Editing West Bretton (section)

===Industry===
After the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] Matthew Wentworth bought "all the myne, and delff of ironstone" around Bentley Grange, the Byland Abbey property. Though the ironstone was exhausted by the mid-1600s, smithies continued to operate fuelled by charcoal. The furnace at Bretton supplied [[pig iron]] to Colnebridge, [[Wortley Top Forge]] and [[Kirkstall Forge Engineering|Kirkstall]] in 1728.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1989|p=20}} The furnace at Bretton was taken over by the Cockshutts of Wortley and pig iron was produced there in 1806{{sfn|Wilkinson|1989|p=21}} but the site had closed by 1820.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1989|p=22}} Attempts were made to exploit coal which outcropped in Bretton but were small in scale. A mine was operated by Thomas Wood in 1806, Bretton Colliery managed by Tweedale and Watson paid rent to the estate in 1820s and [[bell pit]]s, the Gate Royd Pits, (near the [[motorway service area]]) operated in 1849, The Jagger Brothers who owned Emley Colliery opened shafts on Malt Kiln Farm between 1856 and 1871.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1989|p=22}}

Where [[millstone grit]] outcropped it was quarried, mostly between the 17th and 19th centuries and is the building stone for farmhouses and boundary walls. There was a brickworks producing rustic red bricks from fireclay outcrops near Bower Hill Lane.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1989|p=23}} From 1723 until 1737 William Harrison who had moved from [[Burslem]] was making pots in the village.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1989|p=24}}