ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS ART GALLERY
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed
Tues -Sat: 10am – 5pm
Sun: 11am – 3pm
Address
The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AA
LEEDS CITY MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (11am – 5pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat & Sun: 11am – 5pm
Address
Leeds City Museum
Millennium Square
Leeds
LS2 8BH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS DISCOVERY CENTRE
Opening Hours
Visits by appointment/special event only.
Free public store tours are now available by booking in advance. Please call or email us.
Address
Leeds Discovery Centre
Off Carlisle Road
Leeds
LS10 1LB
LEEDS INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed (10am – 5pm on bank holiday Mondays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat – Sun: 12 – 5pm
Last admission one hour before closing.
Address
Canal Road
Leeds
LS12 2QF
KIRKSTALL ABBEY
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (10am – 4pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Sun: 10am – 4.30pm
Last admission: 4pm
Address
Abbey Road
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LOTHERTON
Opening Hours
Open Daily
Estate opens: 7.30am
Hall: Open (Downstairs only) 10am-5pm
Wildlife World: 10am – 5pm
Estate closes: 7pm
Last entry 45 mins before estate closing time
TEMPLE NEWSAM
Opening Hours
House: Tues – Sun: 10.30am – 5pm
Home Farm: Tues – Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last entry 45 minutes before
THWAITE WATERMILL
Address
Thwaite Lane
Stourton
Leeds
LS10 1RP
LOGOS, FOOTER LINKS, COPYRIGHT
We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.
Privacy and data
Gertrude Bray ‘The Home Specialist’
NewsWe are currently cataloguing the Yorkshire Post Studio photography archive which is held at Abbey House Museum. Amongst the bonny babies, long forgotten musical hall turns and very young men in military uniform (often with an equally young bride) there appears some very interesting local characters.
Mrs Gertrude Bray, May 1938
One glass negative dated May 1938 simply states that it is a Mrs Gertrude Bray of Bray Homes. The only other information we hold on Mrs Bray is that she was a councillor with an address in Whitkirk. When I delved a little deeper I found that Gertrude was indeed a Labour councillor for the Mill Hill & South Ward & served on the housing committee, which was apt, as she is described as ‘one of Britain’s first women builders’and as ‘The Home Specialist’ who was ‘Leeds best and busiest builder’.
Mrs Bray designed and built modern labour saving homes in new estates including the Pendas Fields ‘garden village’ in Cross Gates area and also houses on Selby Road, Halton, around Temple Newsam and the Vesper Gate Mount estate, in Kirkstall. By the outbreak of the Second World War she had built 650 small houses in Leeds.
Selby Road, Halton, 29 April 1937 with advertising sign for Bray Homes
An advertisement for Gertrude Bray homes which appeared in the Leeds Mercury on 8 April 1939 stated that they were ‘Houses of distinctive design and superior finish’ and showcased a Maisonette costing £385 which was described as ‘Ideal for bachelors, spinsters and the elderly. A unique design by Gertrude Bray, containing stainless steel sink and refrigerator. Something entirely new’.
It would seem that Gertrude’s interest in making life easier for women went beyond building houses with ‘mod cons’. The Daily Mirror on 14 March 1940 used the headline ‘Woman Builder is Snag Solver’, describing a typical scene on one of the sites built by Bray Homes:
‘[At] No. 11 on the housing estate at Crossgates, Leeds, is young, attractive Mrs. Gertrude Bray. In her little office she listens patiently while women sometimes twice her age ask her advice on domestic worries…[!]’
And there’s more! Gertrude was a prolific speaker & conference delegate. From municipal engineering to equal rights for women, she held robust opinions based on personal experience. In 1948 she spoke at an educational conference in London on equal pay where she said that she had experienced prejudice against her in her career because she was a woman. She gave an example of a builder who tried to encourage a supplier to refuse to trade with her, but further stated that she thought her sex was often an asset. In her speech she stated ‘How often do we get the position where a woman in a good job, commanding a good salary, has to be twice as good as a man to get his salary?’. A view which would not be out of place today.
In the Yorkshire Evening Post (1953) she expounded on banking her family allowance in her children’s names as ‘nest eggs’ for their futures & was awarding a trophy in her name for the best garden in Halton! She also held very modern views on childbirth which she explained in an interview with the Daily Herald on 7 September 1945:
‘Speaking of her own experience of painless motherhood. Mrs. Gertrude Bray pleaded that the veil of mystery about child-birth should be lifted. The scientific energy which goes to thinking out and manufacturing atomic bombs she said, should be put into making childbirth painless.’
I’d love to find out more about Gertrude who was obviously a great woman with a very modern approach to both business and family life. I know she had at least three children but have no more information about her family, education or how she became a true socialist, feminist, a visionary; as well as very practical enthusiast, politician & successful businesswoman!
By Stella Knox, Volunteer
If you have any further information which you would like to share about Gertrude Bray or Bray Homes we’d love to hear from you.
Contact us via Facebook or pop us an Email.