| Bradford-on-Avon | |
|---|---|
.JPG) The Town Bridge over the river Avon. The small domed building is thelockup, where the town's troublemakers were put for the night. | |
  Bradford-on-Avon Location withinWiltshire | |
| Population | 10,405 (2021 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | ST826609 |
| Civil parish |
|
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BRADFORD-ON-AVON |
| Postcode district | BA15 |
| Dialling code | 01225 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Town Council |
| 51°20′49″N2°15′04″W / 51.347°N 2.251°W /51.347; -2.251 | |
Bradford-on-Avon (sometimesBradford on Avon) is a town andcivil parish in westWiltshire, England, near the border withSomerset. The town's canal, historic buildings, shops, pubs and restaurants make it popular with tourists. The parish had a population of 10,405 at the 2021 census.[1]
The history of the town can be traced back toRoman origins. It has several buildings dating from the 17th century, when the town grew due to the thriving English woollen textile industry.
The earliest evidence of habitation is fragments ofRoman settlements above the town. In particular,archaeological digs have revealed the remains of a largeRoman villa with a well-preservedmosaic on the playing fields ofSt Laurence School. The centre of the town grew up around theford across the river Avon, hence the origin of the town's name ("Broad-Ford").[2] This was supplemented inNorman times by the stone bridge that still stands today. The Norman side is upstream, and has pointed arches; the newer side has curved arches. The Town Bridge and Chapel is a grade Ilisted building. It was originally apackhorse bridge, but widened in the 17th century by rebuilding the western side.[3] On 2 July 1643 the town was the site of a skirmish in theEnglish Civil War, when Royalists seized control of the bridge on their way to theBattle of Lansdowne.[4]
On the bridge stands a small building which was originally achapel but was later used as atown lock-up. The weathervane on top takes the form of agudgeon[2] (an early Christian symbol), hence the local saying "under the fish and over the water". (The gilded fish is a perch; Bradford gudgeon is a local term.)[5]
The river provided power for the wool mills that gave the town its wealth. The town has 17th-century buildings dating from the most successful period of the localtextile industry. The best examples of weavers' cottages are on Newtown, Middle Rank and Tory Terraces.Daniel Defoe visited Bradford-on-Avon in the early 18th century[2] and commented: "They told me at Bradford that it was no extra-ordinary thing to have clothiers in that country worth, from ten thousand, to forty thousand pounds a man[equivalent to £1.3M to £5.3M in 2007], and many of the great families, who now pass for gentry in those counties, have been originally raised from, and built up by this truly noble manufacture."[6]
With improving mechanisation intextile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, the woolweaving industry moved from cottages to purpose-built woollen mills adjacent to the river, where they used water and steam to power the looms. Around thirty such mills were built in Bradford-on-Avon alone, and these prospered further until the English woollen industry shifted its centre of power to Yorkshire in the late 19th century. The last local mill closed in 1905. Many have since stood empty and some became derelict.
A notable feature of Bradford-on-Avon is the large Grade I listedtithe barn, 180 feet long and 30 feet wide, which was constructed in the 14th century and is now part of Barton FarmCountry Park.[7] The barn was used for collecting taxes, in the form of goods, to fund the church.
There are several notable buildings in and around the town centre. Many of the old textile factories have been converted into modern flats and apartments; however, few of the buildings are still used today in their original roles. One of the few isThe Swan, a public house and hotel set in the centre of town; the building is 17th century and retains many original features, in particular the stone flag floors. Records show that there has been a public house on the same site since the 1500s.The Hall, on the eastern edge of the town, is a Jacobean mansion built for John Hall, a wealthy mill-owner, in about 1610. It was bought byStephen Moulton in 1848, and is now managed by the Alex Moulton Charitable Trust.[8]
In 1998 theWiltshire Music Centre was opened in Bradford-on-Avon, on the grounds ofSt Laurence School. In 2000, the Millennium sculpture nicknamed "Millie" was unveiled.
On 8 October 2003, Bradford-on-Avon was grantedFairtrade Town status.
The town lies partly in theAvon Valley, and partly on the hill that marks the Vale's western edge, 8 miles (13 km) southeast ofBath, in the hilly area between theMendip Hills,Salisbury Plain and theCotswold Hills. The local area around Bath provides theJurassiclimestone known asBath stone, from which the older buildings are constructed. TheRiver Avon (theBristol Avon) runs through the town. The larger town ofTrowbridge is nearby to the southeast.
The town includes the suburbs ofBearfield andWoolley; the parish includes the hamlets ofWidbrook andWoolley Green.
The Western WiltshireGreen Belt, which forms the eastern extent of theAvon Green Belt, completely surrounds Bradford-on-Avon. It helps to maintain the setting and preserve the character of the town by maintaining separation from nearby settlements such as Trowbridge,Winsley, andWestwood.[9][10]
TheSaxon church dedicated toSaint Laurence may have been founded bySaint Aldhelm around 705, and could have been a temporary burial site for KingEdward the Martyr. It was rediscovered by the Anglican priest, antiquarian and authorWilliam Jones in 1856, having been used for secular purposes (apparently becoming a house, a school and part of a factory).
It is suggested that some of the building, containing the blind arcades at a higher level, may belong to a later period[11] while a leaflet available at the church in February 2012 seems to prefer the period 950–1050 for the whole building. The elaborate ornamentation of the exterior consists of pilaster-strips, a broadfrieze of two plain string-courses between which is a blindarcade of round-headed arches whose short vertical pilasters have trapezoidal capitals and bases, while on the easterngable and the corners adjacent there is a series of mouldings as vertical triple semicylinders.[11]
Inside the church, high in the wall above a smallchancel arch, are the carved figures of two flyingangels, the right-hand figure reportedly "intended to be clothed in transparent drapery ... the legs from the knee downward are depicted as showing through the transparent robe" which is referred to as a "quaint fancy".[12]
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In addition to the Saxon church, the town has twoChurch of England churches, twoBaptist chapels, a United Church (Methodist andUnited Reformed Church), afree nonconformist church, a community church, aQuaker (Society of Friends) meeting house and aRoman Catholic church.
Holy Trinity Church is the originalparish church, and stands near the town centre by the river. The Grade I listed building is Norman in origin, and it is possible that thechancel was built over the remains of an older church. Several chapels were added on the north side, and the wall in between was later opened up so that the chapels now form the north aisle. A squint, orhagioscope, near the altar is claimed to be England's longest. Thetower andspire was built around 1480, replacing an older one, and the south wall was largely rebuilt in the 19th century.[13] The church has a ring of eightbells, with thetenor (heaviest bell) weighing 29 long cwt 2 qr 26 lb (3,330 lb or 1,510 kg).[14]
The otherAnglican church,Christ Church, is entirely aVictorian construction.[15] TheCatholic church, dedicated toSt. Thomas More, occupies a Grade II listed building, dating from 1854, that used to be the town hall.[16]
There is also a Buddhist monastery in the town, under the auspices of the Aukana Trust; it comprises a monastic building each for men and for women, and a meditation hall. There are also workshops, gardens and a library, and the elegant buildings look down upon the town from a hill. The monastery practises theTheravadin tradition of Buddhism, and offers opportunities for both full-time residential and part-time practise and study.[citation needed]
Bradford-on-Avon was the site of an early factory for rubber products, established at Kingston Mill byStephen Moulton in 1848 and later named George Spencer, Moulton and Co. The company was acquired byAvon Rubber, a large manufacturer of rubber products for the automotive and other industries, and production continued until 1993.[17] Today, the town is the headquarters of theAlex Moultonbicycle company and has several other small-scale manufacturing enterprises.
The town's main business is shopping, tourism and day-to-day servicing of a population largely made up of families, commuters and the retired. The town has one mid-sizedsupermarket on the Elms Cross industrial estate, a short walk from the canal lock, and fiveconvenience stores.[18]
Local consumers founded Bradford-on-Avon Co-operative Society in 1861, which, in the 1960s, united with otherconsumer co-operatives in the district to merge with a national business.[19] A mini outdoorshopping centre of independent shops, Weavers Walk, which describes itself as an "ethical trading centre", is in the town centre.
The town is an increasingly popular location for films, television adaptations and more; it has played host toWolf Hall,Creation (a 2009 film about the life of Darwin),Robin of Sherwood and a 1972 film adaptation ofThe Canterbury Tales. In 2016,The White Princess TV series was filmed in the area.[20]
Bradford-on-Avon is on theA363Trowbridge toBath road, which runs through the town from south to north, and crossed over by theB3109 linking Bradford-on-Avon withMelksham andFrome. All other road routes are minor, affording access to local settlements. Bradford-on-Avon is about 15 miles from junction 18 of theM4 motorway atBath and the same distance from junction 17 atChippenham.
Bradford-on-Avon railway station is served byGreat Western Railway on theWessex Main Line andHeart of Wessex Line routes. The line opened in the mid-19th century and was built by the originalGreat Western Railway. The main station building by Brunel is Grade II listed.[21]
Running parallel to the railway through the town is theKennet and Avon Canal. The use of this canal declined as the railways grew but it was restored to full working order during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The canal provides a link through to the Avon at Bath in the west, and theThames atReading in the east.
Bradford-on-Avoncivil parish elects atown council with twelve members: six for the Northward and six for the South ward.[22] After the May 2021 elections, there were sevenLiberal Democrat and five Ideal Bradford[23] councillors.[22] The town council provides an increasing range of services in the town, building on its historically mostly consultative and ceremonial role. These include provision of youth services, management of significant and growing areas of green space and town facilities, and management of several premises within the town. Members of the council elect one of their number as the town's mayor, for a one-year term.[22] The town council declared aclimate emergency in March 2019[24] and has committed to becomingcarbon neutral by 2030.[25]
Statutory local government functions – including schools, roads, social services, emergency planning, leisure services, development control, and waste disposal – are carried out byWiltshire Council, aunitary authority. The North and South wards each elect one member of Wiltshire Council.[26]
For Westminster elections, Bradford-on-Avon is part of theMelksham and Devizes constituency, which was created following a boundary review and first contested at the 2024 general election when it was won byBrian Mathew for the Liberal Democrats.[27] From 2010 to 2024, the town was in theChippenham constituency.
The town has a secondary school,St Laurence School, founded in 1980 as a result of the merger ofFitzmaurice Grammar School and TrinitySecondary Modern school.[28] There are two primary schools: in the north of the town is Christ ChurchCofE (VC) Primary School, established as aNational school in 1848 and on its present site since 1956,[29] and in the south is Fitzmaurice Primary School, opened in 1928 as Bradford on Avon Council Junior Mixed and Infants' School.[30]
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC West andITV West Country. Television signals are received from theMendip and the local relay transmitters.[31][32]
Local radio stations areBBC Radio Wiltshire on 104.3 FM,Heart West on 102.2,Greatest Hits Radio South West on 107.7 FM and West Wilts Radio, a community based radio station that broadcast online.[33]
TheWiltshire Times is the local newspaper that serves the town.[34]
Bradford-on-Avon has anon-League football club,Bradford Town F.C., who play at the Sports and Social Club on Trowbridge Road. In addition to a bowls & croquet club, tennis courts and a swimming pool, there is also the Bradford-on-Avon Rowing Club, catering for rowing and canoeing from their base opposite Barton Farm country park.[35] Bradford on Avonrugby club, whose first team played inDorset & Wilts 1 North in 2019–20, have their ground atWinsley, just west of the town.[36]
Wiltshire Music Centre is a purpose-built, 300-seat concert hall within the grounds of St Laurence School that attracts internationally renowned musicians.
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Bradford-on-Avon istwinned with:[61]
Its five shops in Bristol, Stroud, Glastonbury, Totnes and Bradford-on-Avon sell clothes for adults and children
in the Tithe Barn, near Frome Road, and St Laurence's Church, in Church Street.
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