OVER the years Bradford and district have contributed greatly to helping refugees.

This is indicative through this interesting photograph sourced by our nostalgia writer and researcher, Odele Ayres, which shows the Refugee Hut in Shipley Market Place at the launch of the Shipley and Baildon appeal on behalf of World Refugees in March 1960.

According to reports in the T&A around that time, the city and district was instrumental in setting up a number of initiatives to help families in crisis.

House to house collections for clothing and bedding as well as fundraising events were just some of the contributions Bradfordians made.

A report of the Shipley and Baildon District Traders Association meeting said there had been ‘little difficulty in finding plenty of willing helpers and what started as a Traders’ Association effort became a real Association effort due to the enthusiasm of warm-hearted people.’

Among the tributes were the women volunteers who staffed collecting centres at 14 local churches and the many organisations, such as Scouts, Rotary and Round Table and local businesses who also contributed to the effort.

Enterprising individuals also got involved such as the group of Bradford nurses who held a collection and offered their spare time around their caring profession to help with the appeal.

One of most heart-warming anecdotes is taken from a report of The Bradford Committee of World Refugee Year in which it announced £2,064 6s 8d had been raised so far from a £100 cheque to the 8s and 4d collected by two boys aged five and seven who donated the money from their carol singing session to a teacher with the strict instructions that it ‘should be sent to the refugees.’

Then there was the ‘Telegraph and Argus’ reader who donated a pair of pillow-slips to a Yugolsavian refugee family in Austria.

The reader donated the gift as a result of the Christmas gift appeal made through the ‘Telegraph & Argus’ by A Beaton Chairman of the Bradford Council of the United Nations Association.

By chance, Mr Beaton read out the mother’s letter of gratitude during a public meeting at Church House in Bradford.

In the T&A report, dated February 1960, the woman wrote about the joy of receiving the pillow slips.

Talking about the wooden hut where her family lived in a refugee camp at Kapfenberg in Austria brought home the reality of their accommodation.

Similarly, the refugee’s wooden hut pictured in Shipley Market where Coun J C Padgett launched the Shipley and Baildon appeal on behalf of World Refugees in March 1960, put into perspective what life was really like for the refugees and how the efforts of local people could make a difference.