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IN autumn 2018 when author and local historian Martin Greenwood had the idea of writing a story for each day in the calendar about the city where he was born, there wasn’t a whisper of Bradford becoming UK City of Culture. He just imagined his idea might contain enough material for a fascinating history. The result was his book, Every Day Bradford.
When it was published, in January 2021, there was talk of a City of Culture bid. Coventry had just launched its year as UK City of Culture. Martin realised his book included the stories from Bradford’s history that would justify the city winning this prestigious title.
He’d unearthed many interesting angles to familiar stories, not least the Bradford-born Brontë sisters. Three years of their life at Haworth were a period of great creativity and tragedy. In 1847, under pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, published novels that have left a lasting legacy in literature.
Yet by 1849 the two youngest had died, along with brother Branwell who, an artist of some talent, left a legacy of the only surviving portrait of his three literary sisters. Their father Patrick, Haworth’s curate, survived his wife and all six of their children, and was a passionate campaigner against the poor sanitation that led to his family’s premature deaths. Says Martin: “Can there ever have been such a story?” Other stories from Bradford’s heritage include the achievements of Sir Titus Salt, Samuel Cunliffe Lister and other textile magnates, the city’s fine Victorian buildings, the extensive literary output of JB Priestley, followed two generations later by the artistic output of David Hockney, the regeneration of Saltaire as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the growth of Bradford’s reputation in film and TV, becoming the world’s first UNESCO City of Film.
Martin’s research also uncovered fascinating unfamiliar stories that form Bradford’s heritage. Often rising above poverty and adversity, talented individuals have made outstanding contributions to the nation. How did a boy born into poverty, illiterate until the age of 15, become the first editor of the English Dialect Dictionary and a respected Oxford professor of philology? Joseph Wright (1855-1930) was also a close friend of JRR Tolkien, writer of Lord of the Rings.
How did a 10-year-old girl, born in a back-to-back, an entertainer at Manningham’s Theatre Royal, die a countess and rich widow? Gertie Millar (1879-1952) was one of the most photographed women of the Edwardian Age. And how did an accountant with no interest in theatre end up as the King of Pantomime? Impresario Francis Laidler (1867-1955) produced 52 pantomimes from 1902, including 33 at the splendid Alhambra which he opened in 1914. The city has seen many extraordinary pioneers: the first Temperance Society, the first Pullman train in operation, the oldest funicular railway, the first local authority secondary school, the only municipally owned railway, the first school meals service, the first trolley-bus service (also the last one to close), the first municipal hospital and the first newsreel of an outside event for same day public showing; Europe’s first IMAX cinema, the oldest concert venue and the first Professor of Peace Studies.
It was the home of the ‘Bradford system’, ‘Bradford Van’ and ‘Bradford sling’, innovations in libraries, transport and medicine. Martin's book has been updated for City of Culture (Image: Martin Greenwood) World-famous Bradford astronomer Abraham Sharp had a lunar crater named after him. Sir Frank Dyson invented the Greenwich Pips and Sir Fred Hoyle coined the term ‘Big Bang’ theory.
The first TV Personality of the Year, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, grew up in Bradford, as did the first cricketing TV Sports Personality of the Year, Jim Laker. Bradford has inspired adventurers. Ann Daniels, after giving birth to triplets, became the first woman to reach the South and North Poles.
Bradford was home to the first man to ‘break the bank of Monte Carlo’ (Joseph Hopson Jagger). Other notables include Emma Sharp, who walked 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours, the fastest man to swim the Channel - a record for 17 years (Barry Watson) and young cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffith, who fooled the world in 1920 with their hoax photographs of fairies at Cottingley Beck. Immigrants have made important contributions since the 19th century when Sir Jacob Behrens (1806-1889), leader of an influential German Jewish community, founded the Chamber of Commerce in 1851 and the Bradford Eye and Ear Hospital in 1865 and was a prime mover behind the opening of St George’s Hall in 1853.
Sons of eminent German Jewish families in Bradford became famous men of culture, including composer Frederick Delius, artist William Rothenstein, poet Humbert Wolfe and satirist Michael Wharton, writing as Peter Simple for nearly 50 years in the Daily Telegraph. Family grave of Jacob Behrens in Undercliffe Cemetery (Image: Martin Greenwood) Children of second generation South Asian families made their mark. Pharmacist AA Dhand is a writer of crime noir thrillers set in Bradford, dramatised for TV.
Presenter Anita Rani became Chancellor of the University of Bradford and cricketer Adil Rashid was a valued member of England’s first-ever World Cup Champion team in 2019. East Bowling teenager Zayn Malik shot to stardom on X Factor with One Direction and Steven Frayne from Wyke, a bullied boy with Crohn’s disease, became Dynamo, one of the world’s best magicians. Both are ambassadors for Bradford City of Culture 2025.
In short, Bradford has a fascinating heritage that does full justice to the cultural celebrations planned for 2025. * An updated second edition of Every Day Bradford, celebrating UK City of Culture 2025, is available from Amazon, thegreatbritishbookshop.co.
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