JIM GREENHALF reports on a book that tells the story of the people who shaped Manningham, from mill-owners to mill-workers hree years ago, English Heritage published a handsomely illustrated book about the historic buildings of Manningham.

The recent book published by Manningham Mills Community Association – Manningham: People Through The Mill – looks at some of the lives, organisations and events that shaped the area.

There are the obvious ones such as Samuel Cunliffe Lister, the silk magnate, strike-breaker and philanthropist, and the writer J B Priestley. Then there are the less obvious characters such as the writer Norman Angell.

Unlike the better-known Lister and Priestley, Lincolnshire-born Angell won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1933 for his writings, including the 1910 book The Great Illusion, in which he tried to prove that war made no economic sense.

In spite of Angell’s persuasive argument the world went to war twice in 31 years.

Angell was Labour MP for Bradford North from 1929 to 1931 during which time he had lodgings at 43 Leamington Street, off Oak Lane.

During the Second World War Manningham Mills was visited by Winston Churchill and his wife and daughter. Plush weaver Mary Hollins, who worked at the mill for 28 years, recalled that visit.

“One day, whilst at Lister’s, we were told that Mr and Mrs Churchill and their daughter Mary were coming, so the mill engine was stopped. By then, we had a canteen and we had to make our way there and wait for them about two hours and we lost pay for that time.

“When they did come, not a word was spoken to us – he just walked by with a big cigar, and two fingers up. All that money we had lost on piece-work: that is your better class people.

“Clementine (Mrs Churchill) had a headscarf on and Mary was in uniform – she was about seventeen then. From what I have seen in my lifetime, I am staggered to think we still put up with it.”

Like Saltaire, Manningham’s landscape is dominated by a former textile mill with an enormous brick chimney. But whereas Salts Mill lies in the bottom of the Aire Valley, Manningham Mills sits on the horizon of a hill and can be seen from miles around.

It is a focal point of the area and Manningham Mills Community Association’s book, which sets out to gauge the well-being of the the area with the well-being of the mill.

“Manningham Mills kept itself and the area in reasonably good economic health for nearly three-quarters of the 20th century, being helped by the orders for First and Second World War uniforms. However, by the 1970s, the Mills had greatly reduced the numbers employed.

“Then the large, grand, family houses were turned into bedsits, flats, care homes or offices. The arrival of people from Pakistan and Bangladesh during the 60s, 70s and 80s helped staff the Mills’ unpopular night shifts.

“Despite considerable efforts in the 1980s to rationalise and rejuvenate the business, the area’s lifeblood was ebbing away. By 1990 the Mills employed only a few hundred instead of many thousands.

“The final closure of the Lister businesses and of the Mills came in the early-mid 1990s. As a result, the whole area reached its numbing nadir in this last decade of the millennium, marked by deprivation and social unrest.

“On the positive side, however, there were not the blocks of empty houses and shops that there were in other places in the city.”

What did change during the 14 years I lived in Manningham, from 1977 to 1993, was the make-up of the population, from mixed national, bohemian, to predominantly Muslim. Since then the population has changed again, with an influx of Poles – as can be seen by some of the restaurants and mini-supermarkets along Manningham Lane.

In the 1960s, two brothers Abdul and Munir Aziz, arrived from Pakistan with their father. He went to work in a mill, they went to school at Drummond Road, being put through special English language classes in St Michael’s Road.

In the years before their mother joined the family, the boys were mothered by a Manningham teacher, Miss Hartley.

“She was like a mother to us,” Abdul told the book’s authors. “I have a photo of her with my brother and myself taken in 1968. We would like to meet her again to say thank you for treating us so kindly all those years ago.”

As the photographs reproduced from the book show, the reunion was arranged and took place earlier this year. Their former teacher remembered them and was pleased they had come through the mill, as it were, and succeeded in their lives.

Bradford City’s fans know that their football club had its origins in Rugby Union in the shape of Manningham Rugby Club, which became Manningham Football Club. But how many know that women’s football was popular before and during the 1914-18 War, attracting large crowds?

“The women’s games attracted crowds of 20,000 spectators and were mostly fund-raisers to help charities. There was a match at Valley Parade in 1921 between Lumb Lane’s Hey’s Brewery Ladies and the visiting Dick Kerr Ladies from Preston. It was won by the visitors.”

The following year, Hey’s Brewery Ladies won the Bradford Charity Shield against clubs from Yorkshire and France, with matches taking place at the former Greenfield Athletic Stadium in Dudley Hill.

In an early round, 3,000 spectators reportedly watched the French team go down 2-0. Gate receipts went to the Bradford Hospital Fund. In the final, Hey’s beat Doncaster 4-0.

Manningham: People Through The Mill, by Peter Nias and Mollie Somerville, is available from Manningham Mills Community Centre, Lilycroft Road, Bradford BD9 5BD. It costs £5 over the counter or £7 by post, payable to Manningham Mills Community Association.