Bradford

It is the second largest city in the region with a total area of 400 square km and, in 2003, had a population estimated at 477,800, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Bradford's Alhambra Theatre

The environment is varied, from moorlands in the north and west, to the valleys and floodplains formed by river systems flowing through the district. Surprisingly, two-thirds of the district is rural and the topography means that most of the industrial and residential development has taken place along the valley bottoms, with the majority of the population living in the urban centres of Bradford, Shipley, Bingley, Keighley and Ilkley.

There are a wide range of habitats, from lowland grassland and upland pastures to woodlands, moorlands, river valleys, other watercourses and wetlands, including many reservoirs. The Bradford Biodiversity Action Partnership (led by the Council, along with other environmental agencies and the local community) is currently developing a Local Biodiversity Action Plan to protect a number of nationally and locally important species and habitats which are under threat.

The district has a large number of interesting and architecturally important buildings, mostly constructed from local stone, with 5,500 listed buildings and 57 conservation areas. The model village of Saltaire has also been listed as a World Heritage Site.

The Bradford district has approximately 200,000 homes. More than two-thirds of households live in semi-detached or terraced homes, with the remainder living in flats or detached properties. In the inner city the number living in terraced houses alone rises to 59 per cent. There are around 5,000 back-to-back houses in the district, and 60 per cent of these are in the inner city. The vast majority of properties have two or three bedrooms, although 24 per cent of properties in Wharfedale and 22 per cent in the inner city have four or more bedrooms.

Bradford and district has the region's third largest economy, accounting for nine per cent of all employment in the area and holding 9.1 per cent of the regional business stock.

The Annual Business Inquiry of 2002 showed that there were 14,582 business units within Bradford and district, employing 195,000 people.

The largest ward is City in Bradford West with a population of 18,570. Due to the number of students living in this area, a large proportion of the population are young people with nearly a quarter of them under 15 years of age, which is similar to the district average. However, more than one third are aged between 16 and 24.

At the opposite end of the scale is Wharfedale, where the population is 11,124, making it the smallest, yet with an age profile older than that of the district as a whole. Here, more than 18 per cent of the population is over 65 years of age, compared to 14.4 per cent for the whole district.

Each local authority is reviewed around every ten years by the Boundary Commission, an independent body which reviews the electoral arrangements of every local authority.

Changes in the number of people in the district and where they live, as well as predicted changes, led to alterations by the Commission to boundaries in most of the district's ward two years ago.

Last year many residents found themselves voting in a different ward. For instance, the Odsal ward disappeared with voters moving into Little Horton, Royds, Wibsey and Wyke wards. University ward was replaced by the new City and Manningham wards, Shipley West was renamed Shipley ward and Shipley East became Windhill & Wrose.

Another ward which no longer exists is Rombalds, where most voters moved into the new Wharfedale ward and some into Bingley ward.

Virtually all wards were changed in some way,  apart from Craven and Ilkley.

Ilkley ward contains the town of Ilkley, neighbouring Ben Rhydding and most of Ilkley Moor. It is a scenic and prosperous area, with many of its inhabitants commuting to Bradford and Leeds.

Craven is a largely rural ward and consists of the communities of Silsden and Steeton with Eastburn in Airedale and Addingham in Wharfedale.

History

Bradford, the former wool capital of the world, grew up very quickly after a long childhood. It was a Saxon village up to the Norman Conquest, when it suffered the same fate as most settlements in a north of England 'harried' at the behest of William I.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Listers Mill, Bradford

Domesday Book describes it simply as 'waste'. Over the next 200 years it slowly recovered, and in 1251 received a market charter from Henry III. By then its staple industry was established thanks to its location. Sheep grazed the high moorland across Yorkshire and soft water, filtered through the peat and ideal for washing wool, ran through the valleys.

The town became the meeting place for weavers of cloth, who brought their 'pieces' to market to find buyers. The quality of the material soon established its own reputation. Little touched the quiet life of the town nestling in a small spur off the Aire Valley. The highest drama in 600 years came in the Civil War when, besieged by Royalists, the town's defenders hung sacks of wool from the tower of the parish church to protect it from the artillery of the Earl of Newcastle.

The Earl had promised to put the whole place to the sword but, during the night, a ghostly figure interrupted his sleep at Bolling Hall, imploring him: 'Pity poor Bradford'. It unsettled him enough to persuade him to let the people live.

The most radical thing to happen to Bradford was the discovery that steam power could replace water power and human or animal muscle in manufacturing. Bradford's geology put it at the forefront of the industrial revolution. It sat on deposits of coal and iron ore. Textile manufacture was no longer a cottage industry but big business. Workers left the land for the city, to earn their living in the mills and factories. Nowhere did this happen more dramatically than Bradford, where the population soared in the first half of the 19 th Century.

The coming of the canals in the 18 th Century and the arrival of the railways in the first half of the 19 th gave the cut-off little town an outlet to the outside, and Bradford's worsted cloth suddenly had the world as its marketplace.

But the Yorkshire expression 'where there's muck there's brass [money]' could have been coined for Bradford. Hard-driving industrialisation and a rising population brought social problems, mainly from the filth which accumulated in the canal and the beck which had once been the water supply but was by 1840 an open sewer. Cholera, typhoid and anthrax (sometimes called woolsorter's disease) were frequent and unwelcome visitors.

In 1847 Bradford was granted borough status and elected its first local government representatives, who began to clean up the town. Efficient sewerage and clean water supplies began to cut the toll of disease. By the middle of the 19 th Century Bradford was wealthy and money began to produce buildings like the town hall, the Wool Exchange and St George's Hall, which still stand today.

By 1897, when Bradford became a city, not only were there great buildings, but there was the basis of a social welfare system to look after the people who helped build them.

In schools Bradford pioneered meals, health care, swimming baths, nurseries, dentistry (it was a Bradford MP, W E Forster, who in 1870 pioneered the first Act of Parliament which was to give every child in Britain a free education).

In politics, Bradford was also a pioneer. The Independent Labour Party was born in the city out of a long and bitter strike over pay cuts at Lister's Mill in the 1890s. (Lister was later to give the city its largest park and its art gallery).

Prosperity reflected the world's slump and boom up until the Second World War, after which artificial fibres and cheap imports dealt the textile industry many body blows. Since then Bradford has been finding new directions in education - it achieved university status in 1966 - microtechnology, leisure and - perhaps surprising itself - tourism. Its proximity to the Yorkshire Dales National Park, its friendliness (it seems to have absorbed successive waves of newcomers from around the world, starting with Ireland, through Eastern Europe, Russia and Germany to the Caribbean and the Indian Sub-continent with less strain and animosity than other English cities) and its industrial heritage make it attractive to visitors.

Even in the centre of Bradford, you are never far from the surrounding moorland - a fact which influenced some of its most famous artistic sons - the novelist and playwright J B Priestley, the composer Frederick Delius, and the contemporary artist David Hockney

Tourism

TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRE

Bradford Tourist Information Centre, City Hall, Bradford, BD1 1HY. Tel: 01274 433678, fax: 01274 739067, web: www.visitbradford.com, e-mail: tourist.information@bradford.gov.uk. Opening hours: Monday 10am - 5pm; Tuesday - Saturday 9.30am - 5pm; Closed Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays.

ATTRACTIONS

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Bolling Hall

Bolling Hall - The oldest part of this magnificent stately home has been standing since well before Henry VIII came to the throne, and the most recent alterations are now more than two hundred years old! Bolling Hall, Brompton Avenue, off Bowling Hall Road, Bradford, BD4 7LP. Tel: 01274 431826, fax: 01274 739067. Facilities: Shop, baby changing area, disabled toilet, gardens, car park. Admission free. Opening times: All Year. Wednesday to Friday 11.00am - 4.00pm, Saturday 10.00am - 5.00pm, Sunday 12.00pm - 5.00pm. Open Bank Holiday Mondays 11.00am - 4.00pm. Not open Good Friday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day New Years Day.

National Media Museum - Consistently the most visited museum outside London with an average of 750,000 people coming each year, the National Media Museum has amazing interactive galleries to explore plus the giant Imax cinema screen. National media Museum, Bradford, BD1 1NQ. Tel: 8707010200, 01274 202040 (Box Office), fax: 01274 723155. Admission to the museum is free. Telephone for details of admission charges to Cinemas. Opening times: Museum, 10.00am - 6.00pm Tuesday - Sunday and Bank Holidays. Shops 10.00am - 6.00pm. Café - Restaurant 10.00am - 9.00pm. Cinemas 10.00am - late (not including IMAX).

Bradford Industrial Museum - Think of industry in Bradford and you think of wool. Think of mills and you think of machinery, steam engines and horses, all of which can be found at Bradford Industrial Museum! Bradford Industrial Museum, Moorside Road, Bradford, BD2 3HP. Tel: 01274 435900, fax: 01274 636362. Admission free. Opening times: Tuesday - Saturday: 10.00am to 5.00pm, Sunday: Noon to 5.00pm, closed Mondays except Bank Holidays.

St George's Hall - Bridge Street, Bradford, BD1 7AJ. Tel: 01274 437522; e-mail: enquiries@bradford-theatres.co.uk; website: www.bradfordtheatres.co.uk.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Bradford Alhambra Theatre

Alhambra Theatre - Morley Street, Bradford, BD7 1AJ. Tel: 01274 432000; e-mail: enquiries@bradford-theatres.co.uk; website: www.bradfordtheatres.co.uk. The Alhambra Theatre is the jewel in the crown of Bradford. Built in 1914 and refurbished in 1986 with stunning results, it is a testimony to the splendour of the Edwardian music hall era.

Bradford 1 Gallery - Centenary Square, Bradford, BD1 1SD. Tel: 01274 437800; e-mail: tania.bond@bradford.gov.uk; website: www.bradfordmuseums.org. Opening times: Tue - Wed 11am to 6pm, Thu 11am to 8pm, Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat - Sun noon to 5pm. Closed Mondays, Christmas Day, Boxing Day. Admission free. Bradford 1 Gallery is the new city centre arts space. It hosts a range of exhibitions dedicated to contemporary and historic art and modern crafts. The gallery shares the space with Impressions Photographic Gallery. There is a shop and studio space for education activities and workshops.

Gallery II - Univeristy of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1BR. Tel: 01274 235495; e-mail: gallery@bradford.ac.uk; website: www.brad.ac.uk/admin/gallery. Opening times: The gallery is only open during exhibitions or by appointment. Please contact for information. Admission free. Gallery II is the base for touring contemporary visual arts exhibitions as well as the home of the Universitiy's permanent art collection. Gallery II hosts around eight exhibitions a year.

Cartwright Hall Art Gallery - Lister Park, Bradford, BD9 4NS. Tel: 01274 431212; e-mail: cartwright.hall@bradford.gov.uk. Opening times: Open all year. Usually open on Bank Holidays. Admission free. Built 1904 in Baroque style as an art gallery. Permanent collection of 19thC and 20thC British art. Transcultural collection of arts from the Indian sub-continent and contemporary South Asian art. Temporary exhibitions.

St Leonard's Farm Park - Chapel Lane, Esholt, BD17 7RB. Tel: 01274 598795; e-mail: farmerjames1@aol.com; website: www.stleonardsfarm.com. Opening times: Open Mondays throughout summer school holidays and Bank Holiday Mondays. Open Half Term holidays Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 4pm. Last admission 45mins before closing. Open All Year. Admission: Adults £3.75, children £3.25, family £12. The farm has lots of different animals, some of which you can feed. Visit the play areas, especially the popular straw playbarn, with its tunnels and swing ropes; small animal enclosure; listed barns and buildings; picnic areas, nature footpaths, well stocked gift shop and the 'Wain House' tea room. Tractor and Trailor rides. Pony rides and Pony & Trap rides available certain days throughout the school holidays and weekends subject to certain conditions.

Bradford Industrial Museum - Moorside Road, Eccleshill, Bradford, BD9 4NS. Tel: 01274 431212; e-maikl: cartwright.hall@bradford.gov.uk. Opening times: Tue - Sat 10am to 5pm, Sun noon to 5pm. Closed Mondays (except Bank Holidays), Good Friday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day. Bradford's Industrial Museum has permanent displays of textile machinery, steam power, engineering and motor vehicles, along with an exciting exhibitions programme.

Bradford Cathedral - 1 Stott Hill, Bradford, BD1 4EH. Tel: 01274 777720; e-mail: secretary@cathedral.bradford.anglican.org; website: www.bradfordcathedral.org. Service times: Sundays: 8am Holy Communion. 10.15am Sung Eucharist. 4pm Choral evesong (term time). 6.30pm Alternative worship (changing weekly programme). Daily services: 8am Morning prayer. 5.30pm Evening prayer. Wednesdays: 7.30am and 10.15am Holy Communion. Saint Days: 12.30pm Holy Communion (except if Saints Day is a Wednesday). See the website for details of special services and events. Bradford's beautiful Cathedral is a hidden jewel waiting to be discovered. Set in tranquil gardens where once battle raged, the Cathedral is alive with a sense of story from its 13 centuries at the heart of Bradford.

Theatre in the Mill - Shearbridge Road, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1BR. Tel: 01274 233185; e-mail: theatre@bradford.ac.uk; website: www.brad.ac.uk/admin/theatre.