Burley in Wharfedale

Burley in Wharfedale is a village and (as just Burley) a civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the Wharfedale valley. In 2011 it had a population of 7041. The village is situated on the A65 road, approximately north-west from Leeds, north from Bradford, from Ilkley and from Otley. The hamlet of Burley Woodhead at the foot of Burley Moor is to the south-west. The name of Burley in Wharfedale is first attested in an eleventh-century copy of a charter issued in 972, as Burhleg. It appears in the Domesday Book in the spellings Burgelei, Burgelay, Burghelai, and Burghelay. The comes from the Old English words burg ('fortification') and lēah ('open land in a wood'), and thus meant 'open land in a wood, characterised by a fortification'. The specification 'in Wharfedale', deployed to avoid ambiguity with the various other English places of the same name, is first attested during the reign of Edward I of England, in the forms Burghlay in Querfildale and Burghlay in Quervesdale. Burley in Wharfedale was originally a small agricultural community with likely Roman and Anglo-Saxon roots. Burley developed in the late 18th and 19th centuries into an industrial village with many residents employed at Greenholme Mills, cotton mills powered from a goit fed from the River Wharfe. The cotton mill no longer operates and has recently been converted to flats, but the goit is now utilised to provide hydro electric power, and a weir remains. The development of industrial and commercial centres in the nearby cities of Leeds and Bradford, combined with rail and bus links, caused major changes to the village in the early 20th century. Council housing was built in the 1920s and 1950s, as the village became a dormitory settlement for the two cities. With developments in the second half of the 20th century, Burley became a prosperous but socially diverse village. The village has a high percentage of elderly and retired people, and young families attracted by job opportunities, local schools and new housing developments.