By the river

The Upper Coach Road (see yesterday) has a track off it, which leads down to the river and is the access drive to the Bradford Amateur Rowing Club (BARC). I always speculate on the reason for the graceful curve in the track. Was it to avoid the trees? (Were they even there when the track was first made?) Is it designed to follow the boundary of the Milner Field Estate? The Rowing Club was founded in 1867 by Titus Salt Junior, and the land the club-house occupies belonged to him. Whatever the reason, I think it's far more attractive than a straight drive would have been. 

At the bottom you arrive at Hirst Weir, which has gradually broken down from the steep edge it once had when it was associated with the mill on the far bank. Indeed, fairly recently there were diggers there, distributing the rocks even further, partly I think to mitigate flooding on the drive and partly to improve access for fish swimming upstream to spawn. At the moment the water level is as low as I've ever seen it. You could probably safely walk across the river here right now (though I wouldn't recommend it!) 

Looking upstream, the trees are definitely beginning to show a yellowish, autumnal tone. 

The BARC club-house was in the process of getting a new roof, winter-proofing it I guess. (This was a week or so ago and it's probably finished by now.) The building is Victorian, constructed in 1893. The top floor is a bar and function room, leading onto a wide balcony. On the ground floor, there are changing rooms and a gym. The club's extensive fleet of boats and equipment are housed in an adjacent boathouse.  The club uses the 600 metre stretch of the river from the weir up to the aqueduct.

Taking the scenic route back home

From the top of Shipley Glen, I walked down through the woods where outcrops of millstone grit stud the valley side. The views over the Aire Valley from here are far reaching. At the top of Trench Meadows a huge tree has fallen, its bare branches looking like the ribcage of some mythical giant. 

I wandered down to Crag Hebble Dam, built in 1911 across the stream called Loadpit Beck to supply water to the dye works at Salts Mill.  It's a peaceful spot though, like many of our water courses, the dry summer has led to an overgrowth of algae that rather spoils the beauty. 

Another ancient bridleway links the mill dam with the Milner Field estate, once home to Titus Salt Junior. 

The boundary of the estate here is marked by a peculiar metal 'kissing gate', erected in 1872, known locally - for obvious reasons - as 'The Birdcage'. 

Another track leads along the estate's boundary to one of the two gatehouse lodges built for the mansion at Milner Field. The mansion itself was demolished but the gatehouses remain and give an indication of the heavy Victorian Gothic style of the original building. 

Again, good views from here looking out towards Shipley. (Saltaire is hidden, to the left.) The cows belong to Milner Field farm, once the home farm for Salt's estate, which still continues as a dairy farm. 

From the gatehouse, the broad straight drive back down to Saltaire is the Coach Road, once the main carriage drive up to Milner Field House. 

 

On Shipley Glen

Shipley Glen, where urban development meets the high moors, has been a place of leisure for centuries. In Victorian times, hordes of mill workers and their families came up here to picnic and enjoy the funfair - aerial rides and toboggan runs - that once filled this area. Nowadays it's quiet in comparison but still a spot people enjoy for dog walks, jogging and BMX bike stunts on the rocks. 

I had a walk along the edge of the escarpment, mainly to see how the heather is coming along. There's not a lot here compared to some of our wilder moorland areas but enough to gauge whether it's worth a longer trek to the Haworth or Ilkley moors. Actually it's in full bloom now, but pale and dusty looking, stressed by the hot, dry weather, clearly not its best year. In full splendour it's an unforgettable spectacle, the purple haze visible for miles, but around here it is shrinking in scope for all sorts of reasons, as the moors are managed differently, human activity takes its toll and the bully bracken encroaches. 

Part way along the Glen, Bracken Hall Countryside Centre occupies a solid 1890s farmhouse and is open at weekends and for school groups, staffed by volunteers, with exhibitions about the Glen and surrounding moorland's history, flora and wildlife.   

A local ramble

I set off for a local walk, remembering only just in time that the main footbridge across the river (into the park) is closed for much-needed repairs. (I had noticed a crack right across it for some time and it felt distinctly bouncy as you walked across!) The closure means a lengthy detour further upstream to the next footbridge, so that was the way I had to go. It's at the far end of the nature reserve by the river. From here, you can just about see the tower of Saltaire's New Mill in the far distance. 

I went straight across the Coach Road and headed up the path towards Shipley Glen. You can see the results of our long, hot spring and summer. All the grass is like straw and the trees are starting to look autumnal, leaves browning, shrivelled and beginning to fall. 

The path skirts Trench Meadows, an SSSI: Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is a lowland meadow, a nationally rare habitat, uncultivated, with species-rich grassland: lots of unusual grasses and wildflowers. It is managed by seasonal grazing by cattle, which you can just about see in the distance in my photo below. Despite this it is under threat from scrub oak invading - and human vandals, whose activities have caused the entrance gates to be padlocked to prevent access. 

The paths skirting the site are ancient bridleways, used by generations of people as thoroughfares and leisure paths. I noticed that, fairly recently, the surfaces, which were badly eroded by feet and rainwater, have been levelled and filled, making for a much safer and more pleasant walk than last time I came this way. The area is cared for by Bradford Council's countryside wardens with support from voluntary groups. 

There are acorns on the oak trees. I can never remember which species of oak is which and had to look it up again! This is a sessile oak, with leaves on stalks and acorns stalkless. The other type, pedunculate, has the opposite - stalked acorns and stalkless leaves. There are masses of rosehips everywhere and lots of blackberries too. They are a bit early, which may cause problems for our birds later on, if they can't find the food they need. 

 

Bradford Live

I've mentioned Bradford Live before. This historic art deco building in the city centre was built as a ballroom, theatre and cinema in the 1930s, becoming one of the first places to screen 'talkies'. In the 1950s it was a live music venue, hosting The Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Buddy Holly, among other legends. From the 1960s it was an Odeon cinema and bingo hall. I saw loads of films here as a student in the 70s. It closed in 2000 and became derelict, before a grassroots movement to save it resulted in an ambitious renovation programme, backed by the City Council. It has been refurbished as a live music and events venue. Seating 3000+ people, it is positioned between the larger stadia like Leeds Arena and smaller auditoriums like Bradford's existing music venue, St George's Hall. 

Restoration now completed, they held an Open Day recently, so I went along to have a look at what they have achieved. It is pretty mind-blowing. 

The scale of the work involved has been tremendous. They had to remove two concrete boxes that were installed in the 1960s to turn it into cinemas - not knowing how they were pinned to the original structure or what would be revealed. In the photo below you can perhaps see that the front of the dress circle has the original moulding along half of its width, which is absent along the right hand side. The roof structure is complex. At first I thought it must be related to the acoustics but apparently it was revealed in the restoration work. 

There's a very good explanation and photos HERE by one of the companies involved in the renovation. 

For such a large venue, the sound and lighting desk looked quite small but that's the result of modern digitalisation, making the technology in such places really quite streamlined.  

The main auditorium has three levels (I think) and the building has six bars. Those at the back on the various levels are massive, to cope with the large audiences expected. It seemed to have plenty of toilets too - very necessary but often an amenity that is sadly lacking, in my experience of some of our theatres and music venues. 

They seem to have retained the original structure where possible. The stairwells still have the original flooring. 

There are associated smaller spaces - VIP rooms and a ballroom that can be used for smaller music events, weddings and conferences. I would have liked to see backstage too, but that didn't seem to be an option. 

In the basement, the Boiler Room Bar has the shells of the original boilers that used to heat the building.

The building isn't currently listed but I think they have done such a great job of retaining its original features and integrity that it will no doubt gain listed status at some point. I'm not likely to go to a gig myself (music doesn't really work with my limited hearing) - though I'm tempted to see my favourite Christmas film 'The Holiday' with a live orchestra... Initially there seem to be a lot of tribute bands listed but then some bigger names start to edge in, notably The Kaiser Chiefs in February next year. I very much hope the venue attracts some popular bands and pays its way. 

Summer garden

Just on the Shipley edge of Saltaire, on the canal side, there is a block of old cottages called Jane Hills, built in stages between 1796 and the mid 19th century. I took these two photos because I thought the garden was so pretty, with flowers spilling over the fence and a row of annuals brightening up the canalside. 

The picture below is one that I took about three years ago, though I don't think a lot has changed since then. I included it here to show the older cottages that sit at right angles to the ones in the pictures above. They say that at least one of them (the large house at the back in the bottom photo) was a lodging house for canal boatmen. The oldest building, adjacent to that house, is now a row of three cottages but (according to Historic England) used to be a cottage and a wool workshop, and you can see (photo above) the blocked up 'taking-in door' on the gable end where goods used to be loaded into the building from the canal. 

It must originally have been a fairly isolated and rural spot, until they built Salts Mill just along the canal in the early 1850s. Since then, mills and business premises have surrounded the cottages, though now, at the back, the HMRC building has been demolished and left as a rubble-strewn site. It may or may not one day become a residential area!

William Morris stained glass

The main reason I visited Bradford Cathedral recently was because I'd booked on a guided tour of the building's William Morris stained glass. It turned out to be very interesting. 

During a period of restoration in 1863, a Mrs Tolson decided to give some money for a window in memory of her husband Richard, a Bradford solicitor. One of her late husband's friends, John Aldam Heaton, was an admirer of the work of the Pre-Raphaelites, William Morris and his friends, and suggested that the glass should be sourced from them. It was one of the first stained glass commissions the company undertook. Then a second window by the company was added in 1864. 

The windows were installed towards the east end of the church, and removed when this was remodelled. 

The one installed in 1864, in memory of Mary Hartley, was dismantled and placed in a crate, stored for 26 years until rediscovered. It has been restored and parts are now in the transepts, and some of the pieces have been arranged as an illuminated panel (above). The angels are the work of William Morris himself, with Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World) by Albert Moore, and a Pelican (a Christian symbol) by Philip Webb in the middle. 

 

The seven-light 1863 window, 'Witnesses to Christ', was reused in the new Lady Chapel, but had to be split into three panels. I've put them together again in the composite below. 

Records have survived that detail which of the artists in the William Morris collective created each piece and how much they cost. It's really interesting to note the differences between the artists' approaches. 

The figure of John the Baptist (below), is by William Morris himself. Philip Webb was responsible for a lot of the background pieces, many of which include plants and flowers, key motifs of Pre-Raphaelite imagery. 

Mary Magdalene (below), holding her jar of anointing oil, is the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She has the long russet tresses associated with many of his muses. Apparently, in the original design she was more scantily clad. This was considered inappropriate for the context so he had to add more garments. 

Ford Madox Brown contributed Abraham (below) clutching a knife, with his terrified son Isaac hanging on to his leg. Plenty of drama and emotion in this depiction. 

King David (below) is by Edward Burne-Jones, in a gentler, more romantic style. 

I love stained glass, as you know, so I found this all very fascinating. These are masterpieces, with similar works by William Morris and Co and other notable glass studios dotted around in churches all over the UK. Their significance is easily overlooked. They were meant to tell stories to (often illiterate) congregations. A picture can hold a thousand words, after all. 

Incidentally, the cathedral also unearthed the beautiful altar cloth, above, stored away in a drawer somewhere. It has been authenticated as a Morris and Co embroidery, likely done by William Morris's wife Jane, who was a skilled needlewoman. The sweeping foliage and fruit: grapes and pomegranates, are typical symbols used in the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts movements.  

Inside Bradford Cathedral

Because Bradford Cathedral was once a parish church, it's relatively small compared to some of our majestic cathedrals and abbeys. It has, as a result, an intimacy that I really like. Alterations over the centuries meant that the beautiful roof was hidden by a false ceiling at one time, but thankfully that was stripped away in a major 19th century restoration so that the huge oak beams can be seen again. 

When the church was made a cathedral in 1919, plans were formulated to extend it. Because of the outbreak of war, the adaptations didn't happen until the 1950s/60s. At that time the whole east end of the church was rebuilt and extended, including the parts you can see in the picture below:

Originally the church had plain glass windows but in the 19th century there was a revival in the art of stained glass. The great west window (below), over the main entrance, was installed in 1863, paid for by a Bradford solicitor in memory of his sisters. Its theme is 'The Women of the Bible': the Angel Gabriel with the Virgin Mary; Mary Magdalene with the Risen Christ; Jesus with Martha and Mary of Bethany, and with the woman at the well. On the top rows, many more Biblical women are depicted. The window is the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. 

[Studying it closely, it supports my theory that my own church's windows are also by this company, with quite a few similarities, including the use of rich blues and purples. The company were renowned for introducing a range of new, vibrant colours in their work. There's also the fact that several depictions of Jesus show him with a red and white halo (like a lifebelt, I always think!) around his head.]

I've included some closer views of the panels: the Annunciation

and Mary Magdalene is greeted by the Risen Christ.