10 Under-used Bradford Stories
This week I read Bradford: A Centenary City by Tom Montgomery , written 20 years ago in 1997. Tucked away between the familiar tales of Lister's Mill, Saltaire and the Bradford Pals were less familiar stories from the history of Bradford - stories ripe to be retold, adapted and used as springboards for fiction. I can't possibly write them all myself. And, even if I did, I wouldn't write the same story you would. So, for your delight and delectation - and for your inspiration too - here are 10 stories from the history of Bradford that deserve to be told: 1770s-90s: The move from the piece-work of cottage industry (spinning, weaving and wool-combing) to the very first machines and mills. A key player here is the Quaker John Hustler, after whom the street Hustlergate is named. The "Wild West Riding" of the 1820s-40s, when Bradford was a "lawless frontier town." Before the Incorporation Act of 1847, Bradford was a squalor of mills and slums,...