“I suppose every old house in Yorkshire is supposed to be haunted”: The Ghost of Bierley Hall

This is how the story begins. On a dark dark hill there was a dark dark archive. In the dark dark archive was a dark dark box. And in the dark dark box there was a letter! WYAS Bradford: 11D74/2/4/2 [image edited] This particular letter was written by J Richardson of Kent during a visit …

Thornton Friendly Society

The papers of Thornton Friendly Society held at our Bradford office (ref. DB71/C3/64) are a wonderful example of documents from a very early Friendly Society set up in Thornton, Bradford in 1778. The archive includes Rules and Articles for the Society and membership certificates for one Jeremiah Dewhurst, 1789 and Joshua Jennings, 1793. Friendly Societies …

Jowett Journey across Africa

The Jowett Motor Manufacturing Company was established in Bradford in 1901 by Benjamin, William and Ruth Jowett.  The company initially designed and built engines but designed a car in 1906.  They decided to commercially produce the car in 1910, manufacturing almost 50 cars between 1910 and 1916. Some Jowett records were collected by the Jowett …

Jowett Cars – A Vintage Collection

The Jowett Car Club collection at WYAS Bradford [reference WYB324], consisting of over thirty boxes of material collected and created by the car club, represents a treasure trove of information about one of Bradford’s most famous companies.  The records include Jowett road tests from early editions of motoring magazines such as Autocar and The Motor, …