The Great Northern Railway opened a third terminus at Adolphus Street in 1854, but the station was too far from the centre, and the two companies built a joint station, Bradford Exchange which opened in 1867. In the BBC political satire The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006), the Prime Minister considers a proposal to move Parliament to Bradford, as it is closer to the geographic centre of the country than London. [73] Much semi-rural land on the fringes is also included. It is in the BD1 postcode district. World-famous Kendall racing oils were produced in Bradford.The population peaked at 17,691 in 1940, but as of the 2000 census had dropped to 9,175 and was still declining at mid-decade according to census bureau estimates. Although originally planned to go directly into the city centre it ends at the ring road. It is named after Richard H Bradford, a Confederate Captain who fought during the American Civil War. Mela festivals include a combination of markets, funfairs, food and drink, arts and workshops, children's activities, strolling entertainment and a variety of music and dance performances on a number of stages. [140], A mile from the city centre is Bolling Hall Museum, a part medieval building which offers visitors a journey through the lives and times of the families for which it provided a home for over five hundred years. [43] The 1/2nd Brigade crossed to France with the 1/6th Battalion West Yorks in April 1915. It entered a team in the 1960 Provincial League then fell dormant until the 1970s when it re-opened. There are plans to rebuild it as a key part of the regeneration of the city centre. Republished Old Bradfordian Press, Cudworth, William (1888) Worstedopolis. James Whyte, a sub-editor of the Bradford Observer met with Football Association representative, John Brunt, in January to discuss plans, and in May, Manningham RFC, a rugby league team decided to change codes to association football. [157], The Manningham Riot occurred between 10 and 12 June 1995, in Manningham and the 2001 Bradford race riots began on 7 July 2001 as a result of tension between ethnic minority communities and the city's white majority, stoked by the Anti-Nazi League and the National Front. Also in the city is The St George's Hall—a grand concert hall dating from 1853 making it the oldest concert hall in Britain and the third oldest in the whole of Europe. [110] In 1974 Bradford's municipal buses were taken over by West Yorkshire Metro. A mural on the back of the Bradford Playhouse (visible from Leeds Road) commemorates the centenary of the founding of the Independent Labour Party in 1893, and quotes its motto "There is no weal save commonweal".[62]. [16] This Industrial Revolution led to rapid growth, with wool imported in vast quantities for the manufacture of worsted cloth in which Bradford specialised, and the town soon became known as the wool capital of the world. Bradford scored highly not just for the quality of food and service offered by each of the restaurants, but also for food hygiene, a deep understanding of the curry restaurant sector and its success in collectively raising funds for food charity The Curry Tree, which seeks to alleviate the plight of the poor in South East Asia. With the working of local sandstone, ironstone, and coal in the 19th century, Bradford rapidly expanded along the stream toward the canalized Aire. [96][97][98][99], Forster Square Shopping Park opened in 1995 and is adjacent to the Forster Square Railway Station. In recent years some buildings from that era have themselves been demolished and replaced: Provincial House, next to Centenary Square, was demolished by controlled explosion in 2002,[103] and Forster House was pulled down in 2005 as part of the Broadway development. Groups and organisations teaching theatre include The Asian Theatre School, Bradford Stage and Theatre School and Stage 84. [9], After an uprising in 1070, during William the Conqueror's Harrying of the North, the manor of Bradford was laid waste[8] and is described as such in the Domesday Book of 1086. For every 100 females there were 127.00 males. In 1824 entrepreneurs John Thorpe and Mark Scanlon obtained a government grant for the construction of a grist mill on a stream north of the settlement; although the partnership was dissolved about 1832, Scanlon built two sawmills in that vicinity. Collected articles from the Bradford Observer. Bradford was historically in the county of Yorkshire. Republished by Mountain Press 1977, This page was last edited on 6 November 2020, at 12:21. On the first day of the Somme they took heavy casualties while trying to support the 36th (Ulster) Division. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.01. Nearly 60% of the battalion's casualties were deaths. Bradford and Leeds councils jointly opened the airport in 1931. [17] A desperate shortage of water in Bradford Dale was a serious limitation on industrial expansion and improvement in urban sanitary conditions.