Hi sorry to ask a dumb one but, are photos automatically entered to iCloud so I can delete them off the phone itself ? Some video and pics are irreplaceable thanks

For photos to automatically sync with iCloud you need to turn on iCloud Photos; see: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Also be aware that iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.

Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.

If you are using iCloud photos, whatever you do on one device is reflected on all other devices using iCloud Photos and in iCloud itself. iCloud Photos is not off device storage. It is a syncing service. If you want to delete them from the phone, you need to download or archive the photos to a computer or use true cloud photo storage.

Take a look at this for help.

Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support