music, fine art and teacher training courses were moved to the Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
campus, but visual and performing arts education and creative writing remained at the Bretton Hall site, which became home to the University's School of Performance and Cultural Industries.
In December 2004, the University's governing body (Council), reversed its earlier decision and decided that the Bretton Hall site was not financially viable, and that the School should move to the main University campus in the summer of 2007 (allowing all existing Bretton-based students to complete their studies there). The closure was documented on the BBC diary by the student Clair Parker.
In June 2006 it was announced that Bretton Hall was to be sold to Wakefield Council. On May 3, 2007, John Godber presented Final Curtain, a documentary on Bretton Hall, broadcast on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. On 5 and 6 May 2007, a reunion was organised for the alumni and students of Bretton Hall between 1947 and 2007 as a celebration of the school's contribution to the arts industry and also the academic excellence it produced over sixty years. On the Saturday, Mike Levon staged a concert in the Music Salon.
In November 2007 it was announced that Bretton Hall was to be developed as a luxury hotel and spa. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park would take over the estate grounds and lakes.
Notable alumni
- Richard O'BrienRichard O'BrienRichard Timothy Smith , better known under his stage name Richard O'Brien, is an English writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. He is perhaps best known for writing the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and for his role in presenting the popular TV show The Crystal Maze...
- Louisa LeamanLouisa LeamanLouisa Leaman is a writer and behaviour expert based in London UK.In 2004 she won a writing competition in the Times Educational Supplement. This led to a publishing deal with Continuum International Publishing. She has since had five books published...
- Kay MellorKay MellorKay Mellor, OBE is an English actress, scriptwriter, and director best known for her work on several successful television drama series.-Early life:...
- Beatie EdneyBeatie EdneyBeatrice "Beatie" Edney is an English television actress.Born Beatrice Edney in London, she is the daughter of famous British actress Sylvia Syms and cousin of Nicholas Webb. Edney first came to audiences' attention as Heather MacLeod the 1986 film Highlander, the first film in the Highlander series...
- Colin WellandColin WellandColin Welland is a British actor and screenwriter. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his script for Chariots of Fire ,,,....
- John GodberJohn GodberJohn Harry Godber is an English dramatist, known mainly for his observational comedies. In the 'Plays and Players Yearbook' for 1993 he was calculated as the third most performed playwright in the UK behind William Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn. He has a wife and 2 children.-Biography:Godber was...
- Ray PeacockRay PeacockRay Peacock is a comic performer, best known for the Peacock and Gamble Podcast. He came to prominence in the Big and Daft comedy trio, BBC London radio series, three consecutive years of sell-out Edinburgh Festival shows and their own series for the BBC's PlayUK, Terrorville.In 2007 Ray began...
- Ian Boldsworth
- Sir Ken RobinsonSir Ken RobinsonSir Ken Robinson is an author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies...
- David RappaportDavid RappaportDavid Stephen Rappaport was an English actor, probably one of the best known dwarf actors in television and film...
- Mark ThomasMark ThomasMark Clifford Thomas is a left-wing English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter from south London. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s. He is best known for political stunts on his show, The Mark...
- Jonathan KerriganJonathan KerriganJonathan Kerrigan is an English actor well known for his portrayal of gay nurse Sam Colloby in the BBC medical dramas Casualty and Holby City, and as police officers in the series Merseybeat and Heartbeat....
- Mike Levon of Holyground Records
- Esther HallEsther HallEsther Hall is an English actress who has had high profile roles in a number of television dramas.Born in Manchester in 1970 and brought up in Cheshire, she took A levels in Manchester before training in Theatre Arts for three years at the University of Leeds Bretton Hall College where she gained a...
- Emma FryerEmma FryerEmma Fryer is a British stand-up comedian, actress and writer from Coventry, best known for playing Tania in BBC Three's Ideal, Janine in E4's PhoneShop and Gaynor in BBC 2's Home Time, which she co-wrote with Neil Edmond....
- Stuart SempleStuart SempleStuart Semple is a contemporary British artist and curator, based in London and Dorset. Semple's practice addresses ideas sparked by immersion in popular culture and combines contemporary figurative painting with pop art.-Life and career:...
- Carla HenryCarla HenryCarla Henry is a British actress, most famous for her role as Donna in Queer As Folk.Her performances in the stage productions such as Storm and Habitat and On the Shore of the Wide World have seen her tackle a wide variety of roles...
- Mark GatissMark GatissMark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
- Steve PembertonSteve PembertonSteve James Pemberton is an English actor, comedian, writer and performer, most famous as a member of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...
- Reece ShearsmithReece ShearsmithReeson "Reece" Shearsmith is an English actor and writer. He is most famous for his work as part of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...
- Chris T-TChris T-TChris T-T is an English singer/songwriter based in Brighton. He has released eight studio albums and one live collection. He has also been a piano accompanist; a radio and club DJ; written for a range of publications and currently contributes a regular column on the arts to left-wing newspaper...
- Kate McGregorKate McGregorKate McGregor is an English actress best known for her role as shop keeper Emily Kirk in ITV's Emmerdale. She played the role from 1999–2005, at which point she took maternity leave and returned to the show in October 2006....
- John ScottJohn Scott-Politicians:*John Scott , Member of the Australian House of Representatives*John Scott , first mayor of Bytown, later Ottawa*John Scott , MP for Caithness...
- Shelley ConnShelley Conn-Early life and education:Conn was born in Barnet, Greater London of British and Sri Lankan descent. The great niece of actress Merle Oberon , Conn trained at Bretton Hall...
- Shep
- Wil EdmundsWil EdmundsWilliam Glyndwr "Wil" Edmunds OBE is a retired Welsh educationalist. He was Principal of Coleg Ceredigion and then Principal/Chief Executive of Deeside College 1997-2004, during which time the college was the first Further Education college to be awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize...
- The ResearchThe ResearchThe Research were a band from Wakefield, England. The members were : Russell 'The Disaster' Searle , Georgia Lashbrook , and Sarah Williams...
External links
- University of Leeds press release on the proposed closure of Bretton Hall Campus
- BBC news item about the sale to Wakefield Council
- A website dedicated to the Bretton Hall reunion 1947 to 2007
- A website created after the final reunion of Bretton Hall in May 2007
- The Bretton Estate Archive website, giving information on the history of the House and grounds