An Historical Map of Bradford Launch Events

Prof Sarah Rees Jones, show guests the Bradford Map at the Launch (photo credit. Bradford Literature Festival)

To celebrate the publication of our Historical Map of Bradford: Wool Capital of World we held two events at the Bradford Literature Festival. On 30 June we had a launch event at Bradford’s City Hall and on the 1 July, we held an event at the Bradford Literature Festival’s Hub venue.

The launch event featured talks from Ian Roberts (Bradford history expert and archaeologist for Bradford Cathedral), Prof Sarah Rees Jones (Emeritus Professor in History, University of York and Trustee and Yorkshire lead for the Historic Towns Trust), Giles Darkes (Cartographic Editor) and Prof Jerry Brotton (author, broadcaster and Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University).

Around 100 people attended the event, which featured talks about the architectural and historical interest of Bradford and shared the stories and learnings the publication has uncovered. It also featured a very special guest speaker, Bradford-born Jerry Brotton. His talk showed how societies across time and place have used the four cardinal directions—North, South, East, and West—not just to navigate, but to understand who they are by projecting where they are.

Speakers take questions at the end of our launch event

The second event gave Ian Roberts, Prof Sarah Rees Jones and Giles Darkes an opportunity to discuss our Historical Map of Bradford further, with talks and an extended Q&A session, where the 80 audience members had chance to ask questions to the team behind the map.

The Bradford map shows the fascinating history of the city centre, and two of the nine conservation areas in Bradford, Manningham and Little Germany. It uncovers stories that surprised even its authors in creating a new and more detailed narrative of Bradford’s complex development and architectural history. The map is built on extensive research, drawing information from many archaeological and historical resources, brought together to show the historical development of the city.

Speakers take questions at the end of the sell-out Hub event at Bradford Literature Festival

You can purchase a copy of the Bradford map from our online shop. To hear more about our future projects or if you are interested in creating an historical map of your town or city, please contact Martin Wills at development@historictownstrust.uk. To donate to our work please click here to be taken to our donations page. Every donation – no matter how big or small – is greatly appreciated.

Both of these events were kindly supported by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, we are very grateful for their financial support and for making this event possible. Many thanks to the Bradford Literature Festival for being fantastic partners in organising and delivering the events.