Bradford

. It has a population of 293,717 with the district as a whole having 481,100 inhabitants. By urban sub-area, it is the 11th largest settlement in England.

History

The name Bradford is derived from the "broad ford" at Church Bank (below the site of Bradford Cathedral) around which a settlement had begun to appear before the time of the Norman Conquest. The ford crossed the stream called Bradford Beck [1].

Bradford has long been a centre of the West Riding wool industry. Bradford was one of the many English towns which became prosperous during the Industrial Revolution. Bradford's textile industry dates back as far as the thirteenth century, but it was not until the nineteenth century that it became world-famous. Wool was imported in vast quantities for the worsted cloth in which Bradford specialised. Other fibres were also processed, e.g., alpaca. Yorkshire boasted plentiful supplies of iron ore, coal and soft water which were used in cleaning raw wool, and a coal seam which stretched as far as Nottingham provided the power that the industry needed. Sandstone, Bradford's local stone, provided an excellent resource for the building of the mills, and the large population of West Yorkshire meant there was a readily available workforce.

To support the textile mills, a large manufacturing base grew up in the city, providing textile machinery, and this led to diversification with different industries thriving side-by-side. The textile industry has been in decline since the 1920s, and Bradford has been cited as an example of deindustrialization. However, Bradford remains one of the north's important cities, with modern engineering, chemicals and financial services replacing the "dark satanic mills" of the industrial revolution.

The grandest of the mills (although no longer used for textile production) is Lister's Mill (or Manningham Mills). It is believed that the chimney of Lister's mill can be seen from just about anywhere in Bradford.

A panoramic view of Bradford. The giant chimney is that of Lister's Mill

Another large mill is Salts Mill, part of the world heritage site of Saltaire. Saltaire is three miles from Bradford centre but it is within the Metropolitan District.The Bradford district also contains the villages of Thornton and Haworth that were the birthplace and home of the Brontë sisters. Clayton was home to Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's last hangman.

There have been waves of immigration into the city ever since the industrial revolution, and this is reflected, for example, in the different types of places of worship which have been built over the years. Nonconformist chapels were frequently built in the nineteenth century, and mosques started appearing in the twentieth century. Figures for ethnic origin of inhabitants are given in the entry for the Metropolitan District; the inner-city areas such as Manningham tend to have a higher proportion of inhabitants of Asian origin than the suburban areas. Bradford has been praised for its cultural diversity. However, this leads to conflict on occasion. In January 1989, copies of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses were publicly burnt in Bradford, and the city's Muslim community took the lead in the campaign against the book in the United Kingdom. In July 2001 ethnic tensions led to serious rioting for which there is a separate entry "Bradford Riot".

Bradford was one of the contenders for 2008 European Capital Of Culture, eventually losing to the city of Liverpool. In 2004, the Bradford Urban Regeneration Company commissioned architect Will Alsop to create a vision for the City's future and indeed the role of a "City Centre" in the 21st century. Alsop's controversial plans envisioned four regenerated quarters within the heart of the city — The Bowl, The Channel, The Market & The Valley — each creating new public spaces for commerce, education, leisure and showcasing Bradford's setting within the Pennine mountains.

Political history

During the English Civil War the town was Parliamentarian in sympathy, but changed hands several times as it was difficult to defend.A life-size statue of Oliver Cromwell decorates the facade of the nineteenth-century Town Hall, suggesting a continuing commitment to parliamentary values. However, Bradford did not gain its own MPs until the Reform Act 1832 gave it two.Other prominent statues of political figures include Robert Peel and Richard Cobden (campaigners for Free Trade which Bradford at one time saw as key to its commercial success) and W.E. Forster (perhaps Bradford's most famous MP).Bradford's politicians tended to identify with industrialists in the nineteenth century, but the city played an important part in the early history of the Labour Party. A mural visible from Leeds Road commemorates the centenary of the founding of the Independent Labour Party in 1893.

As regards local government, Bradford became a Municipal borough in 1847 and a County borough in the Local Government Act 1888. The County borough was granted city status by Royal Charter in 1897. The County borough was merged with borough of Keighley, the urban districts of Baildon, Bingley, Denholme,Cullingworth, Ilkley, Shipley and Silsden, along with part of Queensbury and Shelf urban district and part of Skipton Rural District by the Local Government Act 1972. One result of the boundaries of Bradford being widened in this way is that the district is marginal in terms of party political loyalty - at present no group is in overall control of the Council.

Twin towns

Bradford's current twin towns and cities are listed at http://www.bradford.gov.uk/life_in_the_community/twin_towns_and_villages:
*Skopje, Macedonia - twinned 1963
*Roubaix, France - twinned 1969
*Verviers, Belgium â€" twinned 1970
*Mönchengladbach, Germany â€" twinned 1971
*Galway, Ireland - twinned 1987
*Mirpur District Council, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan â€" friendship agreement 1998

It is sometimes claimed that Hamm, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany is a twin of Bradford, an impression strengthened by the street name Hammstrasse in Bradford; but in fact Hamm is twinned with Shipley a town about three miles from Bradford.

Bradford was formerly twinned with Tisma,Nicaragua, up until at least 2001. (see http://archive.thisisbradford.co.uk/2001/1/2/145547.html).

Geography

Bradford is located at (53.7500, -1.8333)¹.

The Bradford Metropolitan District has an estimated population (2003) of 477,775. About 300,000 of these live within the main city area itself, the rest living in the surrounding towns, villages and countryside.

Bradford Beck

Unusually for a major city, Bradford is not built on any substantial body of water. The ford from which it takes its name was a crossing of the stream called Bradford Beck. The Beck rises in the hills to the west of the city, and is swelled by tributaries such as Horton Beck, the Westbrook, Bowling Beck and the Eastbrook. At the site of the original ford, just below the present Bradford Cathedral, it turns north, and flows more or less straight towards the River Aire at Shipley.

Bradford Beck's course through the city centre is entirely underground, and was mostly so by the middle of the nineteenth century. On the 1852 Ordnance Survey map of Bradford it is visible as far as Sun Bridge, at the end of Tyrrell Street, and then again from beside the Railway Station at the bottom of Kirkgate. On the 1906 Ordnance Survey , it disappears at Tumbling Hill Street, off Thornton Road, and first appears again north of Cape Street, off Valley Road, though there are further culverts as far as Queens Road. This is substantially the position today (2006).

The Bradford Canal, built in 1774, took its water from Bradford Beck and its tributaries. This supply was often inadequate to feed the locks, and the polluted state of the Canal led to its temporary closure in 1866: the Canal was closed in the early twentieth century as uneconomic.

Bradfordale

Bradfordale (or Bradforddale) is a name given by geographers to the valley of Bradford Beck (see for example Firth 1997 ). It can reasonably be regarded as one of the Yorkshire Dales, though as the site of a big city, it is often not recognised as such.

Culture and recreation

Educational institutions

The University of Bradford has around 10,000 students. It received its Royal Charter in 1966, but traces its history back to the 1860s. It has always been a technical and technological institution, and has no true arts faculties; but it still covers a wide range of subjects including medical sciences, optometry, nursing studies, and modern languages. Its peace studies department, founded with Quaker support in 1973, was for long the only such institution in the UK. There is also a highly-ranked business school.

Bradford College developed like nearby Bradford University from the nineteenth-century technical college whose buildings it has inherited. It now offers a wide range of Further and Higher Education courses, and is an Associate College of Leeds Metropolitan University. It has absorbed the Art School whose most famous alumnus is David Hockney.

Bradford Grammar School, in Frizinghall, dates back to 1548: it has been co-educational since 1999. The Girls' Grammar School, Bradford is a quite separate establishment dating from 1875: it continues to take only girls except for its infants' department.

Museums and art galleries

The city is well known for the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, which has an Imax cinema. There is also an industrial museum, and a colour museum, and Cartwright Hall in Lister Park is an Edwardian art gallery.

Architecture

Central Bradford looking down Church Bank from Barkerend Road.

Bradford's oldest building is the Cathedral, which for most of its life was a parish church. Few other Medieval buildings have survived apart from Bolling Hall, which has been preserved as a museum.

Bradford boasts some fine Victorian buildings: apart from the mills mentioned elsewhere in this article, there is the City Hall (with statues of the Kings and Queens of England), the Wool Exchange (now used as a bookshop), and a large Victorian cemetery at Undercliffe.

Little Germany is a Victorian commercial district just east of the city centre which takes its name from nineteenth-century immigrants who ran businesses from some of the many listed buildings. In recent decades it has decayed somewhat, especially since Eastbrook Hall (a former Methodist church) was gutted by fire in the early 1990s.Attempts to revitalise the area were not very successful in the 1990s, but more recently there have been successful conversions to residential use. In mid-2005 renovation began on Eastbrook Hall.

Like many cities, Bradford lost a number of notable buildings to developers in the 1960's and 1970's: particularly mourned at the time were the Swan Arcade and the old Kirkgate Market. In recent years some buildings from that era have themselves been demolished and replaced: Provincial House, next to Centenary Square, was demolished by controlled explosion in 2002 [2], and Forster House was pulled down in 2005 as part of the Broadway development, which is at July 2006 has not progressed beyond the demolition stage.

Theatre

There are four theatres in Bradford: The Alhambra was built for the Moss Empire group and refurbished in the 1990s; the Studio is a smaller studio theatre in the same complex. Both of these are operated by Bradford Council. The Theatre in the Mill is a small studio theatre in the University of Bradford which presents both student and community shows and small-scale touring professional work. The Priestley is a privately-run venue with a medium-sized proscenium theatre and a small studio.

Among the professional theatre companies based in Bradford, are
Kala Sangam
*the satirical madcap comedy troop, Komedy Kollective.
Lost Dog (based at Theatre In The Mill)
Mind the Gap, one of the longest established, who have always worked with a mixture of disabled and able-bodied performers.

Groups and organisations teaching theatre include
*The Asian Theatre School
*Bradford Stage and Theatre School
Stage 84

Amateur theatre groups include:
*Actors Community Theatre (ACT)
*Bingley Little Theatre
*The Bradford Players
*Bradford University Society for Operettas and Musicals (BUSOM)
*Bradford University Theatre Group (BUTG),
*Bradford Youth Players
*Buttershaw (St Paul's) Church Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society
*Drama Unlimited
*Great Horton Amateur Operatic Society

Music and dance

St George's Hall is a grand concert hall, designed by Lockwood and Mawson, dated 1853. The Hallé Orchestra have been regular visitors over the years, as have a wide range of popular entertainers including Ken Dodd. It is sometimes used for theatrical productions.

Though the University does not have an academic music department, it has a Fellow in Music who organises a range of playing and performing groups, and regular concerts around the university, in venues such as the Tasmin Little Music Centre, and the Yorkshire Craft Centre at Bradford College; there are also occasional concerts further afield, in venues such as Bradford Cathedral.

Although Bradford was home to composer Frederick Delius, there are no prominent professional music ensembles based in Bradford at present. There are some prominent amateur groups, such as the Bradford Festival Chorus.

The Topic Folk Club has been in existence since 1956, though it has changed the pub it meets in every few years. It currently meets in the Cock and Bottle on Barkerend Road, on Thursday nights.

Jazz at the Priestley is a long-running series of jazz evenings in the cellar bar of The Priestley on Friday nights.

Boars Head Morris Men have been established in Bradford since the early 1970's, but are not currently performing. Persephone Ladies Morris are still active, as are Rainbow Morris in Shipley, and Clogaire.

mono (Fanzine) is published out of Bradford monthly, covering the local alternative/independent rock music scene.

Cinema

Like many cities, Bradford has gradually lost its traditional cinemas (the last was the Odeon, which closed around 2000), and seen them replaced by new entertainment complexes with multi-screen cinemas: currently there is one at the Leisure Exchange next to the Interchange, and another at Thornbury, between Bradford and Leeds.

However Bradford also has the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television which contains an Imax cinema and the Cubby Broccoli cinema, and also has the Pictureville cinema next door.

Nightlife

Since around 2000, a large number of clubs and theme pubs have opened in the West End of Bradford, round the Alhambra Theatre, turning what was previously a fairly quiet area into one that is often crowded and vibrant at night.

Parks

Within the city there are numerous parks and gardens, including Lister Park with its boating lake and the Mughal Water Gardens, Peel Park (the venue for the annual Mela — a celebration of eastern culture) and the local beauty spot of Chellow Dene with its two Victorian reservoirs set in pleasant woodland.

Sport

Bradford is the home of the Rugby League side Bradford Bulls and the football clubs Bradford City and Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C.

The Richard Dunn Sports Centre is just across the road from Odsal Stadium, home of the Bulls. The sports facilities at the University are also open to the public at certain times.

On May 11 1985, 56 people were killed at a fire at Valley Parade, home of Bradford City Football Club. Centenary Square now contains a monument to the Bradford City disaster.

Local groups and societies

Bradford's former importance as a centre of international trade led to the creation of the Bradford Circle for Foreign Languages [3], which still survives today and is possibly unique among similar clubs in that it owns its own premises.

Religion

The City of Bradford and surrounding districts are home to a wealth of places of worship that contribute to the region's cultural heritage. These include Sikh and Hindu temples, mosques, synagogues and many Christian churches. The district has a tradition of nonconformity which is reflected in the number of chapels erected by Baptists, Methodists etc. The city was a major centre of the House Church movement in the 1980's, and the Christian charity Christians Against Poverty was founded in the city. Although some chapels are listed buildings and relatively unaltered externally, most of the chapels in central Bradford are no longer used for their original purpose. In 2006 the Roman Catholic diocese of Leeds proposed to close half the Roman Catholic churches in Bradford for demographic reasons.

History of religions in Bradford

Conversion of Bradford to Christianity

Two carved stones, probably parts of a Saxon preaching cross, were found on the site of Bradford cathedral. They indicate that Christians may have worshipped here since Paulinus of York came to the north of England in the year 627 on a mission to convert Northumbria. He preached in Dewsbury and it was from there that Bradford was first evangelised. The vicars of Bradford later paid dues to that parish.

Religious buildings

Bradford Cathedral

The most prominent Christian church in Bradford, is Bradford Cathedral, originally the Parish Church of St. Peter. The parish of Bradford was in existence by 1283, and there was a stone church on the shelf above the Beck by 1327.

The Diocese of Bradford was created from part of the Diocese of Ripon in 1919, and the church became a cathedral at that time.

Other Christian churches

There are many fine churches in the Bradford area, and also many buildings that were formerly churches but now in other uses.

The Abundant Life Centre, (formerly called the Abundant Life Church) is the home of a charismatic, evangelical Christian sect. The building is low and unassuming, but it is visible from most of central Bradford, as it site high up on the eastern side of Bradfordale.

Several immigrant communities from central and eastern Europe have their own churches, such as the Ukranian Bazilian Fathers and the Polish Catholic Church.

Mosques

Since the 1960's Bradford has had a significant Muslim population, and accordingly there are many mosques throughout the city.

Hindu temples

Gurdhwaras (Sikh temples)

Synagogues

The Jewish community in Bradford was strong in the late 19th century, but small today. There is a fine 19th century synagogue in Bowland Street.

Sport

Notable Bradfordians

The people in this list were either born or brought up in Bradford (not necessarily both), or had a significant connection with the city later in life. Those marked with an asterisk ('*') are described in Lister, 2004 .
*Mohammed Ajeeb CBE* — the first Asian Lord Mayor in the United Kingdom
*Private Eric Anderson, VC* — Bradford's only winner of the Victoria Cross in the Second World War
*Sir Edward Appleton* — discoverer of the ionosphere and Nobel Prize winner
*Bob Appleyard* — Yorkshire and England cricketer
*Tasmin Archer* — Singer-songwriter
*Inspector Martin Baines, race relations officer West Yorkshire Police (Bradford's best citizen 2000 (service sector)).
*David Bairstow* — Yorkshire and England cricketer
*Rodney Bewes* — Actor
*John Braine* Writer
*The Brontë sisters, Anne*, Emily*, and Charlotte* were born in Thornton on the outskirts of Bradford, but later lived in Haworth.
*Ian Clough* — mountaineer
*Phil Dean musician
*Frederick Delius* — Composer
*Joolz Denby (also known as Joolz) — poet and writer
*Adrian Edmondson* — actor and comedian, most notably Young Ones and Bottom
*W.E. Forster* Politician — commemorated by statue, and is the namesake of Forster Square.
*Edward Garvey — Garda Commissioner
*Gareth Gates* — Pop Idol runner up
*Robert Hardy — bassist of Franz Ferdinand
*David Hockney* — Artist
*Allan Holdsworth — Guitarist
*Samuel Lister* — Industrialist & inventor, commemorated by a statue.
*Brian Noble — Great Britain Rugby League coach
*The Black Panther — career kidnapper and murderer
*Albert Pierrepoint — executioner from Clayton — put to death Ruth Ellis- the last woman executed in England, and many others.
*J. B. Priestley* — Writer, commemorated by a statue.
*Simon Rouse, plays DCI Jack Meadows in The Bill
*Lord John Sewel, a Labour Party member of the House of Lords
*Harry Corbett* — Sooty glove puppet
*Justin Sullivan — Musician and songwriter in New Model Army
*Peter Sutcliffe — The Yorkshire Ripper, serial killer
*Kimberley Walsh — Member of pop group Girls Aloud
*Richard Whiteley* — Television Presenter
*Sir Walter Womersley, World War II minister representing Grimsby
*Richard Dunn — Boxer.

Wm Morrison Supermarkets originated in Bradford.

Bradford is the birthplace of rock bands New Model Army, Anti System, Smokie, Southern Death Cult/The Cult, Terrorvision, Morbid Humour, Asian hip hop group Fun-Da-Mental, Violation,and new Hip-Hop record label DMB Records, also known as Defying Musical Boundaries.

Transport

Bradford's location in Bradfordale tended to make communications difficult, except from the north. Nonetheless, Bradford has been well-served by transport systems.

Roads

Bradford was first connected to the developing turnpike network in 1734, when the first Yorkshire turnpike was built between Manchester and Leeds via Halifax and Bradford. In 1740, the Selby to Halifax road was constructed through Leeds and Bradford. Several more local and long-distance roads were built through the rest of the century.

Today Bradford lies on several trunk roads:
* the A650 between Wakefield and Skipton
* the A647 to Leeds
* the A658 to Harrogate
* the A6036 to Halifax

The M606 is a spur off the M62 motorway serving Bradford, but it does not come right to the city centre.

Buses and trams

Bradford's tram system was begun by Bradford Corporation in 1882: at first the vehicles were horse-drawn, but they were replaced by steam-driven trams in 1883, and by electric ones in 1898.

On 20 June 1911, Britain's first trolleybus service opened in Bradford, between Laisterdyke and Dudley Hill. It was often known as the trackless, in contradistinction to trams. The last trolleybus service in Bradford - and indeed in Britain - ceased operation on 26 March 1972.

First Bus are now the main operator of most routes in Bradford, and are part of the First Group.

Canal

The Bradford Canal was a four-mile long spur off the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Shipley. It was planned and built as part of the original Leeds and Liverpool project, to connect Bradford with the limestone quarries of North Yorkshire, the industrial towns on both sides of the Pennines and the ports on each coast. It opened in 1774, closed in 1866, reopened in 1871, and finally closed in 1922. There are plans to rebuild it (see the main article).

Railways

The Leeds and Bradford Railway opened Bradford's first railway station at the bottom of Kirkgate on 1 July, 1846. It offered a service via Shipley to Leeds and through Leeds to other centres, including London. The line was soon absorbed by the Midland Railway, and the station was rebuilt in the early 1850's and again, much larger, in 1890. Today it is a small utilitarian station dating from 1990, called Forster Square station, though it is somewhat distant from the site of its predecessors, and from Forster Square itself. It connects directly to Leeds, Ilkley and Skipton, and there is a limited direct service to London King's Cross.

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway opened its station at Drake Street on 9 May 1850, on its line between Manchester and Leeds. The Great Northern Railway opened a third terminus at Adolphus Street in 1854, serving Leeds and other places on its network, but the station was too far from the centre, and the two companies eventually agreed to build a joint station to replace the L&Y's station at Drake Street. This was Bradford Exchange station, opened in 1867: Adolphus Street remained as a goods terminal. The Exchange Station was completely rebuilt in 1880, with ten platforms; but by 1973 it was too large and again was rebuilt on a different site. In 1983 that station was renamed Bradford Interchange when a bus station was built alongside. Bradford Interchange railway station connects directly to Leeds, to Manchester Victoria and to Blackpool. See this site

Both stations are under the control of the West Yorkshire Metro as part of the Leeds-Bradford Line routes.

From the 1870s, the Great Northern built several suburban railway lines around Bradford:
* from Laisterdyke via Idle to Shipley and Windhill
* from Exchange to Queensbury, and thence to Keighley and Halifax,
* from Low Moor to Dudley Hill, thence to the Pudsey loop, and to Dewsbury. These all closed at various times between the 1930s and the 1960s.

There have been many schemes to build a link between Bradford's main rail termini, but none has ever come near fruition. The main practical difficulty is the great difference in elevation: the Exchange/Interchange station is already at the bottom of a long slope, steep by railway standards, but it is several metres higher than Forster Square Station

Air

* In 1931, Bradford and Leeds councils jointly opened Yeadon Aerodrome, now known as Leeds Bradford International Airport.

See also

*bmedi@ (Bradford's new media industry)

External links

*Bradfordinfo.com: Facts and figures about the Bradford Metropolitan District
*MapsAndStats.com: Maps and statistics Bradford Metropolitan District
*2001 Bradford Riots: A detailed report into the 2001 disturbances entitled, 'Fair Justice' was researched and authored by Chris Allen [4] for FAIR (the Forum Against Islamophobia & Racism) .
*Visit Bradford
*Bradford local Government page
*The City of Bradford
*Bradford Telegraph & Argus
*Bradford Cinemas History
*Bradford University
*Bradford College
*Bradford Bulls
*Bradford City FC
*Leeds Bradford International Airport
*Bronte Country
*Edward Exley Limited
*Bradford-Net Local Search
*Bolling Hall
*Bradford University's Theatre In The Mill
*Mind The Gap Theatre Company
*Komedy Kollective Theatre Company
*Lost Dog Theatre Company
*Priestley Centre For The Arts
*Bradford Community Resource Centre
*Bradford Centre Regeneration URC
*Bite The Mango Film Festival
*Bradford Museums Galleries & Heritage
*National Museum of Photography, Film and Television
*mono The Bradford Music Fanzine
*Bradford Cathedral
*For companies thinking of relocating to the district
*Bradford pubs Customer ratings and reviews of pubs in Bradford
*The IMRA website of the Immanuel model railway association based in Immanuel CofE College in Idle Bradford

References

*
* . This was surveyed 1847-1850, and published in 1852, though it was reprinted at various dates with certain (unidentified) details updated. The modern edition from Heritage Cartography is 'redrawn' from the original, and titled Bradford 1849, but the railways shown indicate that it is from a printing of at least 1854.

Bibliography

*
* The map itself is a reproduction of the Plan of the Town of Bradford ... revised and corrected to the present time by Dixon & Hindle, 1871.