Another Bradford-made Clock
The Museum now has a third clock that was made in Bradford on Avon.
This one, signed by Edward Hopkins, is just the face and movement, without the long case in which it would have originally been housed. It has a brass face that is decorated with figures representing the four seasons in the spandrels (corners). Behind the face is an eight-day movement that drives hours, minutes...
Read MoreNew Museum book: A vanished world
Following on from Dan Farrell’s histories of Bradford on Avon’s pioneering rubber industry, Riding on rubber and Rubber town, comes Margaret Dobson’s social history of the works and the way it dominated the life of the town.
A vanished world is on sale at Ex Libris bookshop in the Shambles and will be available in the Museum when it...
Read MoreAnyone for tea?
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A recent new acquisition for the Museum’s collection is this four-piece silver-plate tea set. Each piece is engraved with the initials H.J.T. and the teapot’s base has been engraved “Presented to H.J. Taylor Esqr. by Fellow Townsmen Bradford-on-Avon May 20th 1931”.
Harold John Taylor was a member of a family...
Read MoreShadrach Byfield: the story of a Bradfordian in the War of 1812
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The War of 1812-1815 is little known in this country, but more important in Canada and the USA, where the action happened. It took place during the period of the bigger Napoleonic War that was raging in Europe and ended with the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, so became regarded as something of a sideshow. Probably the only vague memory of it, for...
Read MoreA Brewery Outing in 1899
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The photograph shows the members of a party from the Newtown brewery of Willkins Brothers & Hudson on a trip to Ilfracombe on the north coast of Devon in July 1899. We haven’t yet found the exact location, but it is pretty reasonable to assume that it is a pub.
It is not...
Read MoreNew Acquisition: Holt Football Club
. Among recent items that have entered the collection of Bradford on Avon Museum is this photograph. It is a group record of members of the Holt Football Club and was taken after they won the Trowbridge District League in the season 1906-1907. The club was the earliest to be formed in Wiltshire under Football Association rules, in 1864 and still...
Read MoreBradford People: Canon Jones
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The Rev William Henry Rich Jones MA, FSA (1817-1885) was the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church from 1851 until his death and a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral. He was an antiquarian and historian, who is chiefly remembered as the man who recognised the Saxon Church in Bradford for what it is, in 1856. He wrote what is more-or-less the...
Read MoreOld Pictures: Fitzmaurice Grammar School
Originally founded as the County Technical School with funds from the County Council and local donors, notably Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, the school was built in Junction Road in Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Year 1897. The architects were Silcock & Reay of Bath; Thomas Ball Silcock jr (1854-1924) was born in Bradford. The...
Read MoreTwin Town: Norden
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Norden is a town on the North Sea coast of Ostfriesland, Niedersachsen, Germany, on low land near the Dutch border. Its port was once important in foreign trading and still supports a fishing fleet and ferries to the Frisian islands. It had a population of 25,019 at the end of 2011.
Norden and Bradford became twinned in 1969 through...
Read MoreTwin Town: Sully-sur-Loire
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The small town of Sully-sur-Loire in the Départment of Loiret lies a little upstream on the river Loire from the city of Orléans. It is dominated by its enormous moated château, once the seat of the powerful Dukes of Sully. It was originally built to defend a place where it was possible to ford the Loire at low water, but bridged since...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Angling
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Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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The Avon & Tributaries Angling Association dated back to 1876. Bradford on Avon & District Angling Association was formed in 1919 as an offshoot of the Spencer Moulton Sports Club, although an earlier club had existed in 1914. The Association has now been wound...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Rowing and Sailing
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Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Bradford on Avon Rowing Club began in 1873 and built a boathouse next to Barton Bridge. Its canoeing arm has recently gained fame after member Ed McKeever gained a gold medal in the 200m kayak event at the London 2012 Olympics.
Bradford People: Clarence Goff
Thomas Clarence Edward Goff (1867-1949) was the great-grandson of King William IV. He served in the army, becoming Captain in the 4th Battalion, Royal Scots Regiment. He was a London County Councillor, Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff of Yorkshire, with his seat at Carrowroe Park, Co. Roscommon in Ireland. He...
Read MoreBradford People: Sports
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William David Charles (Will) Carling, OBE was born in Bradford’s Maternity Hospital on 12 December 1965. He played Rugby union for Harlequins and was the Captain of England from 1988 to 1996, the youngest ever at 22, winning 72 caps.
Philip Ranulph...
Read MoreBradford People: Admiral Tothill
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Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Admiral Sir Hugh Henry Darby Tothill KCB, KCMG, KCVO (1865-1927).
He was born in Clifton, Bristol, son of Francis Tothill, barrister. His grandfather was William Tothill, a Bristol industrialist who married Hannah, daughter of...
Read MoreBradford People: Dr John Beddoe
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John Beddoe (1826-1911) was a physician and anthropologist.
He was born in Bewdley, Worcestershire, became a Doctor of Medicine in 1853 and served as a surgeon in the Crimean War and then travelled widely in Asia Minor and Europe before settling into a practice in Clifton, Bristol in 1857. He was Physician to the Bristol Royal Infirmary from...
Read MoreBradford People: William Taunton
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William Leonard Thomas Pyle Taunton (1780-1850) was the son of Rev Dr Robert Taunton (c1742-1797) and Frances (c1752-1819), daughter and co-heiress of Leonard Cropp of Hampshire. Rev Taunton purchased the Great Cumberwell estate in 1787 and was a signatory to a petition of Bradford residents in 1789. There is a memorial in Holy...
Read MoreBradford People: Septimus Henry Palairet
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Septimus Palairet (1807-1854) was an army Captain in the 29th Regiment, who retired and moved to Woolley House (now called Woolley Grange Hotel) in Bradford in 1846. Septimus was instrumental in getting his friend Stephen Moulton to set up his new rubber company in Bradford in 1848, putting money into the venture himself. The...
Read MoreBradford People: William Charles Bonaparte-Wyse
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Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
.. William Charles Bonaparte-Wyse(1826-1892) was an Anglo-Irish-French poet who wrote in provençal and was one of those who campaigned to maintain it as a literary language. He was a grandson of Napoleon’s brother Lucien. He lived at Woolley Hill House in...
Read MoreBradford People: Sir John Cam Hobhouse
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Sir John Cam Hobhouse, Baron Broughton (1786-1869) was the son of banker Sir Benjamin Hobhouse and Charlotte, daughter of Samuel Cam of The Chantry, Church Street in Bradford. As a young man he became a friend of Lord Byron and together they travelled in Greece, Albania and the Balkans....
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