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Bradford / United Kingdom

Bradford is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located approximately 8.6 miles west of Leeds and lies in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. Its population within the council area was estimated in 2019 to be 539,776, which makes Bradford the third-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region after Leeds and Sheffield, the fourth-largest in Northern England, the sixth-largest in England and the seventh-largest in the United Kingdom. Bradford also forms part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area, which in 2001 had a population of 1.5 million and is the fourth largest in the United Kingdom.Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Bradford rose to prominence in the 19th century as an international centre of textile manufacture, particularly wool. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the earliest industrialised settlements, rapidly becoming the "wool capital of the world"; this in turn gave rise to the nicknames "Woolopolis" and "Wool City". The area's access to a supply of coal, iron ore and soft water facilitated the growth of Bradford's manufacturing base, which, as textile manufacture grew, led to an explosion in population and was a stimulus to civic investment; Bradford has a large amount of listed Victorian architecture including the grand Italianate City Hall. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897. Since local government reform in 1974, Bradford's city limits have been within the City of Bradford metropolitan borough. From the mid-20th century, deindustrialisation caused Bradford's textile sector and industrial base to decline, and since then, it has faced similar economic and social challenges to the rest of post-industrial Northern England, including poverty, social and economic deprivation, unemployment and social unrest. Despite this, Bradford has a significant economy within the Yorkshire and the Humber region; it is the third-largest at around £10 billion, which is mostly provided by financial and manufacturing industries. Bradford has also emerged as a tourist destination, becoming the first UNESCO City of Film with attractions such as the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford City Park, the Alhambra theatre and Cartwright Hall.

Cartwright Hall

Bradford / United Kingdom

Cartwright Hall is the civic art gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, situated about a mile from the city centre in the Manningham district. It was built on the former site of Manningham Hall using a gift of £40,000 donated by Samuel Lister and it is named after Edmund Cartwright. The gallery which opened in 1904 initially had a display of artworks loaned from other galleries and private collections until it was able to purchase a permanent collection of Victorian and Edwardian works using money raised by the 1904 Bradford Exhibition.Cartwright Hall stands in Lister Park and enjoys scenic views of the city. Cartwright Hall has been held to represent "Bradford Baroque", a style of architecture typical of Bradford. It is however designed by the same architects as Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum , also in the Baroque style.The purpose-built gallery is home to a collection of permanent works, from Old Masters to 20th-century British paintings and sculpture. Cartwright Hall also has a biennial open exhibition and contemporary and historical exhibitions by local, national and international artists. Since the mid 1980s the Bradford museum group has collected works that are associated with the cultural background of many post-war migrants to the Bradford area. Acquisitions include contemporary South Asian Art - Islamic calligraphy, phulkari style illustrated textiles and items of contemporary Sikh art, including a portrait of Guru Nanak.In 1983 Cartwright Hall was briefly used as part of the musical number 'every sperm is sacred' in the Monty Python film, The Meaning of Life.In 2003 an Unreal Tournament map was created featuring the inside of the hall as part of a contest for PC Format Magazine.

Cliffe Castle Museum

Bradford / United Kingdom

Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, is a local heritage museum which opened in the grand, Victorian, neo-Gothic Cliffe Castle in 1959. Originating as Cliffe Hall in 1828, the museum is the successor to Keighley Museum which opened in Eastwood House, Keighley, in c. 1892. There is a series of galleries dedicated to various aspects of local heritage, and to displaying the house itself, which is a Grade II listed building. Entrance to the museum is free of charge.

University of Bradford

Bradford / United Kingdom

The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. This plate glass university received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but can trace its origins back to the establishment of the industrial West Yorkshire town's Mechanics Institute in 1832. The student population includes 7,435 undergraduate and 2,225 postgraduate students. Mature students make up around a third of the undergraduate community. 22% of students are foreign, and come from over 110 different countries. There were 14,406 applications to the university through UCAS in 2010, of which 3,421 were accepted.It was the first British university to establish a Department of Peace Studies in 1973, which is currently the world's largest university centre for the study of peace and conflict.

Bradford Industrial Museum

Bradford / United Kingdom

Bradford Industrial Museum, established 1974 in Moorside Mills, Eccleshill, Bradford, United Kingdom, specializes in relics of local industry, especially printing and textile machinery, kept in working condition for regular demonstrations to the public. There is a Horse Emporium in the old canteen block plus a shop in the mill, and entry is free of charge.

East Riddlesden Hall

Bradford / United Kingdom

East Riddlesden Hall is a 17th-century manor house in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, now owned by the National Trust. The hall was built in 1642 by a wealthy Halifax clothier, James Murgatroyd. The hall is a Grade I listed building. There is a medieval tithebarn in the grounds. East Riddlesden Hall perches on a small plateau overlooking a bend in the River Aire on its way downstream from the town of Keighley. Interesting features include well-restored living accommodation on two floors, two Yorkshire Rose windows, walled garden, the ruined Starkie wing and several ghosts . A hiding place for Catholic priests was installed during the 16th century.The property was extended and re-built by James Murgatroyd and his wife Hannah, using local Yorkshire stone, in 1648. He also built other stone manor houses throughout the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the great hall, a small fireplace can be seen above the main fireplace, where the floor for the first floor accommodation was not built. James Murgatroyd was a Royalist and this can be seen in royalist symbols and graffiti on and in the building. For example, the Bothy has the heads of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France carved in the topmost stone work. According to a NODA National News feature in 2007, the Murgatroyd family are reputed to be the inspiration for the Murgatroyd Baronets in the comic opera Ruddigore by Gilbert and Sullivan, and the opera has been performed at the Hall. W. S. Gilbert is supposed to have often stayed at the Hall. The feature comments that the Murgatroyds became notorious "for their profanity and debauchery". A legend arose that the River Aire changed its course in shame, in order to flow further away from the hall and its occupants . The feature continues "Members of the family were fined, imprisoned and excommunicated". It asserts that the character of Sir Despard Murgatroyd in Ruddigore is based on James Murgatroyd.