Shot in 1961, Bradford Suburban was produced by the C.H. Wood company; founded by its namesake Charles Harold Wood in the 1920s, the son of Charles Wood, a noted gas engineer who worked on Moscow’s gas infrastructure following the 1918 revolution. C.H. Wood was a specialist in aerial film and photography who later earned an MBE for his work on the infrared sensors used by the Dambusters in the Second World War. The collection includes over 3,000 films from 1915 right up until 2009, after C.H....

Shot in 1961, Bradford Suburban was produced by the C.H. Wood company; founded by its namesake Charles Harold Wood in the 1920s, the son of Charles Wood, a noted gas engineer who worked on Moscow’s gas infrastructure following the 1918 revolution. C.H. Wood was a specialist in aerial film and photography who later earned an MBE for his work on the infrared sensors used by the Dambusters in the Second World War. The collection includes over 3,000 films from 1915 right up until 2009, after C.H. Wood’s sons David and Malcolm Wood took over the family business.  These films range from the 1947 road safety information video Crikey!, to a recording of a 1939 Rugby League match between Halifax and Leeds titled Semi-Final Seven Aside/Tennis, to Heather Wood 1942, a home movie featuring C.H. Wood’s infant daughter Heather. The nature and sheer size of the C.H. Wood collection makes it invaluable in charting many aspects of Yorkshire life throughout the vast majority of the 20th century.

Bradford Suburban seems to serve three purposes – firstly, it documents the Downside Crescent development in Allerton, contrasting the Inferno of half-finished building sites and pre-suburban sprawl land to the Paradise of 60s British suburbia. Secondly, it captures one part of the process of revitalisation that the greater Bradford area was undergoing at the time; related films in the C.H. Wood collection include 1961’s Looking To The Future, also about redevelopment in Bradford, and 1962’s Shipley UDC, recording the same in Shipley. Lastly, it records a moment in the life of the residents of Downside Crescent – mostly children – as they go about their lives on what appears to be a pleasant summer day. The exact reason it was filmed is unclear: while it could certainly work as promotional footage for the Downside Crescent development because of the idyllic way in which it is shot, it doesn’t focus entirely on the Crescent. Rather, the final shots are of the Holme Wood Social Club, situated within the housing estate of Holme Wood (one of the largest in the country) itself. As such, it is likely that it is a personal interest film. There are several films of this type within the C.H. Wood collection, such as Shipley 1961.

The village in which Downside Crescent was built, Allerton, has now been essentially absorbed into the greater Bradford area. Previously home to the Seabrook Potato Crisps factory, the plant moved to the Princeville area of Bradford after closing in 2004.  Not content to stop at simply contributing fried potato snacks to Britain, Allerton also enriched British culture forever by hosting the childhoods of Girls Aloud’s Kimberley Walsh and Coronation Street’s Nicky Evans.

Following the Second World War, suburbs such as Downside Crescent began to appear across the country. Advances in technology and changes in planning legislation led to slum clearances and a mass migration to high-rises and new-build suburbs; this was especially the case in Bradford, which saw a rising population and much of its city centre demolished and rebuilt. In a 1958 documentary for the BBC entitled ‘Lost City’, the native Bradfordian and author J. B. Priestly  lamented the current state of Bradford, branding it as ‘not good enough for real Bradfordians’. A letter to the BBC from the publicity team behind Bradford’s redevelopment which suggests that Priestly revisit the city as ‘within the coming months a large part of the central area will be demolished and the first new buildings completed’ shows a sense of optimism for the city, however.

The late 1950s and early 1960s were a time of social upheaval for Bradford – like much of the north; the city had relied on the textiles industry to provide employment and investment in the area. By this time, however, Britain had gone from being the single greatest exporter of textiles on the planet to being a net importer. Unable to rely on their reputation as innovators in the textiles industry Bradfordians would be forced to look elsewhere for employment. At the same time, the city saw an influx of immigration. Following the Second World War families arrived from Poland and Ukraine, and during the 50s Bradford saw the arrival of many Bangladeshi and Pakistani families. While many of these people moved to Bradford in the hopes of finding a career in the textiles industry, it would be competition from the Indian subcontinent and East Asia that would ultimately spell doom for Bradford’s own industry.

By 1992 the city’s largest mill, and the largest silk factory in the world, Lister’s Mills, had closed after years of declining business. It was purchased by property developers eight years later and converted into apartments and commercial space. The textile industry in Bradford isn’t entirely dead, however, with Halstead’s Mill still in production amongst a few others. However, the economic focus of the city has shifted, and Bradford now hosts thriving automotive and electronic industries.

The image of snow white Middle England that Bradford Suburban portrays thus contrasts sharply with the reality of the increasingly racially diverse greater Bradford area. Finding few jobs to be had in textiles, many of the newly arrived Bradfordians instead opened up restaurants, leading to Bradford’s current reputation as home to an abundance of Kashmiri cuisine and the ‘Curry Capital’ of Britain.

Further Reading:

 A "sentimental journey"? Priestley's Lost City 

A Short History Of British Housing

Bradford's textile industry is alive and wool!

Ethnic Bradford and Asian Culture

J.B. Priestley’s 1958 BBC documentary Lost City