Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 1.djvu/347

Rh BRADFORD. 337 BRADFORD. on thi Id bridge of nine arches. lu the vicinity a re Severn )ld seats, and numerous remains of aueicnt edifice: such as the Priory, Chantry House, Tory Her- ,vr. Saturday is the weekly market da, corn u i cattle market is held on alternate Tuesdays. Fail's :3 held on Trinity Monday, and the Monday jftcr ! Bartholomew's Day. The latter is held at Leigh. BRA FORD, a par. and market town, municipal and oarliau vtary borough, in the wap. of Mnvley, West the co. of York, 10 miles to the "V. of Leeds, H mill to the S.W. of York, and 201 miles by the ilhurii railway from London. It is a station eds, Bradford, and Halifax Junction railway, it is brought into connection "with the Great , Lancashire and Yorkshire, London and tforth- estern, and other important lines of railway, ranch canal connects the town with the Leeds canal, which passes to the north, and thus imunication with the German Ocean and the The par. of Bradford, which lies on the i In; river Aire, is of great extent, embracing f 34, 146 acres, and comprises the chplries. ol Bierley, Bowling, Buttershaw, Clayton, Daisy liolme," Eccleshill, Girlington, Haworth, Hor- er 1 > v ke, New Leeds, Low Moor, Manningham, o|, Shipley-with-Heatou, Stanbury, Thornton, Vilsden-with-AUerton, and several limits. .Hi ancient town, and was included before a Norjun Conquest in the par. of Dewslury. It was . lie of a stronghold of the Laceys, lords .act, and became by marriage part of the I : i . -aster. During the civil war of the 17th i he men of Bradford embraced the popular i twice encountered and defeated bodies of oops. Subsequently, the town was invested yaliat army under the Earl of Newcastle, akeii by storm, Fairfax, with a small body . .leaping to Leeds. Bradford was the scene < j-i'it in 1812, which was provoked by the ui of some novel machinery. The rioters were udditcs," and seventeen of their number were D'-.ulford is situated in a pleasant country, ting <it three beautiful valleys. The district
 * excellent coal and iron-ore, and has long

. : of an extensive iron trade. It is in the of the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire hire, and Bradford is itself one of the most manufacturing towns of the north. It is one i'f seats of tlie cloth trade. The woollen e employs about 1,000 hands, and the worsted il iure about 2,500. A large number of
 * employed in the spinning and weaving of

.d worsted yarns. There are some cotton lanufactories of combs and machinery. Near j tow are extensive ironworks and foundries, at iich :-at numbers of men are employed. From the jf a number of Roman coins in a mass of ir Bradford a circumstance alluded to in listory of Sheffield it is conjectured that in was rought here by the Romans. Bradford has sently : .racted to it many merchants from Leeds and . The town has a pleasant and cleanly i houses being mostly built of freestone, and 3 street paved and lighted with gas. The Bradford '.i' has recently (1862) sanctioned a plan of i ivements which are estimated to cost 35,000, ed to borrow this sum on security of the t borough, and to spread the repayment of it 1 d of 30 years. Proceedings are to be taken nost in ediately, under the 75th section of the Local ivcnim t Act, 1858, for the purpose of effecting these its. AVurehouse property in the town has eady b n decidedly enhanced in value by this reso- o corporation. A pile of buildings occupied one ii 1 (Messrs. Craven) was sold by auction for B sum o 15,000, being several thousand pounds more m was ered for the same property four years ago. le IK >iil, of the public buildings in Bradford is St. George's Hall, a spacious and splendid structure of stone, of the Corinthian order of architecture, erected in 1853 at a cost of 28,000. The Piece Hall, the market for woollen goods, built in 1773, is in Kirkgate, and is 144 feet long by 36 feet wide. A handsome market- house of stone was erected in 1824. The Exchange buildings, also of stone, and in the Grecian style, include a newsroom and a library. A handsome court-house was erected in 1833. The Infirmary, a fine building in the Tudor stylo, was founded in 1844. There are also a dispensary, established about 20 years earlier, and several other charitable institutions. The town contains cavalry barracks and two prisons. In the pleasant environs are many handsome residences of the wealthy classes. Bradford received a charter of incorporation in 1847, under which it is divided into eight wards, and is governed by a mayor, 14 aldermen, and 42 councillors, with the style of the " mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the borough of Bradford." The borough returns two members to the imperial parliament. The mayor is the returning officer. The bounds of the municipal coincide with those of the parliamentary borough, and include, besides the tnshp. of Bradford, those of Bowling, Great and Little Horton, and Manningham, containing, according to the census of 1861, 22,537 houses, in- habited by a population of 106,218, against 103,778 in 1851, showing an increase in the decimal period of 2,440. Bradford is the seat of a Poor-law Union, and the head of a County Court district. It is a polling-place for the West Uiding, and quarter sessions for the riding arc held here. The Union poorhouse is at Little Horton. Tho living is a vie.* in the dioc. of Ripon, of the val. of 600, in the patron, of the trustees of the late Rev. C. Simeon. The church, which was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI., is chiefly in the perpendicular style, with a tower of somewhat later date, and is dedicated to St. Peter. It contains several mural monuments, among which is a fine work by Flaxman. Christ Church was founded as a chapel of ease in 1813. The living is a perpet. cur., worth 200, in the patron, of the vicar. The living of St. Jude's, erected in 18-43, is a perpet. cur.,* worth 150, and in the same patron. Three new churches have been subsequently erected, the livings of which are perpet. curs., varying in val. from 250 to 100. Besides these, no fewer than 21 district churches have been erected of late years in the various tnshps. of this par., as enumerated above. There are aliout 30 chapels belonging to the various sections of Dissenters, Independents, Baptists, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Uni- tarians, Society of Friends, and Roman Catholics. A free grammar school was founded here as early as the reign of Edward VI. It received a fresh charter and endowment from Charles II. in 1633, and has now an income of more than 400 per annum. The school-house was rebuilt in 1818. Tho school is one of twelve which send candidates for Lady Elizabeth Hastings' exhibition at Queen's College, Oxford. There are several colleges in the neighbour-hood of Bradford belonging to the Dis- senters. Airedale College, founded in 1665, is at Under- clifl'e. It is for the education of students for the ministry among the Independents, and is now connected with the University of London. It has an income from endowment of about 500 per annum. At Rawdon is a college of the same nature, belonging to the Baptists. It was founded in 1805, and has an income of 1,200 per annum. The building is newly erected, the college being formerly at Horton. A school for the sons of Wesleyan ministers was established at Woodhouse Grove in 1812. There are many National, British, Industrial, and other schools, in Bradford and the vicinity. There are mechanics' and Odd Fellows' lite- rary institutions, each with its library and reading- rooms. The charitable endowments of the par. amount to about 900 a year. Abraham Sharpe, who distin- guished himself as a mathematician and astronomer, was a native of Little Horton. There is a monument to his memory in Bradford church. He died in 1742. John Sharp, Archbishop of York, a member of the same family, was born at Bradford in 1644, and received his