Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Bradford

  • National Express : London Victoria Coach Station to Bradford

    National Express : London Victoria Coach Station to Bradford

    I’m posting out of order again (as in not in date order, I’m not being any more controversial than usual) as this was my National Express journey from London to get to the LDWA groups’ weekend being held in Haworth.

    This is the National Express coach that departed from Gate 14 at the always cramped Victoria coach station in London. I was the first to board, not least as I was keen to get to my emergency exit row seat to get about an extra 2.5 centimetres of space. There was a friendly welcome from the drivers, who were switching around at Milton Keynes or somewhere similar given the distance.

    Here we are after having boarded, with the coach being clean and comfortable. National Express seem to be one of the companies who are doing their best to keep their transport clean given the current health crisis.

    And then we sat there for a while….. The driver made an announcement at the departure time that the coach was going to wait on a delayed coach given that there were connecting passengers. He had been told by the control room that the passengers were at the coach station and would be boarding soon, but after numerous delays the driver came on about 15 minutes after departure time and said “control said that we can go without the other passengers”.

    That put us 15 minutes behind, but London was busy and the coach crawled out of the capital slowly and clearly getting behind schedule. I’m surprised that National Express make these schedules so optimistic, as there was nothing that the driver could have done and I’d have thought it’s better to err on the side of caution and expect delays rather than to expect the coach driver to storm the vehicle up the M1. The coach was meant to take just over five hours to get from London to Bradford, but it transpired to be nearer to seven hours by the time that it got there.

    The coach was quiet until Milton Keynes, when it became pretty packed. It was still comfortable enough though and the air vents and power worked as expected, so the temperature was appropriate. The driver did make regular announcements about the delay, so he did what he could and kept everyone informed.

    I was getting picked up at Bradford Interchange to get a lift to YHA Haworth, but it transpired that it was better for me to get off at Leeds and my lift picked me up from there instead. That was handy as it gave me chance to walk to a Head of Steam that I haven’t visited before, but meant I didn’t get to go on the coach all the way to Bradford, and incidentally nor did nearly anyone else and this seemed primarily a service used by customers going to Leeds.

    I would have preferred to get the train from London to Keighley, which is the nearest railway station to Haworth, but that would have cost at least £70 which was just too decadent. This coach journey cost £10 and that seems pretty decent value to me.

  • Bradford – Bradford Cathedral (Children of Samuel Hailstone)

    Bradford – Bradford Cathedral (Children of Samuel Hailstone)

    The vault in Bradford Cathedral which contains the remains of the three children of Samuel Hailstone (1768-1851) and his wife Ann Hailstone. The slightly unusual surname is likely to derive from someone in the family having once lived at a location called Hailstone, such as Hailstone Hill in Wiltshire or Hailstone Farm in Gloucestershire. It’s quite eye-catching due to how the cathedral has placed the little choir children.

    The children are:

    (i) Thomas Hailstone, born 1 March 1814, died 9 April 1816

    (ii) William Hailstone, born 23rd September 1815, died 4 April 1816

    (iii) Frances Hailstone, born 7 February 1820, died 16 February 1824.

    Samuel and Ann also had four children who survived to an older age (or at least into adulthood):

    (i) John Hailstone (1810-1871)

    (ii) Edward Ripley Hailstone (1818-1890)

    (iii) Anne Hailstone (1811-1834)

    (iv) Elisabeth (1809-1832)

    Which means that of Samuel’s seven children, he outlived five of them. The death of Thomas and William in the same week was noted in the local newspaper, which mentioned that the family lived at Croft House, but I can save time by linking to more information about this at https://bradfordlocalstudies.com/2016/08/30/map-of-the-week-a-century-of-bradford-hailstones/.

  • Bradford – Bradford Cathedral

    Bradford – Bradford Cathedral

    This is from my visit to Bradford Cathedral a couple of weeks ago, and I managed to take around 80 photos, which is rather more than I had anticipated. This means that I now feel the need to post some individual posts featuring some of the photos to justify my efforts in taking them. It is though a beautiful building, mixing heritage and a modern feel.

    This was St. Peter’s Church until it was elevated to cathedral status in 1919, with a religious building on this site since the Anglo-Saxon period although it was likely derelict at the time of the Norman occupation. The current building is at its heart from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with some modern bits added on. It has had to cater for a growing population, but it wasn’t knocked about too much by the Victorians, although was extended in the 1950s following the designs of the architect Edward Maufe. The changes in population in this area are evident as this building was once in the Diocese of York, then the Diocese of Ripon before becoming its own diocese when it became a cathedral.

    The cathedral’s exterior, with many locals enjoying the sunny weather and sitting in the churchyard (I didn’t include them in the photo).

    I’ll have to write separate posts about some of the elements that interested me at the cathedral, but this is the interior which was peaceful and quiet. The cathedral had the foresight to create a museum of religion here at the turn of the century, but unfortunately it wasn’t a financial success, perhaps just too niche. Anyway, the environment in the building felt welcoming and one of the staff made brief conversation as they walked by, and I think that engagement is really useful as someone might have gone in needing assistance.

  • National Express : Bradford to London Victoria Coach Station

    National Express : Bradford to London Victoria Coach Station

    Time to return to London and although I would have preferred to get the train, the National Express fare was only £5 from Bradford into the centre of London, so I went with that for a journey that was estimated to take 5 hours 20 minutes. Above is the bus section of Bradford Interchange and the signage is, if I’m being honest, organised by an idiot. The data sent to Google Maps is wrong on where National Express coaches depart from and the signage is terrible. However, National Express have put on their web-site that their coaches depart from Stands T, U and V, although not on the tickets themselves.

    For those who didn’t search the National Express web-site, here’s the ultra clear signage stuck on a window. Anyway, my muttering about the lack of signage aside, the coach turned up ten minutes early and at Stand T, so I was ready and waiting for it. Until 2019, there was a National Express ticket office at the bus station, but that and the National Express customer service staff have now gone.

    The coach did get much busier, although not until Leeds which is when more customers got on.

    I had the emergency exit seat, with the luxury of having both seats to myself for the entire journey.

    The only real excitement during the journey was when the driver said on the tannoy that the National Express control room had contacted him and said that the company had accidentally left someone at a service station on the M1. There must be a very interesting back story to that which unfortunately we weren’t told, but it meant that we had to stop off Tibshelf Services to pick her up and drop her off in Milton Keynes. It delay the coach, but not badly.

    The driver also said that he intended to miss out the stops of Golders Green and Marble Arch in London so that the coach could arrive on time. He urged anyone who needed to get off at those stops to go and talk to him. There was then a little procession of customers tripping down the aisle of a fast moving coach going to tell the driver that they had planned to get off at those stops. The conclusion of that was that we stopped at Golders Green and Marble Arch…..

    This is really nicely written signage, I liked it.

    As for the coach, it was easy to make my seat area nice and cold, with the seats being clean and well presented. The cleaners hadn’t cleaned the seat trays, so I decided against using those, but the toilet was clean. There were USB connections which worked well, so my phone remained fully charged.

    And safely into Victoria Coach Station in London, only twenty minutes late.

    For the fare charged, this really was excellent value for money, a clean and comfortable coach which arrived sort of on time and with a friendly and engaging driver. All very nice, even though it’s not a train.

  • West Yorkshire Day Ranger – Bradford, Halifax, Brighouse, Hebden Bridge, Sowerby Bridge

    West Yorkshire Day Ranger – Bradford, Halifax, Brighouse, Hebden Bridge, Sowerby Bridge

    There’s a handy rail rover ticket called the West Yorkshire Train DaySaver which costs £8.30 for the day and allows travel in Zones 1 to 5 of the above map, which is the area covered by West Yorkshire. On weekends, the ticket can be used at any time, but on weekdays it can only be used after 09:30 and not between 16:00 and 18:30. Nonetheless, it seemed a way of seeing a few towns in the area.

    Waiting for my first train at Bradford Interchange, which is also the railway station where I purchased my ticket from. I think that the tickets have to be purchased from the ticket office, or from guards on board when there isn’t a ticket office.

    Most of the services were run by Northern, although they’re also valid on East Midlands Railway, LNER, TransPennine Express and CrossCountry in the area.

    My first visit of the day was to Halifax, not somewhere that I’ve been before.

    This is the town’s new library, merging together a church and a more modern construction. Obviously this brilliant new library which has come at vast expense was shut for the day. £9 million this cost and it’s not open on some weekdays. Apparently they’re planning to improve opening times soon, which would be rather useful…..

    The town’s Minster, which was shut.

    Wetherspoons was open, so I popped in there.

    There we go, a quick half pint of the Chapter 4 – 24 Carrot from Fuggle Bunny brewery, perfectly acceptable…. Unfortunately, there was a limited opening of any decent pubs in town until later on during the day, leaving me opportunity to visit the other Wetherspoons in the town, the Barum Top Inn.

    I didn’t expect anything like this when I walked through the gates, the enormously impressive Piece Hall, the sole surviving cloth hall in the north of the country. It opened in 1779 when there were 315 separate rooms for smaller traders to sell their wares. It has recently been restored and the nineteenth century sheds shoved in the middle have all been removed.

    One of the gates into the Piece Hall.

    Then onto the train to the Richard Oastler pub in Brighouse which is located in a former Methodist chapel.

    And lunch in that pub, from JD Wetherspoon’s new chicken menu that is still just in trial pubs, but is being launched nationally from next week. As an aside, that means they’re bringing back half chickens, which they ditched a few years ago.

    The delights of Brighouse.

    And another train, this time taking me to Sowerby Bridge.

    A nicely looked after station, with plenty of history boards as well.

    I visited a few pubs here, the Hogs Head, the Commercial Inn and the Hollins Mill.

    I had to stay in Sowerby Bridge until 18:30 due to the restrictions on the train ticket, by which time it was starting to get dark. I’m not sure why I wrote that last bit, it’s self-evident from the photo. But there we go….

    I had a quick visit to Vocation’s pub.

    Then waiting for the train back to Bradford, although I stopped off at Halifax to visit the Victorian Craft Beer Cafe. This was my favourite train journey of the day as a customer complained that the toilet was still occupied. The guard stood outside the toilet looking annoyed, banging on the door loudly saying “there are other customers who need to use the facility, finish up quickly and get out please”. I love the direct approach that was suitably passive aggressive. An embarrassed young woman emerged a couple of minutes later, much to the relief of other waiting passengers. This is a tricky situation though, it might be that there was a hidden disability and the lady needed the time, but it did present some drama for me between Hebden Bridge and Halifax.

    Anyway, I thought that the ticket was good value for money and it let me see a few towns that I might not otherwise have done so. The ticket was a bit restrictive that it couldn’t be used in the evening rush hour, but I didn’t have any issues with using it. Northern seem to have very regular ticket checks, so I must have shown my ticket around ten times during the time, but it’s good to be on top of that I guess. All of the trains I boarded were relatively quiet, so this is a good way of selling what would otherwise be empty inventory. Other than for a very short delays, everything ran to schedule as well and I was back into Bradford before the trains stopped running….

  • Northern Trains : Shipley to Bradford Forster Square

    Northern Trains : Shipley to Bradford Forster Square

    A short rail journey today, from Shipley back into Bradford Forster Square. It’s not possible to go to Shipley to Bradford Interchange without taking a circuitous route via Leeds or something, as the two Bradford railway stations aren’t connected.

    The delights of Shipley railway station’s underground tunnels.

    They’re not very decadent, but at least everything is clearly signed.

    Shipley’s railway station, this is in a different part of the complex to where I left from last week.

    Clicking on this image makes it larger and it’s the Network Rail map of the railway station. Platform 5 is on the left, platforms 3 and 4 at the base and platforms 1 and 2 at the top. Dead simple….

    Here’s the Northern Trains Thunderbolt speeding into the station.

    The seating and it was busier than this, but I took the photos when disembarking. There were no ticket checks, although there was a passenger watching TikTok videos loudly, but I can manage to ignore those when the rail journey only lasts for a few minutes.

    Into Bradford Forster railway station, which has ticket barriers and staff members available to help customers (or at least check they’ve got tickets which I think is the priority here). The journey took all of seven minutes, arriving on time when it should have done.

    Walking to the road, that building to the left is where the old railway station used to stand until the early 1990s, when it was known as Bradford Midland.

    The current railway station is located where School Street is now located, with Bradford Midland having been entirely demolished. That was a mistake as far as I can see, the facilities at Forster Square are inadequate and there needs to be a bigger railway station here. It will though mean demolishing the HMRC building that’s in the way.

  • Bradford – McDonalds Kirkgate

    Bradford – McDonalds Kirkgate

    I very rarely go into McDonald’s in the UK, they’re usually a little superfluous for me given that there are those wonderful things called pubs. However, it’s the McDonald’s monopoly season and I thought I’d see what I could get.

    Anyway, food, drink and stickers aside, I do feel sorry for the staff here. The upstairs of the restaurant was closed off, which really wasn’t ideal for customers, although they had a few seats free downstairs. In came a yell of children (or whatever the collective noun is) who were showing off which was the rudest, all aged around 10 or 11. Fortunately they were nowhere near me, but two of them were vaping in the corner and one of the crew members asked a manager to deal with the situation, which he begrudgingly did. One kid had also managed to pinch an entire cup of ketchup, which ended up being thrown on the floor outside. The crew member battled on though trying to clean the mess up the group had left, but he remained endlessly polite as if this was just another repeat occurrence of annoying customers.

    Then a group of younger women, probably aged around 16, came in and were abusive to the crew members. The same manager went over and threw them out as well, telling them he didn’t want customers like that in the restaurant. He certainly wasn’t in the mood for debate and I quite liked that confidence and authority. It certainly made for a tense atmosphere though, especially as then another customer was rude to a crew member, just what you want at 15:00 on a Sunday afternoon.

    There’s no real point to this post and I’m not going to go down the line about how there are problems with this younger generation, as it’s a small minority and it’s been the same for every other generation. It is though a reminder about just how hard so many staff in hospitality work, often in trying and difficult circumstances and provocation from customers.

    On a more important matter, I got a free coffee from the Monopoly stickers, so that was handy, although I’ll collect that when kids are at school, it’ll be more sedate. That’s the key message, be kind to hospitality workers and there are prizes galore with McDonald’s Monopoly….

  • Bradford – Bradford Holiday Inn Express

    Bradford – Bradford Holiday Inn Express

    I was able to get a decent rate for four nights at the Holiday Inn Express, which is helpful in reaching my Platinum IHG status for the first time (which I should do in late October, not that I can imagine anyone is too interested in that other than me). The hotel is located just over the road from the Bradford Interchange railway station and only a few minutes walk from the city centre.

    The check-in process was well managed and the staff member was helpful. She said that she had given me a room which had just got a new carpet and new bed, but instead of delight, it worried me what had precipitated that. I decided that I’d rather not know.

    My room, which I felt was very comfortable and I was pleased to note that the windows opened so that I didn’t end up in a sterile environment. There was a fan and heater as well (to make up for the lack of air conditioning), making it easy to get to whatever temperature is required. It’s a large Smart TV as well for anyone who wants to cast their phone to it. There were only two power points, which is really quite low for a hotel room, but I imagine a refurbishment will sort that out.

    The view of gorgeous Bradford from my window….

    My welcome drink at the bar, and I’m entirely content with the Goose Island IPA, so no complaints there. The England and Poland football match was on, so I was vaguely watching that. One man got a bit over-excited and started screaming at one point with delight at the football score, but luckily he only did that once.

    The breakfast room which was rarely as quiet as this, but it was never a problem getting a table.

    The breakfast set-up arrangement, with the standard Holiday Inn Express selection of four hot food items (sausage, bacon, baked beans and scrambled egg) as well as cereals, yoghurt and pastries. I’d have liked the bacon to have been crispier, but that’s my standard comment as I don’t like fat on bacon that hasn’t been frazzled. There were some decent fruit teas as well, a wider selection than I’ve usually seen.

    And my little breakfast selection….. All entirely satisfactory and in line with the usual brand standards.

    There were no noise issues either internally or externally and I liked this hotel so much that I’ve already booked it again. The staff were friendly, the room was clean, the hotel was comfortable and everything was as I’d want it to be. All very lovely.

  • Bradford – Bradford Industrial Museum

    Bradford – Bradford Industrial Museum

    And another post which is primarily just photos….. This is the Bradford Industrial Museum, which is of a substantial size and it’s also free of charge in common with other museums and galleries operated by the city council. There’s plenty to see, including a row of industrial cottages which were taken down brick by brick to be reassembled here and they are fitted out with interiors from over the last century.

    The main museum, which has been open since 1974, is located in a former mill building, Moorside Mills, and there are an impressive amount of collections here. Unlike the National Science and Media Museum in the city, which seemed to be poorly curated and in desperate hunt for a purpose, this museum is beautifully curated and seems absolutely clear about what it is trying to do. There are collections of textile machinery, industrial machinery and also a transport section with trams, cars and trains.

    To see everything here is likely to take a couple of hours and I can imagine that children would very much enjoy a visit. The staff were friendly and conversational, with one of them telling me about the history of modern Bradford and also listing his favourite pubs, information that always comes in useful to me. It might not be the most up-to-date of museums, but it’s clearly cared for and an example of what a heritage organisation should be doing. I would write more, but my blog backlog keeps growing and this will do for now, but there were plenty of individual exhibits that greatly interested me.

  • Bradford – Bradford Police Museum

    Bradford – Bradford Police Museum

    The Bradford Police Museum can only be accessed as part of a guided tour, which costs £5 per person. As an early aside, Google insist that they’re closed, even though they (and I) have told them that they’re not. The bonus for this tour is that Covid rules issued by the council, who are responsible for the building, means they are having to do private tours only and for no additional charge. The police museum is located in Bradford City Hall, which was constructed between 1870 and 1873 and was inspired by the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where I managed to get to in 2020.

    The initial welcome was friendly, but the volunteers, who I think are all former police officers, were dealing with an abusive visitor to the premises. He refused to wear a mask as the law said he didn’t have to. The guide explained the council had set additional rules to protect their staff and that was the end of it. The guy continued to be rude to the guides and I although I must admit that I liked watching the free drama unfolding in front of me, I felt sorry for the guide. Fortunately, they weren’t going on a tour, they were there for other reasons.

    My tour then began by being walked around the building so that I could enter as a criminal would have done. The building was closed for this purpose in the 1970s, when it was used by the prison service in its final years. The guide explained how the police would have checked my details and also showed me where they’re hoping to fit out next year a room that was used by the doctor if he was called.

    This is a fake door which was put in during the filming of Peaky Blinders, and that bit of the corridor to the right is apparently in the programme. However, the element afterwards was filmed elsewhere, but the guide said you wouldn’t know as they’d edited it so well. There’s an original door exactly like the fake one which is to the right of me when I took the photo, although it doesn’t go anywhere as it has been bricked up behind the door.

    The former office of the person in charge and they’ve got an original restraining chair from the nineteenth century. Apparently a fair number of visitors comment that the model looks a bit like Ian Hislop….

    There are male and female cells here, but the male cells are now used by the council for file storage.

    A toilet of unknown age, with the cells not having any private facilities.

    One of the cells and this one has had some ghostly incidents. There was once a slope to this cell so if someone was sick it would just pour towards the gutter, so standing near the window would have been sensible. I was originally shown into a different cell, but it became apparent that the ceiling appeared to be falling down. The guide thought best that we didn’t linger in there, but it’s a reminder of how expensive and challenging these buildings are to keep well maintained.

    I was told in advance that there was only one place where I couldn’t take photos, which was in a cell used in the 1970s for prisoners on their way to court, or on their way back. There’s graffiti all over the walls which has now become an important piece of social history and I’m impressed that they’ve kept it. They don’t want photos taking here though as many of the prisoners who had written on the walls are still alive. One guy had written on the back of the door “I had expected two years I got life” and someone elsewhere in the cell had written “expected life, didn’t get it”, so swings and roundabouts….

    Those cells are inaccessible for those on the tour, they’re the ones used for storage by the council.

    A slightly wonky photo unfortunately. But I was taken up the stairs from the cells into the court room, with this photo showing mostly the public galleries.

    And standing looking at where the judge would have sat. The council’s Chief Executive has taken the judge’s former robing room as their office, so there’s no way to sit in that chair. Apparently younger children are allowed to scramble across, but it’s thought best not to let adults do it. This is also where some people get married, which seems a slightly odd location, but each to their own…..

    That witness box to the right hand side of the photo has only just been recovered from eBay a few weeks ago. It went missing in the 1970s and someone observant noticed that it was for sale on eBay and fortunately the seller co-operated with returning it.

    The guide mentioned that there was a tunnel underneath the judge’s chair which was once used by anyone needing to cross the courtroom, as it wasn’t allowed to cross in front of the judge. The guide said it was usually just children who wanted to use this tunnel today, but I felt the need to have a little look as well.

    These were the steps that I was taken up into the courtroom, and then back down again.

    After going back into the former holding area for prisoners, I was then shown towards where the police museum is. There has been a deliberate decision not to feature the Yorkshire Ripper or the Bradford stadium fire as it was thought too emotional and too raw. There’s more of a focus on the Victorian policing, which is appropriate given the age of the building.

    The guide explained this was the former police briefing room and he had used this when in the police force. I had expected a tour of around 45 minutes, but the guide was so conversational, engaging and interesting that my tour lasted for nearly three hours. I was fascinated to hear the stories from his time in the police force and he was very knowledgeable about the history of the building and the criminal justice system.

    These are challenging times for the museum given the limited number of people on tours and also the relatively low number of people booking anyway. However, for the £5 admission fee, I think it’s superb value for money. Definitely recommended and I was delighted with the engagement from the tour guide, very pleased to have gone on this.