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Paul Shane - man who mined laughs

11:00am Monday 20th May 2013

The death of comic actor Paul Shane on Thursday brought to mind the interview he gave to the T&A in 1987 before starting a ten-week stint playing Inspector Wu in Aladdin at the Alhambra.

When songs rang out and ale flowed at historic hostelry

9:22am Wednesday 15th May 2013

The future of Bradford’s Cock and Bottle pub is once again brewing up a storm, with Real Ale campaigners concerned about the interior which, in 2003, won a national award.

Recording the sound

9:18am Wednesday 15th May 2013

My own first experiences of Bradford’s music scene came in the early 1980s when denim-clad rockers flogged AC/DC covers in smoky pubs, alongside hair-styled, synth-driven bright young things, and the promise of suddenly being catapulted to stardom, simply by sending out demo cassettes, still seemed a tangible reality.

Health plan still caring for Bradford people 140 years on

9:05am Monday 13th May 2013

Jim Greenhalf on the benefits of Sovereign's long-standing health care plan

Bizarre Bradford: From mini skirts to dog-friendly wardrobe raiders

11:03am Wednesday 8th May 2013

Everybody knows that the Sixties were swinging, but back in 1959 in Bradford there was typical Yorkshire pessimism about the coming decade.

Recording sounds of Bradford's past

10:58am Wednesday 8th May 2013

When Bradford music historians Gary Cavanagh and Matt Webster decided to chronicle the sounds of the city over a two-decade period, the result was a book and accompanying four-CD set.

‘I have in my hand a piece of plastic’

1:00pm Wednesday 1st May 2013

What is the connection between former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and a tin of Ovaltine?

Has anybody any clues to what is going on here?

12:00pm Wednesday 1st May 2013

Retired Bradford builder Bob Holland sent a facsimile of this photograph after spotting that it was marked ‘Yorkshire Observer, Bradford’ in the bottom right corner.

How missing Brighouse & Rastrick medal came 'home'

11:00am Wednesday 1st May 2013

The intriguing story of the 1929 ‘July Brass Band Contest’ winners medal by Paul Beaumont, president of the Brighouse and Rastrick Band

Bradford Home Guard on parade

9:08am Monday 29th April 2013

These soldiers on parade at Park Avenue cricket ground during the 1940s are units of the Home Guard, volunteers who joined up to defend the homeland in the event of invasion by Nazi Germany.

Calm amid the horror

2:00pm Wednesday 24th April 2013

A new biography about Wallace Hartley was published last month, written by Norwegian Christian G Tennyson-Ekeberg.

The Pope who was ‘a witness to hope’

1:00pm Wednesday 24th April 2013

Bradford’s practising Roman Catholics have a bond with the Pope, their spiritual leader in Rome. But for the city’s Polish community, Pope John Paul II was specially beloved.

A politician respected by all sides

12:30pm Wednesday 24th April 2013

Bob Cryer once said that Bradford had a better train service to London in 1911, when Bradford City won the FA Cup, than it did in the early 1990s.

Bradford City winning the cup was a breeze!

12:00pm Wednesday 24th April 2013

On the Wednesday afternoon of April 26, 1911, when Bradford City won the new FA Cup trophy in Manchester, the day was blustery.

'Disastrous mix' that led to street clashes

11:00am Wednesday 24th April 2013

Trouble on the streets of central Bradford has been comparatively sporadic.

The widening of Bradford’s boundaries

10:30am Wednesday 24th April 2013

Monday, April 1, 1974, was the day the municipal boundaries of Bradford changed. On the last day of March the population was 293,000, but on April Fool’s Day it shot up to 462,000.

Dawning of the Pickles revolution

10:09am Wednesday 24th April 2013

On April 20, 1989, the leader of Bradford Council celebrated his 37th birthday. Councillor Eric Pickles shared a birthday with Napoleon III, Adolf Hitler and film comic Harold Lloyd.

Bizarre Bradford: Sting in the tale of armed robbery – the butler did it!

9:03am Wednesday 24th April 2013

If you’ve ever wondered where the old cliche “the butler did it” came from, then wonder no more.

Bradford Sea Cadets celebrating a life at sea

8:58am Wednesday 24th April 2013

or a landlocked city, Bradford’s historical connections with the sea seem unusual. In the late 19th century, textile magnate Titus Salt was a generous benefactor to the Sailors’ Orphanage in Hull.

Rolling back the years with the Royalists

9:05am Monday 22nd April 2013

Two years ago Remember When? was instrumental in bringing together members of the Sixties Bradford band The Royalists.

Sovereign Health Care history is revealed

8:45am Wednesday 17th April 2013

Common health issues in the district today include tooth decay, colds, allergies, heart disease, arthritis, digestive problems and diabetes.

Schoolchildren gathered for a steam train trip

8:47am Wednesday 17th April 2013

This photograph of Bradford schoolchildren and adults at a railway station looks as though it was taken during the Second World War.

Mystery of the skies

9:41am Monday 8th April 2013

In response to the article (Remember When? March 27) about the German airship seen over Bradford, five T&A readers contacted us.

Film archive steps into Bradford's past

11:00am Wednesday 3rd April 2013

Fascinating films of life in Bradford in years gone by is to be unveiled at the Bradford Film Festival. HELEN MEAD talks to Yorkshire Film Archive manager Graham Relton about the fascinating footage

Focusing on family's famous films legacy

10:00am Wednesday 27th March 2013

Fascinating films of life in Bradford in years gone by is to be unveiled at the Bradford Film Festival. HELEN MEAD went to meet the family which has been keeping a movie record of Bradford and Bradfordians for decades.

Miners vent their feelings with strike

5:33pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

If ever a year began inauspiciously it was 1974. A month-long miners’ strike – the second of its kind since 1972 – resulted in power reductions, a three-day working week and an inconclusive General Election at the end of February.

Staff tell of sadness as Bradford's Lingards department store shuts

5:32pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

Lingards, the Bradford-based department store, was famously bombed by the Luftwaffe in the Second World War. But it was a bombshell of a different kind that directors of the company dropped in March 1977: They were closing.

When Bradford's city bosses bet the house...

5:28pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

Arndale House, the modern eight-story office block that disgraced architect John Paulson designed, is still there in Charles Street, between Market Street and what used to be flourishing Broadway.

The end of the road for Bradford's trolleybuses

5:26pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

On Sunday, March 26, 1972, the end of a transport era occurred in Bradford.

Bradford ushers in a new transport era

5:20pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

At precisely 6.25am on Sunday, March 27, 1977, the number 670 bus left Bradford’s new bus depot on Bridge Street to make the journey to Leeds via Rodley.

Crowds turn out a Queen's visit puts Bradford on a royal high

5:17pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

Sixteen years ago, Bradford had come out of the country’s second recession and things were looking up.

Bradford district was gripped by weather in March 1963

5:09pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

In March, 1963, there was only one topic of conversation – the weather.

Bradford plays host to the stars of the Sixties

5:05pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

The late Peter Holdsworth famously, or notoriously, didn’t think much to Buddy Holly; but the T&A’s award-winning showbiz reporter was absolutely right about the Rolling Stones.

Get vehicle rolling again

12:00pm Wednesday 27th March 2013

We have brought you news before of efforts to restore an old steamroller, which was popular with children when it stood in Pudsey Park for many years.

Did you see the airship?

11:00am Wednesday 27th March 2013

A couple of years ago this column had correspondence from readers curious about a German dirigible or airship, seen over the district in the mid-1930s.

Bizarre Bradford: Raccoon rocked up in Ilkley with appetite for eggs

8:34am Wednesday 20th March 2013

What do you call a badger that climbs on to roofs, chews telly aerial cables, and has a fondness for jam tarts?

Billy Liar footage shows a piece of cinematic history

8:31am Wednesday 20th March 2013

Sir Tom Courtenay will be attending next month’s Bradford International Film Festival to be given a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Schooldays memories

9:15am Monday 18th March 2013

The article about Laisterdyke Local History Group, featured on the Remember When? page last month, prompted Mrs Kathleen Cockroft, nee Parsons, from Bingley, to send in a photograph of class 4A, Bradford Moor School, from 1949.

World war memories

9:26am Monday 11th March 2013

Next year marks the centenary of the start of World War One. York Oral History Society has started to digitise and transcribe a collection of recordings with veterans, and some conscientious objectors, from World War One.

Bizarre Bradford: Both tragedy and triumph on a day of animal tales

8:55am Wednesday 6th March 2013

Sometimes here on the Bizarre Bradford desk we like to spread the stories for each week’s column from a number of different papers in different years, and sometimes we hit upon gold in one single edition – and all of it animal-related. Thus it is this week, when all of our items were to be found in the Telegraph & Argus from Monday September 23, 1963. The first piece to catch our eyes had the arresting headline “His monkey caused blockage, Court told”. The mind boggled, and no less so after reading the piece: “A 25-year-old photographer who caused a ‘massive’ crowd to gather in Kirkgate, Bradford, on Saturday afternoon, ‘apparently intended bringing a little colour to the Bradford street,’ Mr John Bates, prosecuting, told Bradford City Court today.” The snapper, Lawrence Jay, pleaded guilty to obstructing the free passage of the highway, the report said, and informed us that he was fined £2 and ordered to pay £2 2s costs. But whither the monkey? A-ha: “Mr Bates said Jay had with him a monkey and was handing the pet to people and then photographing them with it. This attracted a crowd which was described by a policeman who apprehended Jay as ‘massive’. The pavement and part of the road was blocked by the crowd, added Mr Bates.” As if that wasn’t odd enough, consider this strange little piece: “Death of a fox at the farm”. A most curiously-written couple of paragraphs, worth retelling in full here: “For years it has been Herbert and Desmond Bailey’s wish to catch foxes which have attacked their remote farm at Wyke. “As they were working in the farmyard at Holly Hall Farm yesterday, they saw a fox in the middle of a pen of piglets. “They chased the fox. It jumped towards an open window, became stuck and in trying to free itself, died.” That’s your nature red in tooth and claw right there. An oddly poetic little piece, almost Beatrix Potter-ish in its unwavering view of rural life – and death. Speaking of death, how many ocelots does it take to make a coat? Take a look at this advert for C&A: “It looks like ocelot... it feels like ocelot...” But actually, it isn’t ocelot. Ten and a half guineas for a full-length simulation ocelot coat. Rest easy, conservationists. Time for some happy animal news, quick! And here it is: “Budgie show best ever”. Quite a claim, but who are we to argue when Mr John Edhouse, chairman of the Bradford Budgerigar Society, won three major awards at the society’s most successful show at St George’s Hall, Bradford? His gongs? “Best Bradford Member”, “The Breeder With Most Points” and “Best Opposite Sex Bird”. Stop giggling at the back. It’s time to finish. No monkeys, foxes, ocelots or budgies were harmed in the making of this column, apart from the ones that died 50 year ago, of course.

Walk takes us back to bloody battles

8:52am Wednesday 6th March 2013

"From October 1642 to March 1644, Bradford – which was little more than a large village – saw several bloody encounters between the Royalist forces of King Charles I and those on the side of Parliament and Oliver Cromwell.

Bizarre Bradford: Silent treatment proved too much for one husband

11:00am Wednesday 27th February 2013

Some domestic matters this week for you in Bizarre Bradford, beginning with the curious case of the wife who, as our headline had it, “didn’t speak for four weeks”.

Men who have made a lasting mark in Bradford's Jewish and wider community

10:30am Wednesday 27th February 2013

The heritage tours pay tribute to significant members of Bradford’s Jewish community, past and present. They include:

The hidden history of Bradford's Jewish heritage

10:00am Wednesday 27th February 2013

EMMA CLAYTON reports on the tours of Bradford that tell the story of the European settlers behind much of the city’s commercial success

Vivid images from Bradford's past

10:20am Monday 25th February 2013

Products of former Bradford furniture company Christopher Pratt & Sons have gone on display at Bradford Industrial Museum.