A FESTIVAL dedicated to wool and the patron saint of woolcombers will be held in a Bradford museum next month.

When Vicky Clifton got her new job of Learning and Outreach Manager, at Bradford Museums and Galleries, she was delighted to discover that one of the projects she would be involved with was weaving a wool festival.

The event, held at Bradford Industrial Museum, will celebrate Bishop Blaise; who is not only the Patron Saint of the wool trade, but also of her old school: Saint Blaise Middle School, which stood in Bierley, until it closed in 1995.

The St Blaise Wool Festival takes place on Sunday February 5 from 11am to 4pm, and is woven around a wool market with stalls selling wool, woolly things, and tools to make your own woolly things. There will also be music and entertainment, food stalls, a pop-up a bar with a specially devised beer from local company Salamander Brewery.

Wool fans celebrate St Blaise at Bradford Industrial Museum

Special exhibitions will tell the story of the wool trade in the Bradford District, along with all the wonderful permanent displays at the Bradford Council-run museum. The event is part of a decades long attempt to revive what was once Bradford’s biggest celebration. Until 1825 the city would hold a massive procession, every seven years on Bishop Blaise’s day, February 3.

The revival was started by Bradford poet and showman Glyn Watkins, and is now being run by Bradford Woolly Heritage Community Interest Company.

The first new Wool Festival was held at Bradford Industrial Museum in 2019, and drew well over a thousand visitors. After nearly unravelling due to the Covid pandemic, it is hoped things will get weaving again this year.

Bishop Blaise a physician and bishop in Armenia at the end of the third or early fourth century. People went to him for cures of both spiritual and bodily ailments and he was thought to have also healed animals. He is the patron saint of woolcombers as he was reported to have been tortured by being flayed using pins from a woolcomb and behead-ed because he refused to renounce his faith.

Bradford was once known as Worstedopolis due to the number of mills and wool pro-cessing businesses including woolcombers that operated in the district and every seven years Bradford’s woolcombers organised a massive, fancy dress, procession through the town with the last one being held in 1825.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “We’re delighted to be hosting this fabulous event celebrating all things ‘woolly’. I would encourage anyone with an interest in Bradford’s woollen history to visit the museum for this event.”