The Future of UK Sikhs – A Talk

Bradford Libraries Leave a comment

On Saturday 19th March, Dr Ramindar Singh MBE gave a well-attended lecture in the Bradford Local Studies Library to mark the publication of his latest book, ‘The Future of UK Sikhs: A Bradford City Story’.

sikhs1

 

In the lecture Dr Singh presented his vision of the middle of 21st century Bradford Sikh community as a microcosm of the UK Sikhs, the focus of his book.

Following the talk Dr Singh led a discussion forum about the development of the Sikh organisations in the city, the current challenges they face and the ways to make them appropriate for the future of the community in the city. The interesting and thought provoking talk sparked much discussion and debate which continued long after the talk had finished.

sikhs2

 

Dr Singh has published books and a long list of articles on topics as diverse as economics, multicultural education, consumer affairs, race relations and local history.

His earlier publications, also available in the Local Studies Library include:

  • Punjab to Bradford: The Life Stories of Punjabi Immigrants to Bradford, 2013
  • A Journey by Choice: An Autobiography, 2011
  • Sikhs & Sikhism in Britain: Fifty Years On: The Bradford Perspective, 2000
  • Immigrants to Citizens: The Sikh Community in Bradford, 1992

There will be a further opportunity to hear the lecture at the Kala Sangam centre on 14th May 2016.

Map of the Week: Low Moor

Bradford Libraries 2 Comments

In 1828 or 1829 surveyor Joseph Fox drew a map recording the property of the Low Moor Iron Company. The West Yorkshire Archives (Bradford) have a copy of his map, generously donated by Geoff and Mary Twentyman. The donors suggest that it was kept on display at the ironworks, and it has certainly been annotated at a later date. The original map is too fragile to be handled, a common problem with old material, but images of excellent quality are available on CD-ROM. The Local Studies Library reserve map collection also has a plan, labelled North Bierley, which closely resembles the Fox map. It has deteriorated quite badly but the detail included as this week’s chosen example perfectly clear.

The same landowners are mentioned in both maps, although the script in which their names are written differs. The plan of the Low Moor Ironworks is identical in the two maps, as are most buildings included. In the top left corner of the image are a collection of roughly circular features. These represent coal or ironstone mines. It is hard to imagine now that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Bradford was densely covered by mines, abandoned mine-shafts and piles of colliery waste. The Low Moor and Bowling Iron Companies smelted iron ore, obtained locally from the roof of the Black Bed coal seam, using coke made from the deeper Better Bed seam. The production of cast iron and ‘best Yorkshire wrought iron’ was extremely profitable for more than a century.

In the approximate centre of the map is the place name ‘Glass House’. This represents the site once occupied by Bradford’s only known glass-making furnace. The builder of the glass-works, known to be in existence by 1748, was Edward Rookes Leeds (1715-1788) of Royds Hall, Lord of the Manor of Wibsey.  In that era the space needed for a furnace and its attendant glass-workers was enclosed by a brick cone, and there were large underground flues. An excellent surviving example of such a cone can still be seen at Catcliffe, South Yorkshire. The Fox map in the WY Archives places a large circle at this site which could easily represent a glass cone in plan, but the map illustrated here has no such feature. Have the two map versions ‘caught’ the brick cone in the process of being demolished?

The fate of the glass works is being actively researched at present. It is possible that the works was not in active production for many years, but ‘Glass House’ long remained as a place name in Low Moor. Fox drew other maps; the LSL reserve collection contains a beautiful example showing Harden Moor, with the roads connecting Keighley and Bingley, drawn in 1830.

Derek Barker, Library Volunteer

Low Moor

Map of the Week – Goitside

Bradford Libraries 2 Comments

My job, as a Local Studies Library volunteer, is to review the maps and plans in the reserve collection. Many of these came from Bolling Hall Museum and are now in very a fragile condition. To make a complete assessment of each map would require a far more detailed knowledge of former Bradford than I can offer. Many local historians have kindly helped me by looking at images of maps from their chosen areas. I’m very grateful to them. My intention is identify and catalogue the locality of each map or plan, and also to provide an approximate date. If you discover a mistake please never hesitate to correct me.

The reserve collection is inevitably selective in its portrayal of nineteenth century Bradford. Areas that were sold, developed, or involved in Corporation road-widening schemes, were likely to be surveyed. An example is provided by the accompanying map of Goitside. To explain: a goit or leet is an artificial channel which takes water from a river or beck to power a water-mill and then returns it, at a lower level, to the natural watercourse. Thornton Road was a turnpike created in 1827. The area of interest is between Westgate and Thornton Road crossed by Grattan Road (known until about 1900 as Silsbridge Lane) which runs down the slope diagonally from north-east to south-west.

In the selected map the ‘intended road’ shown being created, at the junction of Thornton Road & Aldermanbury, is modern Godwin Street. Sunbridge Road is not shown but was another modern creation. The Lord of the Manor had the medieval right to a corn-milling monopoly at the Soke Mill, which had stood above Aldermanbury for centuries. Bradford Corporation bought out this right  from Mary & Elizabeth Rawson in 1870. Soke Mill goit had taken water from the Bradford Beck and provided power for the mill; it is likely to have been a medieval creation. The cluster of buildings round the mill includes a blacksmith’s and a small school. The whole area was cleared by the 1870s.

Godwin Street is present on the 1871 Bradford Dixon & Hindle map of Bradford, but not an 1861 equivalent. The late 1860s would be an approximate date for the illustrated map. Another reserve map shows that the intention of the planners was to raise the ground surface to culvert the Goit and to finally create Godwin Street at a gradient of 1:12 well above watercourse. The tithe map suggests that the origin of the Goit was from the Bradford Beck near Water Lane. Another reserve map shows a second goit being taken from Middle Brook to service a building called Sam’s Mill.

Derek Barker

Goitside

Snapshot of the Past

Bradford Libraries Leave a comment

A surprisingly common enquiry at Local Studies, is for information on local photographers operating out of Bradford in the 19th Century. Often, customers have found an old photo with a photographers name on the back and are curious as to who this was, or perhaps they are serious scholars of all things photographic!

The Library holds an index of photographers compiled from old Trade Directories by Local Historian Ken Kenzie, and an extremely useful website with a great deal of information and examples of photographers work can be found at:
Leeds and Bradford Photographic Studios 1840-1910

img140-1