Bradford

Bradford is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is located 8.6 miles west of Leeds.

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• Bradford is the 4th largest metropolitan authority in England with a growing population of 531,000 people.
• 23.7% of the population are aged under 16 compared with 18.8% nationally making Bradford the youngest city in the UK.
• Bradford has a diverse population with ethnic minorities making up 36% of the total population. There are 153 languages spoken by children attending schools in the district.

• It was a boom-town of the Industrial Revolution, amongst the earliest industrialised settlements, and rapidly became ‘Worsetdopolis’ the “wool capital of the world”.
• Fine worsteds, silk, alpaca, and velvet cloths were manufactured in the late 19th century:

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• The textile industry declined in importance during the late 20th century, while other manufacturing sectors—including engineering, paper and packaging, and printing—grew. This led to an increase in unemployment in the area.

Bradford became the world's first UNESCO City of Film, in 2009.

Lots of famous people from the past and present are from Bradford: Titus Salt, David Hockney, The Bronte Sisters, JB Priestley… to name just a few!

Manningham

• Manningham stands on elevated ground overlooking the city of Bradford, which is approximately a mile away.

• It’s likely that some form of settlement at Manningham predated the Norman Conquest as the name is thought to have either Old English or Norse origins.

• Manningham, was once a rural area entirely separate from Bradford, but is now a suburb of the city.

• In 1860 with the opening of Manningham Railway Station and the sale of nearby plots of land, Manningham really opened up, as a place to live. It was developed as a middle-class area in the second half of the 19th century, when Bradford’s textile industry went through a period of growth.  

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• Samuel Cunliffe Lister greatly improved existing machinery for combing and weaving wool; by the 1860s, Lister and Co was the first in the world to completely manufacture of silk and velvet. After the fire at Manningham Mills in 1870, Lister built a much larger mill (completed in 1873), the biggest silk factory in Europe, which employed over 4,000 people. Many of the long terraces and back-to-back houses were built from 1890 onwards.

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• However, as early as the 1800s a change in the railway network meant that Manningham was no longer ‘the place’ to live, and over time the middle classes deserted the area for more rural locations. Although Lister and Co and Manningham Mills had a high profile, and contributed to WW1/ WW2 efforts, they were in decline by the late 1940s.

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• By 1950, workers from other countries were encouraged into the country to fill the post-war labour shortage in industries such as textiles and transport.

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• The threat of demolition hung over large parts of Manningham from the 1950s through to the late 1970s. This led to under-investment in the area over these years, making the problems of a declining textile industry worse. People moved out of the area if they could afford to.

• Lister and Co and Manningham Mills, closed in 1990, though the mill still dominates Bradford’s sky line.

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• Valley Parade Football Stadium is located in Manningham. It has been home of Bradford City Football Club since it was founded in 1903. Many families around Manningham opened their homes to help people in the aftermath of the fatal Valley Parade fire disaster of 1985. Residents also went on to fundraise to help those who had life-changing injuries.

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• Manningham was the location of the Manningham Riot (June 1995) and the Bradford Riots (July 2001). Hundreds of people were hurt.

Valley Parade Stadium

Its name:

The ground and road the stadium is built on were named after the local area Valley Parade; the steep hillside below Manningham.  A former name of the club is The Paraders.

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Bradford City Fire, 1985:

• The stadium underwent few changes until the fire on 11^th May 1985, when 56 supporters were killed and at least 264 were injured.
• The fire started forty minutes into the club’s final game of the season against Lincoln City. It destroyed the main stand in just nine minutes.  
• The following season and for five months after this, Bradford City played home games at the stadiums of Elland Road, Leeds Road and Odsal while Valley Parade was rebuilt.
• It underwent a £2.6 million redevelopment and was re-opened in December 1986.

Its history and architecture:

It was originally the home of Manningham Rugby Football Club until 1903 when they changed from rugby football to association football and became Bradford City.

The playing field was made of ballast (sand/ gravel), ashes, soil and sods. The ground was officially opened on the 27th September 1886.

The record attendance of 39,146 was set in 1911.

Present:

Valley Parade Stadium is now known as the Utilita Energy Stadium.

Bradford Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that is the home church of a bishop. Bishops oversee many churches in a particular region, so the cathedral is often larger and more decorative than the others.

A parish is the area which is served by a church.

 Diocese: an area of land under the charge of a bishop.

Sermon: A talk on a religious or moral subject

Grade I Listed Building: a place that is very special for historical or architectural reason and is therefore protected from being changed.

Christians believe there is only one God, but that he is revealed in three different forms:

• God the Father
• God the Son
• The Holy Spirit

• Bradford Cathedral or Cathedral Church of St Peter, is an Anglican cathedral in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Its site has been used for Christian worship since the 8^th century. Until 1919, it was the parish church of St Peter.

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• Originally in the Diocese of York, the church was in the Diocese of Ripon before becoming a cathedral in 1919, when the Diocese of Bradford was created. In 2014 it was incorporated into the newly formed Diocese of Leeds.

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• On the 12^th May 1985, more than 1000 people gathered at Bradford Cathedral for a 30 minute memorial service, conducted by the Bishop of Bradford, the Right Rev. Robert Williamson. This included a sermon and the Bradford City Prayer.

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• The cathedral is a Grade I listed building.

Anglican: Church of England

Council of Mosques, Bradford

The first Muslim communities

The earliest Muslim communities in the United Kingdom were those of the Yemenis in Cardiff, South Shields and Liverpool. These communities began to form in the mid-nineteenth century.

Post-war recruitment

The number of Muslims in Britain increased dramatically after WW2 as Britain recruited thousands of workers to make up for the labour shortage. This was mainly in in industrial areas such as Birmingham, Manchester and Bradford. Muslim immigrants were mainly men from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India who had left their families behind in search of a better life. Bradford was known worldwide at the time as the centre for the wool and textile industry, and many migrant Muslims contributed to this trade by working in the textile mills.

Beating the deadline

The initial intention of many migrants was to return to their country of origin. However, a new immigration law was passed in the early seventies restricting migration to the UK. To beat this deadline, wives and children travelled to Britain.

Mosques start to grow

The reunion of families helped form visible ethnic communities in many cities, including Bradford. As a result, religious and cultural needs started to grow and many more Mosques were built in the 1970s. Racial discrimination and racial disadvantage were high. There were also severe inequalities in employment, housing, education and other services. The Race Relations Act 1976 was introduced by the British government to address these inequalities.

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The Council of Mosques

The 1980s was a period which was a turning point for Muslims in Bradford. The children of the first generation were now growing up in Britain as part of a community which felt the need to preserve their culture, religion and language. Bradford Council reported that they had no direct knowledge of Asian needs and requirements and were seeking new channels of communication between the Council and the communities. This led to the creation of The Council of Mosques in 1981. The support from Bradford Council continued.

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Bradford City Stadium Fire, 1985

Despite continuing to experience racial discrimination and disadvantage, it was the Muslim community living around Valley Parade who were the first aiders and people who looked after those who were injured in the fire.

C.M. Khan (President of the Council of Mosques) wrote to the Telegraph and Argus newspaper on behalf of the Muslim community in Bradford. They raised money for the survivors as part of the Bradford City Disaster Appeal.

(Information collated from www.councilformosques.co.uk)

St John’s Ambulance

• Members, who were all volunteers, attended the match on behalf of the Eccleshill Combined Division, as well as from South and West Yorkshire Divisions.
• They gave first-aid medical assistance to many of the ‘walking wounded’ on the pitch and carried others to nearby ambulances.
• Members were described as showing ‘much gallantry and initiative’ in rendering first-aid.

Police

• Approximately 150 officers were on duty during the match and were involved in the evacuation, rescue and first aid.
• 40 officers were treated for burns.
• Two police officers’ stories were captured in newspapers:
• PC Graham Jones, was in photographs in the newspapers with his hair ablaze as he assisted supporters from the burning stand.
• PC Janine McLean, one of West Yorkshire Police’s family liaison officers, was interviewed by journalists about the trauma of notifying next of kin.

Firefighters

• In total 75 firefighters from West Yorkshire Fire Brigade attended the scene in 10 pumping appliances and 12 special vehicles.
• Whilst they were unable to save the stand, firefighters stopped the blaze from extending to other parts of the ground.
• Firefighters also had the grim task of removing bodies for identification by forensic teams
• Footage of the fire was used to train new recruits to the service.

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Key workers

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