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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Bradford
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(482,000 in 1991)
City in West Yorkshire which from the Middle Ages was an important centre for the woollen and textile trades, though the rapid growth of the town dates only from the 19C (one of the first steam-powered mills was installed here in 1798). A famous extension of Bradford's industry was the experiment at *Saltaire, and from the same period there survives the large area of textile warehouses known as Little Germany (the reason for the name is not known).
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Two of the city's most grandiose buildings opened in 1873: Lister's Mill in Manningham, whose 76m/250ft chimney in the style of an Italian bell-tower is one of Bradford's best-known landmarks; and the Gothic City Hall, with a Venetian clock tower not much lower than the mill's chimney, by the local firm of Lockwood and Mawson. The same partnership had previously built the Wool Exchange (1867), an elaborately self-confident market place in keeping with a time when much of the world's wool was traded here. Bradford Grammar School, one of the best known in the country, was founded in 1662; it is now an independent school.
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The parish church (14–15C) became the cathedral when Bradford was made an Anglican diocese in 1919. Bolling Hall, a 15C manor house much altered and improved in the 18C, was opened in 1915 as a museum specializing in period furniture and decoration; and Cartwright Hall, completed in 1904, was built in Lister Park as a municipal art gallery to house a collection of mainly British paintings. The most recent addition to Bradford's museums is the *National Museum of Photography, Film and Television.
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