A group of volunteers has been researching families who lived in old millworkers’ houses at Bradford Industrial Museum, as part of a refurbishment of the properties.

The Friends of Bradford Art Galleries and Museums – which celebrates its 50th anniversary next month – has unearthed details of a Victorian and 1940s wartime family who lived in the back-to-back houses and an Edwardian family from Moorside House.

The back-to-backs originally stood in Gathorne Street, Great Horton, and research has unearthed details of the Northrops, a millworker’s family who lived there in 1875. “We look at the kind of furnishings the family would have had, to fit their means, and the house was re-decorated using colours of the day,” said Friends member Jim Humphries.

For the 1942 house, the group researched domestic life during the Second World War. Blackout tape has been added to windows and items such as gas masks and replica rationed food placed around the house.

Details of the Greenwood family, an Edwardian family occupying Moorside House, the former mill manager’s house at Moorside Mills, which became the Industrial Museum, have been discovered through research.

“Mr Greenwood was a soap works manager. We think he rented the house,” said curator Joanne Downing. “It was also a schoolhouse.”

The houses have been refurbished with funding from the friends, a voluntary organisation supporting the Industrial Museum, Cartwright Hall, Bolling Hall and Bradford 1 Gallery. Next month a ‘Friends at 50’ party will celebrate the achievements of the group, with a display looking at its history, live music from GMC Jazz Band, and a chance to view items from Cartwright Hall’s stores and learn about new projects.

The Young Ambassadors, a youth voluntary group working with museums and galleries, will also be present. “These young people are taking the work into the future,” said friends chairman Molly Kenyon.

  • For more about the Friends of Bradford Art Galleries and Museums, or to buy tickets for Friends at 50 at Cartwright Hall on Saturday, September 18, from 6pm, ring Julia Reynell on (01274) 546585 or e-mail mkenyon@freeuk.com.