BRADFORD CATHEDRAL PRECINCT CONSERVATION AREA
Historical Introduction
The medieval town of Bradford developed between two crossings of Bradford Beck as can be seen on a surviving maps of c.1720. The more important of the two crossings was probably Church Bridge, north-west of the medieval parish church (now cathedral). It provided access between the Church-Barkerend area on the east side of the Beck, and the town on the west side. Before being bridged, this was probably the 'broad ford' which gave the town its name. The other crossing, Ive Bridge, linked the town to Goodmansend, higher up and south of the Beck. Though their names are not apparently recorded until the 15th century, these two 'ends' were probably early elements of the settlement. The manor is first recorded in Domesday Book, when it included a number of dependant townships, and the early manor house probably lay in the Church-Barkerend area.
By the early14th century Bradford had been given 'borough' status: 28 burgages are recorded in a survey of 1311, occupied by tenants who were given special privileges to encourage the growth of commerce and industry. The borough developed along two axes: Kirkgate and Westgate-Ivegate. The medieval market was held at the junction of the three streets, where there was a market cross, a toll booth and a hall of pleas (where the courts were held). During the later Middle Ages the woollen industry came to predominate, and in the early 16th century Leland recorded that the town 'standith much by clothing'.
Bradford Beck powered two mills in the Middle Ages: a manorial corn mill, later known as the Soke Mill or Queen's Mill, and a mill for fulling cloth. The former is mentioned in 1295, the latter in 1311. They were located on the north side of the Beck above Ive Bridge, though the precise site of the medieval fulling mill is unknown. Just south of the Bridge, above the confluence of Bradford and Bowling Becks, was a dyehouse which in the 14th century was held by Thomas Walker (who, given his surname, probably ran the fulling mill as well). Other early industrial activity developed further down the Beck, to the north-west of the church, where a tanhouse was established by the 15th century, and where, in the early 16th century, a new water-powered corn mill was erected.
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