Bradford's Industrial Revolution

Bradford was once Britain's fastest growing industrial city. Over the first half of the 19th century, Bradford was transformed from a small market town into the woollen textile capital of the world. A beautiful green dale became a landscape dominated by huge mills and smoking chimneys. Bradford was nicknamed 'Worstedopolis' because the district grew rich making 'worsted', a fine wool fabric used in top quality clothing.

You can see photos of a growing industrial Bradford by taking a photographic mini tour of the C H Wood Collection on the Bradford Museums website - see Related Links below.

For more information - a history of the textile industry covering the hand spun trade of the middle ages, the cottage industry, to the introduction and decline of the mills and factories of Bradford - please download the page 'The Textile Industry in Bradford' from the Worksheets section (see Worksheets link below).