130 BRANKLEY members around the world

BRANKLEY Family History

This is an interesting and rare name of English origin which is locational from a so called 'lost' village, possibly once found in Yorkshire. This is suggested by the fact that there are several early recordings of this name in that county, and none elsewhere. The phenomena of the 'lost' village (of which it is estimated there are between seven and ten thousand that have disappeared from British maps) occurred in the 13th and 14th Centuries during the height of the wool industry, when there was enforced land clearance to make way for sheep pasture.