Brotherton Hall

As a result of a recent enquiry I felt that I had to investigate Brotherton Hall. Where was it? And where was its Entrance Lodge? And where was Brotherton House? Were these two names for two buildings (or groups of buildings) or just one?

Using the 1881 census gave a clue - Brotherton House (RG11, Piece 4586, Folio 22, Page 12) was occupied by 6 members of the Mackenzie family plus 5 servants. The Entrance Lodge (the prior entry) was occupied by the Bridgland family.

In 1881 it is listed between entries for the High Street and the Parish Church. But I did not find any Brotherton Hall in the 1881 census - so this could indicate that the two names were actually for just one building.

The best step would have been to go the Wakefield Library and check out any old maps for the area. But a short cut was to make use of the old maps that are now available online.

I used Old-Maps.co.uk as my source. Locating Brotherton gave me a range of old maps to check out. I picked the years with 1:2,500 scale maps to get the most detail. The ones selected were dated 1892, 1907 and 1959.

The map sections for 1892 and 1907 clearly showed the building at the centre of Brotherton village was called Brotherton House. But the same location on the 1959 map showed the building as Brotherton Hall.

Since the shape of the north end of the building in 1907 and 1959 seems to correspond with the postcard photo at Genuki then the House and the Hall must be the same place.

Here are two screen shots of the 1907 and 1959 maps as they would appear in your web browser - and hopefully Old-Maps won’t mind this bit of “product placement” and free promotion in my web site.

ps The 1892 map also shows something that could be the Entrance Lodge that has gone by 1907.

In comparison the same approx. area as it appears on Google Earth (image from 2008)