Days Out For Free In Bradford

I try not to go to Bradford very often, I try to only go when its absolutely necessary, and its not absolutely necessary all that often, fortunately.

Bradford is Leeds’ neighbouring city, the two nestle together like conjoined twins and like conjoined twins one sucks all of the sustenance into its own body cavity leaving the other withered and a bit pathetic.

Leeds has drained the lifeblood out of Bradford for a couple of decades now to the extent where four years after having its 1960s city centre completely demolished and reduced to an area of several city blocks worth of rubble, there has been little or no progress in deciding what will replace it, yes there are plans a-plenty from the burghers at Bradford Council but little will and even less money to actually start the work.

So why would anyone want to spend a day out in Bradford, home of Englands  biggest hole in the ground, the city that doesn’t have a city centre anymore ?

Reason number one is that a very happy by-product of a complete lack of investment in the city for the past five decades (1960s ex-city centre excepted), is that we now have what is probably the country’s greatest depository of Victorian (and earlier) architecture, take a stroll around the “little Germany” area of the city and walk in streets that have been untouched since they were built 150 years ago – large imposing and highly decorated stone built warehouses for European merchants to store and retail their cloth goods to the city that was rightly acclaimed to be the centre of the worlds trade in cloth.

Venture further afield outside of the city centre and you’ll find 200 and 300 year old settlements now swallowed up by 1950s housing estates but still present in their entirety, stone mills with surrounding streets of stone built workers terraced houses and the occasional 3/400 year old “longhouse” that would have housed a farmers family and his animals, often in the same room.

You’ll also find a city council that embraces the idea of “Days Out For Free”…

Bradford Industrial Museum – Probably one of the best examples of a municipal museum that I have ever visited, Moorside Mills at Eccleshill was built as a worsted spinning mill in 1875 and a community of workers houses built around it, most of which still exist in situ. When Bradford Council bought the mill and its contents in 1970 they used the building  as a depository for all of the odds and ends and artifacts that a city museum service gathers around it over the decades, the result of which is a glorious jumble of “stuff” from a city that was once one of the most important trading centres in the world. there isn’t time here to describe what you will find inside and outside the mill, just go and spend a day mooching around, leave the women and children at home and simply mooch around poking and prodding things, its a mill full of stuff for boys to poke and prod, and its completely free including the on street parking outside.
JerryChicken Rating – 10/10, this is what all museums should strive to be like

Saltaire – The whole village/small town together with what was at the time of its building the largest mill in the world. Saltaire was built as a “model town” by Sir Titus Salt in 1853 outside of Bradford city itself in order to protect his workers from the industrial pollution and lack of any sanitation in the city at that time, he built his model town with mains drainage and no pubs to distract the workforce and made his millions in the process with his unique fine cloth mixed from wool and alpaca. The village still stands, all of it, as does his mill, now given to expensive retail outlets and a huge art gallery dominated by the art of David Hockney, walk around it and feel superior to one of the worlds most famous still living artists as you point at his work and declare to all who will listen “I doodle better things than that on my telephone notepad”. Free on-street parking (up to 2 hours) and free entry to the mill and chapel
JerryChicken Rating – 10/10 immerse yourself in history and expensive knick-knacks

National Media Museum – Home of Britains largest cinema screen you will have to pay around £7 to watch one of several IMAX films shown throughout the day, other than that the rest of the seven storey museum is completely free (car parking fees apply) and consists of everything to do with the history of Film, Photography and TV. For those of a vintage it can be disconcerting to realise that the TV set of your childhood is now a museum exhibit and that the TV puppet shows so beloved of your schooldays are also now behind glass cases where this years small children point and laugh at how un-lifelike they are, a clip around the ear’ole soon educates though. One of the best free features of the museum is the TV Heaven section where a library of 1000 old TV programmes are available on demand, simply book your own private showing and sit in your own little pod to watch the first episode of “Fireball XL5″ or “Supercar”, museums don’t get better than this.
JerryChicken Rating – 9/10, just the fee for the IMAX cinema lets it down, worth paying to experience it though

Haworth – Still a Bradford postcode yet nowhere near the city, the centre of Haworth is untouched since the days when the Bronte sisters and their drug-addled brother struggled up its steep hill to their fathers parsonage at the summit which now houses a museum dedicated to their work, but be warned for the museum charges a-plenty for your entry,  £15 for a family ticket, I of course refused to pay such extortion but I am informed by Dan of Allthatcomeswithit that it qualifies easily as a contender for “Most boring museum of the year” so I didn’t miss much then. Be warned also that to park your car in one particular car park in Haworth is to risk the wrath of the scuffer who owns it and who operates a clamping policy therein, far simpler to do ten seconds research before you visit and find out where the two council owned car parks are, they are inexpensive and they won’t clamp you if your car is the wrong colour on a Wednesday.

Other than the parsonage museum the rest of the village is completely free to wander around, including the Rev Bronte’s church where their family tomb lies therein, if you like that sort of thing, and of course the wild and windswept moors at Top Withins, setting for “Wuthering Heights” are but a few steps from the Parsonage front door, roam freely ladies but be forewarned, I cannot promise to be there every day to play the part of Heathcliff and any substitution will be a disappointment I know.
JerryChicken Rating – 8/10, entry fee for the museum and parking threats let it down but slightly

Worth Valley Railway – Right at the bottom of the hill in Haworth is, unsurprisingly, Haworth Railway Station, but this is no ordinary railway station for here you will not find your standard British Rail (or equivalent franchise) operator, Haworth Railway Station is one stop on the privately owned Worth Valley Steam Railway, a venture operated by steam geeks for the benefit and worthy admiration of other steam geeks, its a boys thing. Yes steam locomotives are dirty, noisy and smelly and when the whole of the country operated steam trains then they were universally hated but after their demise small bands of steam geeks bought up abandoned tracks, stations and choo-choo trains and ran them for their own weird pleasures, realising after some time that other strange men would pay good money to sit on one of their trains and travel up to five miles with their heads sticking out of the carriage window like a Labrador dog on his first journey in the back of a car, complete with flapping tongue and drool all down the window. You’ll pay to travel on the choo-choo trains of course and you won’t really go very far, but if you’re already in Haworth (see above) then you can watch the steam trains for free.
JerryChicken Rating – 10/10 if you’re a steam geek, 0/10 if you’re a girl

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Thus ends my experience of all that Bradford has to offer for free and yet a little research reveals that every single one of Bradfords other museums are completely free of entry charges, I cannot vouch for what lies within them for I have not visited them, but they are free, free of the need to pay at the door, my heart bounds with deep joy, Bradford City Council have truly embraced the principle of “Days Out For Free” with abundance, splendid chaps.