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Bradford in York County England History and GeographyBRADFORD, a parish in the wapentake of MORLEY, west riding of the county of YORK, comprising the market town of Bradford, the chapelries of Hawarth, Horton, and Thornton, and the townships of Allerton, North Bierley, Bowling, Clayton, Eccleshill, Heaton, Manningham, Shipley, and Wilsden, and containing 52,954 inhabitants, of which number, 13,064 are in the town of Bradford, 34 miles (S.W.) from York, 10 (E.S.E.) from Leeds, and 196 (N.N.W) from London. This place derives its name from a ford on the river Aire, at the western extremity of the town. During the civil war in the reign of Charles I., the inhabitants embraced the cause of the parliament, and on two occasions repulsed a detachment of the royal troops, sent against them from the garrison at Leeds. Sir Thomas Fairfax coming afterwards to their assistance, with eight hundred infantry and sixty cavalry, the Earl of Newcastle, with a powerful army, invested the town, and attcmpted to storm it in several places. After a vigorous defence, in which he had spent all his ammunition, Fairfax offered to capitulate, but the earl refusing the conditions, he, with about fifty of his horse, cut his way through the lines of the royalists, and escaped. The town is pleasantly situated at the junction of three beautiful and extensive vallies; the streets, though narrow, are well paved, and lighted with gas, under an act obtained in the 3d of George IV, confirming the one passed in the 43d of George III. The house, mostly of stone, and roofed with brown slate found in the neighbourhood, are handsome and well built; and the inhabitants are plentifully supplied with water conveyed by pipes from a fine spring at the distance of three miles. The air, though sharp, is very salubrious; and the neighbourhood abounds with pleasing and picturesque scenery. Assemblies are held in rooms in the Exchange, a handsome building of freestone, recently erected, and containing also a news-room and a library, the annual subscription to which is £1. 1. Music meetings are held monthly in the court-house. Bradford is in the centre of the manufacturing districts, and the inhabitants are employed principally in the manufacture of woolen cloth, worsted stuffs, and cotton goods, in the spinning of worsted yarn, and in making ivory and horn combs. The neighbourhood abounds with coal and ironstone, and about three miles to the south-east of the town are iron-works on a very extensive scale. A branch of the Leeds and Liverpool canal has been brought to this place, and affords great facility to its commerce. The market is on Thursday: fairs are held, June 17th and the two following days; December 9th and the two following days, for pigs; and March 3d and 4th, for cattle, &c. The market-house is a handsome stone building, enclosing a spacious area for the sale of provisions and various kinds of merchandise. The town is within the jurisdiction of the magistrates for the west riding; two constables are appointed annually at a vestry meeting held in the parish church: a court of requests is held under an act passed in the 33d of George III., for the recovery of debts under 40s.; and a court for the recovery of debts under £5, within the honour of Pontefract, on the first Wednesday in every month. The court-house is a handsome stone building in Darleystreet. The Midsummer quarter sessions for the west riding are held in the Piece-hall, a spacious building in Kirkgate, divided into two apartments, one of which, besides being used for holding the courts, is for the exhibition and sale of stuffs and other articles of manufacture, which are deposited in the other. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of York, rated in the king's books at £20. D. Sykes, Esq. and others were patrons in 1816. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient structure in the decorated style of English architecture. Christchurch, erected in 1814, by parliamentary grant, is a neat building in the decorated style, with a low tower crowned with pinnacles; it is a chapel of ease to St. Peter's. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians, besides a Roman Catholic chapel. The free grammar school, founded in the reign of Edward VI., and richly endowed, was rebuilt by act of parliament, in 1818: it is a spacious and handsome edifice, with a neat house for the master, and a library for the use of the students. The management is vested in thirteen governors resident in the town and neighbourhood; and by a charter of Charles II, bearing date October 10th, 1662, the Archbishop of York was constituted visitor. This is one of the twelve schools that have the privilege of sending candidates for Lady Elizabeth Hastings' exhibitions, at Queen's College, Oxford. The dispensary, a large handsome building, was erected, and is supported by voluntary contributions. The learned and eloquent Dr. John Sharp, Archbishop of York in the reign of William III., was born at Bradford, in the year 1644. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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