Old photographs of Bradford: general views
Views over the town in the early 20th century.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger view.
A view from the fields west of Barton Farm, looking northwards towards the Wine Street and Budbury area of the town. Just right of the centre is the Wilkins Brothers’ brewery with a smoking chimney. Above the brewery are cottages in Tory Place that were cleared away in the 1960s. Other buildings that disappeared at the same time include the tall terraces on Wine Street on the left. The railway wagon is a GWR horsebox and is standing on a siding that disappeared when the station’s goods yard closed.
The town is glimpsed through trees on the bank above the river, looking to the north-east (right). Again the brewery and maltings on Newtown are at the centre and Wine Street Terrace is on the left. In the foreground are the medieval Barton Bridge and the rebuilt railway bridge, with Bradford Rowing Club’s building.
Barton Farm is in the foreground in this view from the quarry in Jones’ Hill. It was still a working farm, under the ownership of the Chard family. The West Barn, now restored, is still complete and other farm buildings that have gone can be seen. Beyond the farm a GWR steam locomotive is shunting wagons into the big railway goods shed, built in 1847 and demolished in the 1960s. A line of coal wagons stands in the goods yard.
A better view of the railway goods shed and yard. In front of the train of coal wagons is a stack of stone blocks awaiting export. The station is on the right edge; its footbridge had a roof at that time. Beyond the goods yard is the bulk of Abbey Mill, still a cloth factory with two smoking chimneys. Above the spire of the church on the left is Zion Baptist Chapel on Conigre Hill; it was demolished in the 1950s.
A view from Tory, looking over the town with Trowbridge Road heading to the south-east. In the bottom left corner is the dye house that is now St Margaret’s Hall with a chimney. Above the church spire is the then fairly new Technical School (Fitzmaurice Grammar School) and the trace of an old quarry in Poulton Field.
A closer view (right) with the buildings of the St Margaret’s Street area and Trowbridge Road, on the southern side of the river. In the centre is the chimney of the Trowbridge Road iron foundry. The pair of houses on the crest of the hill to the left and all the land around them disappeared under housing after the second World War.