Bramley History Community Archive
The Bramley History Community Archive is dedicated to memories of times gone by in the village of Bramley on the outskirts of Leeds in West Yorkshire.
As far back as December 1981 a local class was set up under the heading of "Brush Up Your Mind", to which a group of some thirteen people attended. It didn't take long for this thirteen-strong group to become so involved with the history of Bramley, before they were producing their first book entitled "The Village that Disappeared". This was a true labour of love as much research and hunting down of photographs and factual information had to be undertaken before it came to print.
The teacher of this group encouraged these enthusiasts to set up a Society, and this they did when Bramley History Society was formed. They held weekly meetings in the Bramley Community Centre in Waterloo Lane, and encouraged all who came to bring along yet more items of interest, both visual and written, to increase their archive. Some word of mouth memories of certain events, properties, businesses, etc. also came to light, all of which helped towards the making of a very colourful and comprehensive collection.
Soon they were inviting guest speakers to come along and enlighten them further on many topics, planning outings to various historical places of interest and once a month a committee meeting was held.
To this day a large proportion of the original founder members are still very much a part of everything and have contributed largely to the wealth of information we now have. Their continuing invaluable support and excellent, respective, memories never cease to astound our younger members, and we are all grateful to them for this and all they continue to do.
The Society's original practices continue to this day and every Thursday, except the second one of each month when a committee meeting is held, they meet up at the Community Centre in Waterloo Lane, Bramley. The meetings commence at 9.45 a.m. and finish as 11.45 a.m. - everyone welcome!
Over the years the information has grown to such an extent that a small group of like-minded people, known as Bramley History Community Archive, suggested that the time had come to save all this information in a safe place, i.e. modern technology was required. So, armed with the knowledge that Bramley History Society were willing to allow the use of all their hard earned material for this purpose, decided to apply for funding for a computer on which to store everything. This application was made and, to our delight, was successful.