Old Photographs: Bowls
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Bradford Rowing Club laid out a two-rink bowling green next to their boathouse for non-rowing members in 1912. The green was enlarged to three, then to four rinks. In 1957 the Rowing Club Bowls Section became Bradford on Avon Bowling Club and in 1966 moved to the new green that was provided on the other side of...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Cricket
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Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Group photographs of cricket teams seem to be less common than those of football teams.
On 26th June 1880 The Wiltshire Times reported a meeting was held at the Swan Hotel for the purpose of forming a town cricket club.
Christ Church graveyard
Christ Church was built in the 1840s to serve the northern fringes of the town.
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... Read MoreWar Memorials
Memorials to those who died in the two World Wars of the 20th century (1914-1918 and 1939-1945) can be found in several places in Bradford and in the villages. Sometimes the village memorials also list all who served in the forces. Some organisations -churches, clubs, companies- have their own memorials to their members...
Read MoreHolt Road Cemetery, Bradford
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Holt Road Cemetery was set up by the Bradford Improvement Commissioners in 1856 as a non-denominational burial ground to relieve pressure on those in the town under the Burial Act of 1853. The original area, two mortuary chapels (Anglican and Nonconformist...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Outings
Photographs of groups of Bradford people on day trips. Usually these were held annually and the destination was dictated by the range of the transportation at the time. Stamper’s charabancs in the 1920s had solid tyres and a speed limit of 12 mph, so Salisbury or Wilton were within comfortable reach with time to wander around and visit a few pubs...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Tailors and Outfitters
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Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Carpentry
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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There were many people working in wood in the town of Bradford on Avon and in the villages too. There was a hierarchy of trades that was based on the fineness and skill of the work. Carpenters took on the big jobs, including houses, for which they would be classed as builders today; at the other end of the scale...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Gas fittings
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In the 19th century the gas-fitter’s work was mainly concerned with lighting, with cooking and heating coming on eventually much later. Bradford’s Gas & Coke Works in Frome Road opened in 1834 and initially supplied street lighting, but slowly the network expanded.
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The Museum Collection: Blacksmith
Blacksmiths were common everywhere while there was a need for wrought iron to be shaped for individual purposes, especially of course for making and shoeing horses. The last one with a forge in Bradford was Albert Lailey’s in bridge Street. Today mobile smiths travel to the horse rather than the other way round and art smithing is done in mild steel.
The Museum Collection: Schools
Bradford’s Free Grammar School, not as grand as it now sounds, was set up in the Saxon Church 300 years ago in 1712 and lasted until 1903. In the meantime, many private schools came and went and the Nonconformists set up the British Schools in Bradford and the Anglicans set up their own National Schools in town and villages. Secondary schools, Trinity and Fitzmaurice, came in...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Cobblers and Cordwainers
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Bradford on Avon Museum, Wiltshire
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Cordwainers made boots, shoes and other articles from leather and are named after the Spanish city of Córdoba, which was famed for its leather workers. Generally they just referred to...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: House and Home
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HeatingA cast iron Bath-pattern fire grate from the end of the 18th century. Coal became relatively cheap from about that time and through the 19th century and much of the 20th century. It came from a building in Silver Street, Bradford which was once a...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Church and Chapel
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One of the largest objects in the Museum is the pulpit from Providence Baptist Chapel in Bearfield, Bradford. It was made of pitch pine as part of the furnishings when the chapel opened in 1858. The congregation of the chapel was always small and dwindled to the extent that it closed in the early 1980s. The...
Read MoreOld Photographs: The Shambles
As one of the most picturesque corners of Bradford on Avon the Shambles figures strongly in old postcards. This was the area of the medieval market place and would originally have been temporary stalls (Old English scammel) put up for market and fair days. Eventually permanent stalls came, followed by houses. The Market Hall, with Town Hall on the upper floor was on the...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Street scenes
Views of the town’s streets tend to be from postcards or photographs taken by visitors or those interested in the picturesque. Photographs of the Town Bridge and Saxon Church are most popular of course. Images of the less picturesque parts are rare, but these are the most likely to have changed.
Market Street Silver Street The Shambles Church Street The Town... Read MoreOld Photographs: Music, dancing and Drama
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Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Click on the thumbnail picture to see a bigger view
Eddie Purnell’s Band performing at a dance at the Assembly Hall of the works of the Royal Enfield company at Westwood during or just after the Second World War. Enfield moved...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Sport and Recreation
Groups of people with a common interest tend to have photographs taken regularly, often each year, so pictures of groups like sports teams and choirs are relatively common. Frequently the Museum does not know the identity of all the members in the pictures -can anybody...
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