Remember when Bradford’s Public Library published books? Good books, they were – well-written, smartly produced, sensibly priced, and interesting.

Topics ranged from the Civil War and Victorian Houses to the Bradford Pals and Bradford’s Picture Houses; places from Oakworth and Thornton to Heaton and Wibsey; and people from J B Priestley and Bishop Blunt to Jonathan Silver and Bob Cryer.

The Library’s publishing activities started modestly in 1977 with ‘... a series of booklets in which it is intended to bring before a wider public original research on local subjects or information about the past in the locality which should be made available but which would be unlikely to be printed commercially or in learned journals.’ Early titles were the Crown Street Comic Band in 1977 (on street life), Unbelievable But True! (boxing, football and whippet racing), and the best-seller, Maggie Newbery’s Reminiscences Of A Bradford Mill Girl.

Elvira Willmott was the librarian responsible and it was she who transcribed The Journal of Dr John Simpson which told of high society and low life in the Bradford of 1825.

Other titles were Images of Ilkley in the 19th and 20th Centuries (photographs); Village to Mill Town: Shipley and its Society 1600-1870; Chartist Risings in Bradford; and Philip Snowden: the First Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In 1988, the library upgraded its publishing programme, something that was happening in other libraries. The slim low-cost booklets became more substantial and, with an output of some two to three titles a year, Bradford Libraries became, in the words of one of its featured authors, “a leading Northern publisher”.

As the newly-appointed reference librarian, I took over the role of publisher, selecting titles and liaising with authors, printers and bookshops.

The first title I did was The Siege of Bradford. It was based on a rare pamphlet in the stock of the Library. We got a historian from York’s Castle Museum to write an introduction, a student on placement to do a modern-day text to accompany the gothicky facsimile of the 1643 original.

Elvira provided some maps, Anthea Bickley of the Museum’s Service provided some illustrations and a super coloured picture of a battle scene for the cover. The Siege sold like hot cakes and was quickly reprinted.

This was followed by Brother in the Shadow, an anthology of stories and cartoons by that black sheep of the Bronte family, Branwell. Then came Peter Holdsworth’s history of the Bradford Alhambra, Domes of Delight, with Tim Smith’s striking cover photo of the floodlit Alhambra.

Edward Johnson’s Bradford Almanac, a quirky compilation of oddities, ephemera, dialect stories and memorabilia of Bradford folk life is still used by library staff to answer enquiries.

These were exciting times. We felt we were really extending the library service by making knowledge more widely available and providing a platform for local authors.

These authors included architectural historian George Sheeran (Victorian Houses of Bradford), college lecturer Gary Firth (Victorian Street Characters), and actor/playwright Leslie Sands (Tuppence for the Rainbow) who wrote about his life of poverty in Bradford before he achieved fame on television as Detective Superintendent Miller in Z Cars, Sergeant Cluff in the Yorkshire detective series, Cluff, and in the The Plane Makers, another TV series.

Hitherto unknown authors who achieved local fame through the library’s publication programme included Keighley library caretaker, Frank Wigglesworth (Oakworth in my Time: recollections of village life between 1916 and 1930), Vera Smith (All Muck and Nettles) who wrote about her life as a burler and mender in Pudsey and Bradford, and went on to become a popular speaker around the local clubs and societies in her 1960s and 1970s.

Joyce Eaglestone (The Story Tellers) who wrote of three generations of her family, from grandma who ran a boarding house in the ‘Chicago of the North’ (Thornton Road!), Dad, one of the first qualified dentists to work in Bradford, and Joyce herself, a bank clerk during the war.

Remember the Bouncing Bears, who spearheaded a 1980s campaign to turn round Bradford’s poor self-image? The campaign was led by Tom Clinton, who wrote about the experience in Laugh, I Nearly Went To Bradford!

This book was bought by other local authorities hoping to improve their image! More ‘upmarket was Gary Firth’s The Street Characters of a Victorian City in which John Sowden’s fragile water colours of the 1880s were reproduced.

Sadly, the arrival of a new chief officer for libraries with a cost-cutting agenda in 2001 saw the end of the library’s publishing programme. The last two books were Clem Richardson’s The Bradford Region: studies in its human geography; and David Bateman’s history of Riddlesden. Ex-Lord Mayor, Stanley King’s book Heaton: The Best Place of All just squeezed though a year earlier.

It was a bitter blow, particularly as the income from sales covered the printers’ bills. But once storage and admin costs and staff time were factored in, down came the guillotine. Not that these costs were ever very large.

The publicity our publications gained was useful and I always felt that by publishing local material we were promoting a positive image, both of Bradford and the library.

It was a service rather than a business. But the ‘bean counters’ did not see it this way. To add insult to injury, the back stocks were destroyed, so that none of these marvellous titles remained available, except on some library shelves and occasionally in second-hand bookshops.

Highlights? There were so many! The book launch-cum-rave up in the Alhambra-organised by Derek Lister (Bradford’s Rock’n’Roll: the Golden Years) with noisy performances by his fellow rockers was one. I had the bizarre experience of being cornered by rock legend Emile Ford (What Do You Make Those Eyes At Me For?) trying to sell me a large box of cassettes.

Derek also got us into the Sunday papers. (And it was Derek who christened me ‘Bob the Barrow’ after he saw me trundling cartons of books into the bowels of the Kirkgate Centre).

TV presenter Claire Frisby’s skill at interviewing the stammering Geoff Mellor (Movie Makers and Picture Palaces) is another vivid memory.

Worst memory was a book launch without a book, which happened when Harry Gration was guest of honour at the pre-Waterstone’s Wool Exchange.

My favourite book was Tuppence For The Rainbow by Leslie Sands. What a gentleman. His Barkerend neighbours offered to buy him as a lad to help his parents out of poverty. Wilfred Tapp’s vivid memories of school-mastering in Thornton in the 1890s is also one of my favourites.

l Bob Duckett went on to produce books on Bradford for other publishers, and now edits the annual Bradford Antiquary, but he still receives far more material than he can use.

He hopes that the pending re-launch of Bradford’s Local Studies Library will see more enlightened views prevail. Maybe once more the Library Service will produce well-written, smartly produced, reasonably-priced, and interesting books on Bradford and its people.