ON January 28, 2016 more than 150 years of Bradford history went up in smoke when a huge fire tore through Drummond Mill. Within a week the sprawling 10-acre Manningham site - a leading part of Bradford’s global textile empire - was rubble. Around 125 firefighters tackled the blaze which started shortly after 11am and raged through the day and night. Surrounding Lumb Lane was closed and residents were evacuated. Firefighters were still putting out fire pockets days later. Despite heroic efforts to stop it spreading from a basement, the fire quickly reached adjacent mill buildings. Ian Bicton, West Yorkshire Assistant Chief Fire Officer, said: “Throughout my career I can honestly say I have never seen firefighters work as hard as they did to try to knock this fire back.”
Included on the list is the Drummond Mill site. The Victorian Mill was destroyed in a huge blaze almost five years ago, and the prominent, privately owned site has been empty ever since. Also on the list is Lister Mill. Although much work has been done to convert the Manningham Mill into flats, a large area of the mill site is still un-developed. The report says a further 175 homes could be built on the privately owned site. Bradford Council owned land at Crag Road in Shipley could provide 120 homes, and a long empty, privately owned brownfield site on Northside Road in Lidget Green could have space for 420 homes.
UNTOLD stories from Holme Wood, a British-Bangladeshi love story set on Leeds Road, and the ‘Beast of Bradford’ are among the films about life in the district made by people who live and work here. Film-makers across the district have received Make: Film grants to create original short films and documentaries as Bradford prepares to bid to be UK City of Culture 2025. More than 94 submissions were received from people who live, study or work in Bradford, through an open process launched earlier this year. The brief was to explore stories that challenge perceptions of the district and its communities. A total of 37 projects was selected by a panel from Bradford Council, Bradford 2025, Bradford City of Film and the National Science and Media Museum. The films will be screened on digital platforms and potentially in public, subject to Covid safety guidelines, and a selection will be considered for the BFI National Film and Television Archive collection.
SOME of the Christmas celebrations by people working in district mills of yesteryear have been recalled by a Bradford photographer. Ian Beesley has shared his collection of festive images of people from mills, across the Bradford district from the 1970s and 80s. He would visit these workplaces around Christmas time that he would regularly capture the rest of the year, to see them in all of their festive glory.
Festive high jinx captured by Ian Beesley The images include Yuletide scenes at tinsel-clad Salts Mill in Saltaire and Drummond Mill in Lumb Lane in Manningham. He has also included a couple of festive shots of workers at the Tetley s factory in Leeds.
SOME of the weird and wonderful job titles of yesteryear have been recalled by a Bradford photographer. Ian Beesley has shared his collection of images of people carrying out jobs from a bygone age, from sites including mills, across the Bradford district from the 1970s and 80s.
A Bobbin Doffer How many of the following jobs, which were carried out in decades gone by do you recognise by their title alone? They are: carders, casters combers, fettlers, doffers, liggers, tatlers, fitters, burlers, menders, sorters, weavers, spinners, porers, corers, patternmakers, stampers, mulespinners, winders, dyers, bleachers, scourers, warpers, plate layers, roadrunners, capsteamers, tip stretchers, hood turners, fitters, balers, packers and quenchers.