Notable Buildings
Iron Row
The cottages known as Iron Row (and originally New Row) were built about 1800 by the Burley Cotton Mill owners at Greenholme for their workers. The one-up, one-down properties remained virtually unchanged until the Greenholme Estate was sold up in 1968. The Row for 150 years echoed to the steps of the numerous mill workers who passed by, to and from their work.
Burley House
Built by Thomas Maude, a poet, in the eighteenth century, possibly on the site of an earlier mansion. The Maudes, members of the local gentry, had lived in Burley from at least the sixteenth century and were among the biggest land owners in the area. The house passed into the hands of other families, notably the Andertons and the Horsfalls, in the nineteenth century. Since that time it has been a private school, a hotel, a restaurant and, in recent years, headquarters for commercial organisations.
The Grange
Built by John Peele Clapham, the founder of Salem Church, in the early 1840's. It then passed into other hands, the Stansfields, the Emsleys and the Hodsons. In 1905 the house and its park were sold to Burley Urban District Council for public use. Under Ilkley Urban District Council from 1937, it continued to be used as Council Offices and to house the public library. For over 80 years also, part of it was leased to the Grange Men's Club. The whole of the building is now part of Bradford College and is used for adult education in Wharfedale.
Lecture Hall (Queen's Hall)
Originally known as the Lecture Hall, it was built in 1868 by the then mill owners, Fison and Forster, whose initials can be seen carved in the stone over the large window nearest to the Red Lion. The hall was built to provide recreational and educational activities in the village. Greenholme Mills School used the section of the hall, now known as the Annexe, until 1897. The two stone celtic crosses in front of the hall commemorate Fison and Forster.
Township School
This building was erected in 1862 to replace the old Mechanics' Institute and Day School which had stood at the bottom of Station Road in the first half of the nineteenth century. The building remained in use as an Infants' school until 1922. It also functioned as the meeting place of the Burley Local Board of Health and its successor the Burley Urban District Council until 1905. Later the Township building was used as a practice room for Burley Brass Band.
Until recently it served as extra educational premises and was a Craft and Design Centre for Teachers in the West Riding and Bradford. When it was bought in the 1990's by Burley Developments Ltd the moneys were used to set up the Burley Education Trust, a charity to aid education in the village. The buildings have been pleasantly refurbished by its new owners in keeping with the character of Burley's Conservation Area.