Library closures, half term, children’s birthdays and Roman Day at school have been keeping me away from the archives the last few weeks.
Bradford Library was shut for 4 days when they identified a “fire risk”. The building has now reopened but there is only access to the first two floors.
The archives service has been temporarily relocated to the first floor but is closed this week for collections work and opening hours are restricted after that. Access to the local studies library which was on the third floor is severely restricted. Bradford Council’s statement on the current situation confirms that there is no access to microfilms (newspapers and parish registers), maps, card catalogues (including newspaper and WW1/WW2 soldier index cards) and if you want to obtain a book you have to give two full working days notice.
Newspaper reports that the cost of making the current library building safe is £4 million meaning that all options now need to be looked at and may result in the library being relocated. It is expected that the library will remain open and will continue to provide service in the medium term (18 months – 2 years). But what happens to access to the local studies materials in the mean time and are they and the archives collections themselves safe from fire risk.
I have written to my local councillors and asked them to press for a speedy and satisfactory resolution to the issue and encourage you to do the same.
On a different front I am going into a local school to do a talk to year 3 (7-8 year olds) about why the Romans came to Ilkley. I will be using a variety of maps to show why Ilkley was strategically important and what life was like there at that time for the soldiers and the natives. If any other local schools would like me to visit them for similar talks please get in touch.
Information on how St Luke’s came to be Bradford’s base War Hospital have been uploaded onto the BradfordWW1 website. At its height it provided almost 1,550 beds for wounded soldiers and that was just one of 9 military hospitals open in Bradford at the time.
It is well known that Bradford had its own base War Hospital but this does not paint the whole picture as there were many more auxiliary hospitals that also treated wounded soldiers. It is difficult to provide total figures for the number of soldiers treated in Bradford as some were transferred from Hospitals in Leeds to a variety of auxiliary hospitals before the first Red Cross Trains brought wounded soldiers straight from France to the Bradford War Hospital in November 1915.
Several blogs in coming weeks and months will provide information about the various military hospitals however here is an overview of the different hospitals that treated wounded soldiers first the three main hospitals that could take patients straight from disembarkation and then the auxiliary hospitals.
Bradford War Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital run by Bradford Board of Guardians Abram Peel Hospital, Leeds Road Hospital run by Bradford Corporation Bradford Military Hospital, this was either at Bradford Moor Barracks or at Belle Vue Barracks Bowling Park Auxiliary Hospital, Bradford Board of Guardians home for male imbeciles Clayton Auxiliary Hospital, North Bierley Union Infirmary Field House Auxiliary Hospital, Bradford Royal Infirmary’s convalescent home Guiseley Auxiliary Hospital, not sure which hospital/private home this was Royal Ear and Eye Hospital, Bradford a voluntary subscription hospital Salt's Auxiliary Hospital, Saltaire Sir Titus Salt Hospital, charitable hospital Woodlands Auxiliary Hospital, Rawdon, Bradford Royal Infirmary’s convalescent home
If you have any information on the location of the Bradford Military Hospital or the Guiseley Auxiliary Hospital please get in touch so that a more complete picture can be painted.
The first one of ‘your stories’ is now uploaded on the Bradfordww1 website. It tells the story of a Manningham boot repairer who instead of enlisting with the Bradford Pals travelled to Salford to enlist with the Lancashire Fusiliers (Salford Pals). Click here to find out why.
If you have a story about an ancestor who lived, worked or passed through Bradford during the First World War please share it so we can build up a picture of what Bradford was really like at the time. The more stories we get the better legacy we can pass on to future generations.
Maybe they worked at a munitions factory, were a nurse at one of the many military hospitals in Bradford maybe they struggled to cope financially and were in receipt of the Lord Mayors War Relief Fund or maybe they helped to raise those funds or volunteered support in other ways.
Bradford Town Hall opened with great procession but was it the right location?
“Opening by the Mayor, Mr M W Thompson, of the Bradford Town Hall, erected at a cost of £100,000 exclusive of land. A procession, representing more than forty trades, assembled in Manningham Park, and marched through the principle streets to the Town Hall. The procession, which has been described as “perhaps the most remarkable trades procession that has been seen in England for centuries” contained a large number of costly trophies, and took 2 hours to pass a given point. The opening ceremony was performed in a heavy downpour of rain,”
The day had been declared a general holiday to enable all classes to participate in the opening.
However there had been controversy over the location of the Town Hall. The Leeds Mercury reporting in 1867 that:
“The proposal to erect the new Town Hall at Bradford on a narrow piece of land, bounded by chapel lane and Market Street, has been much debated, and opinions vary as to the desirability of erecting a long narrow building as the principle structure of that borough.”
Advocates stated it had advantages in that it would be very light and would enable separate entrances for the various corporation departments. The main grounds for objection were “that the shape is ugly, and that when a Town Hall is erected it ought to stand out conspicuously, and, while being useful, it ought at the same time be an ornament and a credit to the Town of Bradford, and a monument of the taste and enterprise of the present generation”
The objectors favoured an alternative site at Bowling Green and maintain that this site “is one of the finest in Europe. Bounded on all sides by streets which lead to every part of the borough, it is in the heart of the town, and the roads radiate from it like the arteries of the human body, converging on the Bowling Green site, as the mayor expressed it at a recent Council meeting, like rivers flowing into the ocean.”
The location of the Bowling Green site is difficult to pin down the description at the time said “supposing the Town Hall erected on the Bowling Green site, the old block of buildings between it and the Exchange removed, Hustler –gate opened out, Market Street widened and the land between it and the exchange covered either by a handsome hotel, or fine buildings.” A later report in 1873 stated it was the site of the new covered market at Kirkgate.
The Bowling Green site had 3 drawbacks “the cost of the site, the heavy expense that would be entailed in placing a suitable structure on the land, and the diverting of the direct route between the Leeds Road and Thornton Road.” They hoped that the building could be made to pay for itself by the inclusion of a portion of the structure for private offices.
When the decision was made in favour of the former site in 1865 the newspaper reported “the general talk is that it is never too late to mend, it is to be hoped that our Town Council will, even at the eleventh hour, have the grace of repentance conferred upon them and rescind their determination in favour of the ugly narrow piece of land in Chapel Lane.”
The decision was not reversed and in 1869 a competition was launched for architects to design the building. What do you think about the location and design of Bradford’s Town Hall?
It contains background information on military nurses from Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service and Territorial Force Nursing Service to civilian nurses. There are accounts of nurse’s experiences during the Great War overseas and at home. Military Medals are described along with the names of some of the nurses that were awarded them. Interesting there is official war diary of the Matron-in-Chief, of the British Expeditionary Force France and Flanders.
I have been sharing the information I have been gathering about Bradford’s WW1 hospitals as the site lists UK war hospitals in 1917 and in return she has shared information about nurses from Bradford who joined the 'regular' Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (not the reserve). This prompted me to go back and look again at the Nurses League Records to see if I could identify which nurses who trained at the BRI were military nurses more on that later this week.
There are also guides to finding medical records and researching a nurse.
You can find out more by reading the related blog by the same person called “This Intrepid Band”about nurses in the Great War or by following @scarletfinders
