Bradford Heritage Connection
Heritage Festival 2025 Events
Bradford Heritage Connection is proud to announce the first Bradford Heritage Festival. In partnership with several organisations across the Bradford District, there will be a number of events celebrating heritage skills and giving you an opportunity to have a go at them. There are details below or you can download a programme here.
Fri 11 July 2025 - 10am to 4pm
St George's Hall Heritage Exhibition
View display highlighting the history and heritage of the stunning, Grade II* listed St George’s Hall in its ground floor café. This includes posters, photographs and documents from its founding in 1853 and early performances, Mitchell and Kenyon films of Bradford in the Victorian and Edwardian era shown at the venue when it was a cinema and framed posters of comedy gigs. QR codes with links to the history and heritage of St George’s Hall website support the display with further images and information.
FREE entry. No booking needed.
Enjoy a drink or bite to eat in the newly opened St George’s Hall café but not required. Food served between 11am -2pm.
Venue: St George's Hall, Bradford, BD1 1JT
Phone: 01274 432375
Website: www.stgeorgeshallheritage-bradford.co.uk/
Exhibition | Food & Drink
Fri 11 July 2025 - 10.30am to 3.30pm
Bookbinding with West Yorkshire Archive Service
Visit the West Yorkshire Archive Service stall and give bookbinding a whirl. The West Yorkshire Archive Service care for a huge range of archive collections including bound volumes, books, notepads, and diaries.
Drop into our stall at the Mechanic’s Institute where our staff will demonstrate an easy sewing technique you can use to make notebooks any size you like, perfect for little gifts!
Venue: Mechanics Institute, 76 Kirkgate, Bradford, BD1 1SZ
Website: www.wyjs.org.uk/archive-service/
Heritage | Arts & Crafts
Fri 11 July 2025 - 10.30am to 11.30am
The Butterfield Women of Cliffe Castle
We hear a lot about the Butterfield men who lived in Cliffe Castle. Join us for this talk to learn about the interesting lives of the women of the Butterfield Family and their influence on more than just the family.
Book your free ticket here.
Venue: Mechanics Institute, 76 Kirkgate, Bradford, BD1 1SZ
Website: www.bradfordmuseums.org
Heritage | Talk
Fri 11 July 2025 - 10.30am
Bradford’s Historic Pubs and Inns – A Walk though Entertainment History
This tour will take you around where Bradford’s pubs and inns once stood. Once the venues of arts and entertainment, some of them hosted wrestling matches, concerts and even Charles Dickens! The walking tour has 10 stops.
Book your place by emailing development@historictownstrust.uk
Places are limited to just 20 so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Website: www.historictownstrust.uk
Heritage | Walk
Fri 11 July 2025 - 10.30 to 3.30
Exhibition of Art
Meet Nigel Wray who began to draw Bradford’s historic buildings during Covid. He will have a selection of his vast body of work to show, some of which is available for sale.
We have many fine examples of architecture around the Bradford district and Nigel has captured them all.
If you would like to take away a drawing on the day they are £55 including frame. Cash or bank transfer.
Venue: Mechanics Institute, 76 Kirkgate, Bradford, BD1 1SZ
Heritage | Exhibition
Fri 11 July 2025 - 11am to 2pm
Crafting the Cathedral
FREE event for all crafters
Demonstrations by The Bradford Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers, the Cathedral Stitchers and the Craven Guild of Lacemakers.
Experiences: Try your hand at embroidery stitching and weave a line of a tapestry on our loom, adding to our artwork that is being created over the next few months.
Exhibitions: Almost 3.5 million stitches have been knitted by volunteers into a 15-metres-long warming stripe display called Knit the Stripes, which charts our changing temperature from the 1850s to present.
The beautiful and powerful artwork Woven Lives talks of the lives and stories of the people of Bradford. The woven coloured glass and symbols, lit from within, show how light and dark times are all part of the story of community and connection.
Who Made My Clothes? The International Feltmakers’ Association, Yorkshire Branch, will be exhibiting work about the ethics of the fashion trade.
Ecclesiastical Textiles
Bradford Cathedral is fortunate enough to have in its collection a number of beautiful, intricate and historically significant textiles, which will be out on display.
EXTRA: Ecclesiastical textiles' tours £7 per person
Join our guide for special ecclesiastical textiles’ tours of the Cathedral at 11.00 and 1.00. Booking is essential.
11.00 tour- https://bradfordcathedral.org.uk/event/ecclesiastical-textiles-tour-7/
1.00 tour- https://bradfordcathedral.org.uk/event/ecclesiastical-textiles-tour-8/
or call the Cathedral office on 01274 777720
Venue: Bradford Cathedral, 1 Stott Hill, Bradford, BD1 4EH
Phone: 01274 777720
Website: bradfordcathedral.org.uk
Heritage | Arts & Crafts
Fri 11 July 2025 - Stall 10.30-3.30 / Talk at 12.00
Mapping Bradford's History
The Historic Towns Trust invite you to join us on 11th July to celebrate the city of Bradford through mapping its history. The talk is about the Historic Towns Trust’s An Historical Map of Bradford publication, which shows the fascinating history of the city centre, and the two conservation areas of Manningham and Little Germany. The map is built on extensive research, drawing information from many archaeological and historical resources, brought together to show the historical development of the city. The talk will highlight how we create our maps, how we elivered our Bradford project and share the stories and learnings that the publication has uncovered, which are surprising even its authors in creating a new and more detailed narrative of Bradford’s history. Following the talk there will be a stall and a small exhibition space, giving more detail about the project, with the opportunity to purchase the publication along with other maps produced by the Historic Towns Trust.
Venue: Mechanics Institute, 76 Kirkgate, Bradford, BD1 1SZ
Heritage | Talk
Fri 11 July 2025 - Stall 10.30-3.30 / Talk 1.30pm
A Moving Legacy for Bradford
Are you a filmmaker with an interest in local stories, culture and identity? Are you a content-creator passionate about the events and people of your city? Are you a Bradfordian who captures the memories of your family and community? Digital media is at risk. Yorkshire Film Archive are on a mission to create a moving image legacy for Bradford before it’s too late. We are connecting with diverse communities to collect and preserve contemporary footage, the heritage of the future, for generations to come. Discover how you can be a part of the story.
Join us at 1pm for a special presentation about the important role film archives play in saving and celebrating Bradford’s screen heritage. FREE.
If you can’t attend the talk but are keen to know more – don’t worry! Find our stall at the Mechanics Institute all day to chat about how to get involved.
Venue: Mechanics Institute, 76 Kirkgate, Bradford, BD1 1SZ
Film | Talk
Fri 11 July 2025 - 2pm to 4pm
Snapshots of Ilkley: Youthful Visions & Historic Reflections
Ilkley Manor House is a medieval building built on the site of the Roman fort of Olicana. Inside, you can see artefacts from the Roman period and some even older - from 13,000 years ago! We are excited to be taking part in the Bradford Heritage Festival, with two exhibitions for visitors to enjoy.
photoILKLEY is a grassroots photography festival, celebrating photography’s unique power to connect, to question, and to see the world anew. Committed to making space for younger voices too, a key part of the festival is the Young Photographer Competition, inviting children and young people to share their own visions of Ilkley and the world, offering a vital platform for emerging talents and fresh perspectives. The winning images from the competition form the basis of this exhibition.
Continue upstairs to the Great Flood of July 1900 exhibition. Suddenly, in the middle of a hot summer’s day, there was a violent thunderstorm over Ilkley Moor. It lasted several hours, turning the streets of the town into tributaries of the River Wharfe. The exhibition describes the resulting devastation.
The Wharfedale Airedale Observer from 20 July 1900 carried an extensive report, much of which is used in the exhibition, together with photographs from the time. The exhibition was curated by Ilkley Civic Society’s Local History Hub.
Both exhibitions and the House are FREE to enter.
There is off-street parking as well as parking in the main car park, which is a couple of minutes' walk from the House. There is no parking at Ilkley Manor House. The train and bus stations are a 5-minute walk from the House. There is no lift to the upstairs floor in the House, which is accessible via a staircase of 18 steps. There are no steps to get into the House or the ground floor.
Venue: Ilkley Manor House, Castle Yard, Ilkley LS29 9DT
Website: http://www.ilkleymanorhouse.org
Heritage | Art
Fri 11 July 2025 - 10.30am to 3.00pm
Yorkshire Pudding and Pickled Cabbage
Alicja Mrozowska’s paintings navigate the layered terrain of identity, memory, and cultural hybridity through bold portraiture and playful abstraction. Rooted in personal history and shaped by the nuances of migration, her work draws from everyday imagery, reconfiguring the familiar to question how place and experience inform who we are. Yorkshire Pudding and Pickled Cabbage marks the most expansive presentation of Mrozowska’s work to date, bringing together paintings from 2017 through to 2025.
Combining large gestural brushstrokes with recurring motifs and symbolic references, her compositions balance between the recognisable and the obscure, inviting viewers into a space where identities blur, overlap, and reform. Through a practice grounded in both intuition and process, Mrozowska weaves together collected images - personal, cultural, and imagined - layering them with oil paint and paper to construct portraits that resist singular readings. Her figures emerge not as fixed subjects but as open-ended reflections of internal complexity, shaped as much by social context as by intimate experience. At once serious and light-hearted, the exhibition revels in contradiction, drawing attention to the tensions between surface and depth, play and constraint, self and other. Mrozowska’s work ultimately asks: how do we perform, obscure, or reveal who we are - especially when those performances take place within the structures of cultural expectation?
Alicja Mrozowska is a Polish visual artist and painter currently based in Leeds. Her practice explores identity, the concept of ‘home’ and social constructs through a range of mediums including oil painting, film photography, installation, and construction. Drawing from personal experience, surroundings, and relationships, she reflects on the complexities of migration and belonging. Mrozowska graduated from the University of Salford in 2018 with a BA (Hons) in Visual Art. Since then, she has exhibited widely and taken part in collaborations and group residencies, while also devising and leading creative workshops in the UK, Poland, and Germany. Her process-driven approach weaves together collected images and intuitive mark-making to create narrative-rich, multidimensional works that prompt curiosity, vulnerability and acceptance.
Venue: South Square Centre, Thornton Road, BD13 3LD
Phone: 01274834747
Website: southsquarecentre.co.uk
Exhibition | Arts & Crafts
Sat 12 July 2025 - 2pm
Haworth Heritage Walk
The Haworth Heritage Trail is one of Bradford 2025’s Bradford on Foot walks. It starts at the Brontë Parsonage Museum and heads down cobbled Main Street to the valley bottom where it follows Bridgehouse Beck before picking up an old Packhorse route and the Brontë Way back to Haworth. The walk will be led by a member of the Brontë Parsonage team. The walk is free, but places are limited. Please book a place via our website: www.bronte.org.uk/events/haworth-heritage-trail-guided-walk
Venue: Brontë Parsonage Museum, Church Street, Haworth, Keighley, BD22 8DR
Phone: 01535 642323
Website: www.bronte.org.uk
Heritage | Outdoor
Sat 12 July 2025 - 10am to 4pm
Thornton Antiquarians Exhibition
Thornton Antiquarian Archive present their annual exhibition at Thornton Community Centre. Dive through the history books and discover the tales of Thornton’s past. This comprehensive exhibition explores Thornton’s heritage, from memories of trolley busses to textile heritage and cottage industries. Speak to local historians, look at maps, books and photographs which detail life in the village from centuries ago. Hear about Arthur Bryant – the maggot king and why Thornton has some unusual place names such as ‘Spite & Malice’ & ‘Worlds End’. Thornton Antiquarians Society is a volunteer run archive based at South Square Centre in Thornton. Weekly talks take place at Thornton Community Centre. New members welcome. Free, Donations Welcome.
Venue: Thornton Community Centre, Market St, BD13 3HW
Heritage | Exhibition
Sat 12 July 2025 - 10am onwards
Four FREE Guided Tours of World Heritage Saltaire
See Saltaire on a tour led by knowledgeable local historians. Your experience will start at the United Reformed Church with a slideshow painting Saltaire's history.
Following this, you will visit the church's glorious worship room and Sir Titus Salt's family mausoleum. A walking tour of the villages star locations follows.
To book your ticket visit Eventbrite this link.
Venue: Start at Saltaire United Reformed Church, Victoria Road, Saltaire, BD18 3LF
Heritage | Tour
Sat 12 July 2025 - 11am to 4pm
Snapshots of Ilkley: Youthful Visions & Historic Reflections
Ilkley Manor House is a medieval building built on the site of the Roman fort of Olicana. Inside, you can see artefacts from the Roman period and some even older - from 13,000 years ago! We are excited to be taking part in the Bradford Heritage Festival, with two exhibitions for visitors to enjoy.
photoILKLEY is a grassroots photography festival, celebrating photography’s unique power to connect, to question, and to see the world anew. Committed to making space for younger voices too, a key part of the festival is the Young Photographer Competition, inviting children and young people to share their own visions of Ilkley and the world, offering a vital platform for emerging talents and fresh perspectives. The winning images from the competition form the basis of this exhibition.
Continue upstairs to the Great Flood of July 1900 exhibition. Suddenly, in the middle of a hot summer’s day, there was a violent thunderstorm over Ilkley Moor. It lasted several hours, turning the streets of the town into tributaries of the River Wharfe. The exhibition describes the resulting devastation.
The Wharfedale Airedale Observer from 20 July 1900 carried an extensive report, much of which is used in the exhibition, together with photographs from the time. The exhibition was curated by Ilkley Civic Society’s Local History Hub.
Both exhibitions and the House are FREE to enter.
There is off-street parking as well as parking in the main car park, which is a couple of minutes' walk from the House. There is no parking at Ilkley Manor House. The train and bus stations are a 5-minute walk from the House. There is no lift to the upstairs floor in the House, which is accessible via a staircase of 18 steps. There are no steps to get into the House or the ground floor.
Venue: Ilkley Manor House, Castle Yard, Ilkley LS29 9DT
Website: https://www.ilkleymanorhouse.org
Heritage | Art
Sat 12 July 2025 - 10am to 3pm
Bradford on the Beat: Vintage Vehicle Day at The Bradford Police Museum
Step back in time with us at The Bradford Police Museum as we bring history to life for the first-ever Bradford Heritage Festival!
Come along for a special Vintage Vehicle Day, on Saturday 12th July from 10am to 3pm, where you can see our collection of historic police vehicles up close, displayed outside the museum at City Hall. From vintage patrol cars to iconic police motorcycles, this is a unique opportunity to explore how policing on the streets has evolved through the decades.
Free Outdoor Exhibition – Museum Tours Bookable Online. The outdoor vehicle display is free to attend and open to all. While you're here, why not take a guided tour of The Bradford Police Museum, located inside City Hall? Step inside the original Victorian courtroom, visit the old police cells, and explore exhibits showcasing Bradford's rich policing heritage. Museum tours are ticketed and can be booked online in advance here. Join us as The Bradford Police Museum proudly celebrates the first-ever Bradford Heritage Festival by bringing history to life in the heart of the city! Bring the family, meet museum volunteers, and enjoy a fascinating journey through Bradford’s policing past.
A perfect day out for history enthusiasts, vehicle lovers, and curious minds of all ages!
Venue: Police Museum, City Hall, Centenary Square, Bradford, BD1 1HY"
Phone: 07597604215
Website: www.bradfordpolicemuseum.com
Exhibition | Outdoor
Sat 12 July 2025 - 10am to 11am
Emily Parkin - Free local author event with craft
Emily Parkin, writer and illustrator of the book 'Titus Salt' will be joining us on 12th July to read her book, give an insight into how the book was produced, and answer any questions the children may have. She will have some of the original illustrations for the children to look at and talk about how she thought up all the rhymes and rhythms. Afterwards, children can enjoy a llama themed craft activity. Booking essential. Suitable for children aged 7 -11 years.
Venue: Shipley Library, 2 Well Croft, Shipley, BD18 3QH
Phone: 01274 437150
Free Event | Literature
Sat 12 July 2025 - 10am to 4pm
St George's Hall Heritage Exhibition
View display highlighting the history and heritage of the stunning, Grade II* listed St George’s Hall in its ground floor café. This includes posters, photographs and documents from its founding in 1853 and early performances, Mitchell and Kenyon films of Bradford in the Victorian and Edwardian era shown at the venue when it was a cinema and framed posters of comedy gigs. QR codes with links to the history and heritage of St George’s Hall website support the display with further images and information.
FREE entry. No booking needed.
Enjoy a drink or bite to eat in the newly opened St George’s Hall café but not required. Food served between 11am -2pm.
Venue: St George's Hall, Bradford, BD1 1JT
Phone: 01274 432375
Website: www.stgeorgeshallheritage-bradford.co.uk
Exhibition | Food & Drink
Sat 12 July 2025 - 10am to 4pm
Sound And Vision: Family Day
A family focused day of activities to celebrate the opening of the brand-new Sound and Vision galleries at the National Science and Media Museum. Visitors will have the chance to see the new galleries, meet local people and museum staff who were involved in making it, as well as get involved in exciting activities relating to Sound and Vision technologies. Come celebrate with us! Entrance to the museum is free, but t ickets need booking in advance Visit the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford.
Venue: National Science and Media Museum, Little Horton Lane, BD1 1NQ
Family | Free
Sat 12 July 2025 - 11am to 2pm
Crafting the Cathedral
FREE event- for everyone, including families
Demonstrations by The Guild of Bradford Weavers, Spinners & Dyers, the Cathedral Stitchers and the Craven Guild of Lacemakers.
West Riding Stone Carvers Association will be demonstrating their craft in the Cathedral grounds.
Experiences:
Try your hand at embroidery stitching and simple card weaving. You can also weave a line of a tapestry on our loom and be part of our artwork which is being created over the next few months.
Family Activities: Colouring and other activities for children
Natural dyeing quiz – Have a go at matching the wool to the plant
Exhibitions
Knit the Stripes, Woven Lives and Who made my Clothes? For details, see above.
EXTRA: Craft Tour £7 per person
A guided tour of the Cathedral, with extra information about some of our beautifully-crafted features, objects and textiles. The tour will take place at 12.00.
Book at: https://bradfordcathedral.org.uk/event/craft-tour/ or call the Cathedral office on 01274 777720
Venue: Bradford Cathedral, 1 Stott Hill, Bradford, BD1 4EH
Phone: 01274 777720
Website: bradfordcathedral.org.uk
Heritage | Arts & Crafts
Sat 12 July 2025 - 11am-12pm, 12.30-1.30pm and 2pm-3pm.
The Witch Trial of Mary Sykes
Meet Mary Sykes and Justice of the Peace William Tempest: The year is 1649 a time of social and religious upheaval in England. The trial takes place in the historic Bolling Hall, a stone manor house in Bradford. Listen to the witnesses and our Witch Expert and decide is Mary guilty or not guilty. You'll also get the chance to make a lucky charm using crystals and herbs.
Age 7+ recommended.
Book online at bradfordmuseums.org/event/the-witch-trial-of-mary-sykes-at-bolling-hall/
Venue: Bolling Hall Museum
Phone: Bowling Hall Road, Bradford, BD4 7LP
Website: bradfordmuseums.org
Family | Free
Sat 12 July 2025 - 10.30am to 3.00pm
Yorkshire Pudding and Pickled Cabbage
Alicja Mrozowska’s paintings navigate the layered terrain of identity, memory, and cultural hybridity through bold portraiture and playful abstraction. Rooted in personal history and shaped by the nuances of migration, her work draws from everyday imagery, reconfiguring the familiar to question how place and experience inform who we are. Yorkshire Pudding and Pickled Cabbage marks the most expansive presentation of Mrozowska’s work to date, bringing together paintings from 2017 through to 2025.
Combining large gestural brushstrokes with recurring motifs and symbolic references, her compositions balance between the recognisable and the obscure, inviting viewers into a space where identities blur, overlap, and reform. Through a practice grounded in both intuition and process, Mrozowska weaves together collected images - personal, cultural, and imagined - layering them with oil paint and paper to construct portraits that resist singular readings. Her figures emerge not as fixed subjects but as open-ended reflections of internal complexity, shaped as much by social context as by intimate experience. At once serious and light-hearted, the exhibition revels in contradiction, drawing attention to the tensions between surface and depth, play and constraint, self and other. Mrozowska’s work ultimately asks: how do we perform, obscure, or reveal who we are - especially when those performances take place within the structures of cultural expectation?
Alicja Mrozowska is a Polish visual artist and painter currently based in Leeds. Her practice explores identity, the concept of ‘home’ and social constructs through a range of mediums including oil painting, film photography, installation, and construction. Drawing from personal experience, surroundings, and relationships, she reflects on the complexities of migration and belonging. Mrozowska graduated from the University of Salford in 2018 with a BA (Hons) in Visual Art. Since then, she has exhibited widely and taken part in collaborations and group residencies, while also devising and leading creative workshops in the UK, Poland, and Germany. Her process-driven approach weaves together collected images and intuitive mark-making to create narrative-rich, multidimensional works that prompt curiosity, vulnerability and acceptance.
Venue: South Square Centre, Thornton Road, BD13 3LD
Phone: 01274 834747
Website: southsquarecentre.co.uk
Exhibition | Arts & Crafts
Sat 12 July 2025 - 12.15pm
A Bingley Byron Walk - Celebrating the life and poems of John Nicholson
Nicholson was Bradford’s first famous poet. He died 14th April 1843, aged 52, after falling in the River Aire at midnight, whilst he was drunk. His funeral a few days later at All Saint’s Churchyard Bingley had a crowd of over a thousand; and until a few decades ago school children around Eldwick used to be taken to Nicholson’s Rock, where he carved his name and wrote some of his poems. The walk is part of a campaign by Glyn Watkins to revive interest in Nicholson and his works.
The walk will be a little under 4 miles long and travels footpaths over potentially slippery rocks, down steep slopes and past nettles, so sensible clothes and footwear and reasonable fitness are a must.
Tickets via Eventbrite.
Venue: Starting at the Ling Bob pub (BD15 0JU) walking to the Malt Shovel (BD16 1BG) via Wilsden Cemetery and Goit Stock Falls.
Website: www.woollyfringe.com
Outdoor | Literature
Sun 13 July 2025 - 1pm
Historic Costume Guided Walking Tour (Saltaire/Shipley Glen)
Time Travel to Victorian Saltaire and Edwardian England with two real life Costume Guides Meet not one but two real life costume guides who will take you on a journey back through time to Victorian Saltaire, learn all about Salt and why Saltaire, meet a few real life villagers from that time, hear their stories and scandals! Then follow Pollie Toothill down to the park, across the bridge and over the river to board the Time Machine AKA the historic Shipley Glen. On board, Pollie will transform into Edwardian Suffragette Nell Kenney as we time travel.
Disembark the Time Machine at the top of Shipley Glen where you’ll meet Edwardian Nell Kenney, Bingley Suffragette, she will introduce you to her amazing family. Her younger sister in particular, Annie Kenney, was well known and worked very closely with the Pankhursts. Nell will tell you all about their stories and the other amazing suffragettes. Nell will lead you up to the site of the amazing ‘Monster’ Suffragette Rally in 1908 attended by up to 100,000.
Tickets: Adults £10.50 Child £8.50 – Includes riding up and down on the historic Shipley Glen Tramway
To book: Visit www.joanne-edutainment.co.uk.
Venue: Starts on Victoria Road, Saltaire, outside the United Reform Church, BD18 3LF
Website: https://www.joanne-edutainment.co.uk/
Heritage | Performance
Sun 13 July 2025 - 1pm to 4pm
Railway History & Heritage
Free entry, you don’t need to be travelling on the train to visit us – just find us on the platform. Step back in time to explore our 1924 passenger carriage which has been converted into a multi-use space for all sorts of events. Sit down in our third class carriage compartment or find the 1st class guard’s seat and wave a flag. Use our selection of vintage luggage to make the perfect photo for Instagram and view a range of uniforms worn by railway workers in days gone by. There will also be a variety of old toys and games for the little ones (and big kids) to play with.
Venue: Learning Coach, Ingrow West station platform, South Street, Ingrow, BD21 5AX.
Phone: 07825 632123
Website: www.railstory.co.uk
Exhibition | Free Event
Sun 13 July 2025 - 11am to 4pm
Snapshots of Ilkley: Youthful Visions & Historic Reflections
Ilkley Manor House is a medieval building built on the site of the Roman fort of Olicana. Inside, you can see artefacts from the Roman period and some even older - from 13,000 years ago! We are excited to be taking part in the Bradford Heritage Festival, with two exhibitions for visitors to enjoy.
photoILKLEY is a grassroots photography festival, celebrating photography’s unique power to connect, to question, and to see the world anew. Committed to making space for younger voices too, a key part of the festival is the Young Photographer Competition, inviting children and young people to share their own visions of Ilkley and the world, offering a vital platform for emerging talents and fresh perspectives. The winning images from the competition form the basis of this exhibition.
Continue upstairs to the Great Flood of July 1900 exhibition. Suddenly, in the middle of a hot summer’s day, there was a violent thunderstorm over Ilkley Moor. It lasted several hours, turning the streets of the town into tributaries of the River Wharfe. The exhibition describes the resulting devastation.
The Wharfedale Airedale Observer from 20 July 1900 carried an extensive report, much of which is used in the exhibition, together with photographs from the time. The exhibition was curated by Ilkley Civic Society’s Local History Hub.
Both exhibitions and the House are FREE to enter.
There is off-street parking as well as parking in the main car park, which is a couple of minutes' walk from the House. There is no parking at Ilkley Manor House. The train and bus stations are a 5-minute walk from the House. There is no lift to the upstairs floor in the House, which is accessible via a staircase of 18 steps. There are no steps to get into the House or the ground floor.
Venue: Ilkley Manor House, Castle Yard, Ilkley LS29 9DT
Website: https://www.ilkleymanorhouse.org
Heritage | Art
Sun 13 July 2025 - 2pm to 3.30pm
Willie Riley – his life and archive
Join us to hear Willie Riley expert, David Copeland, discuss how he discovered this wonderful archive collection. Learn about Willie Riley, who started out working in the family’s local stuff business, eventually becoming Managing Director of the Riley Brothers Optical Lantern Company, and then became an author of over 30 novels including ‘Windyridge’. Then delve into his amazing archive of manuscripts, lecture notes, correspondence, notebooks, photographs and much more.
Spaces are limited, so please book your ticket - www.eventbrite.com
Venue: J.B. Priestley Library, University of Bradford, Richmond Road, BD7 1DP
Phone: 01274 235256
Website: www.bradford.ac.uk/library/special-collections/
Heritage | Talk
Sun 13 July 2025 - 10.30am to 3.00pm
Yorkshire Pudding and Pickled Cabbage'
Alicja Mrozowska’s paintings navigate the layered terrain of identity, memory, and cultural hybridity through bold portraiture and playful abstraction. Rooted in personal history and shaped by the nuances of migration, her work draws from everyday imagery, reconfiguring the familiar to question how place and experience inform who we are. Yorkshire Pudding and Pickled Cabbage marks the most expansive presentation of Mrozowska’s work to date, bringing together paintings from 2017 through to 2025.
Combining large gestural brushstrokes with recurring motifs and symbolic references, her compositions balance between the recognisable and the obscure, inviting viewers into a space where identities blur, overlap, and reform. Through a practice grounded in both intuition and process, Mrozowska weaves together collected images - personal, cultural, and imagined - layering them with oil paint and paper to construct portraits that resist singular readings. Her figures emerge not as fixed subjects but as open-ended reflections of internal complexity, shaped as much by social context as by intimate experience. At once serious and light-hearted, the exhibition revels in contradiction, drawing attention to the tensions between surface and depth, play and constraint, self and other. Mrozowska’s work ultimately asks: how do we perform, obscure, or reveal who we are - especially when those performances take place within the structures of cultural expectation?
Alicja Mrozowska is a Polish visual artist and painter currently based in Leeds. Her practice explores identity, the concept of ‘home’ and social constructs through a range of mediums including oil painting, film photography, installation, and construction. Drawing from personal experience, surroundings, and relationships, she reflects on the complexities of migration and belonging. Mrozowska graduated from the University of Salford in 2018 with a BA (Hons) in Visual Art. Since then, she has exhibited widely and taken part in collaborations and group residencies, while also devising and leading creative workshops in the UK, Poland, and Germany. Her process-driven approach weaves together collected images and intuitive mark-making to create narrative-rich, multidimensional works that prompt curiosity, vulnerability and acceptance.
Venue: South Square Centre, Thornton Road, BD13 3LD
Phone: 01274 834747
Website: southsquarecentre.co.uk
Exhibition | Arts & Crafts
Sun 13 July 2025 - 11am to 12.30pm
Heritage Craft Workshop - Traditional Arabic Calligraphy
Join Razwan for a fascinating talk into the project and a hands on Nastaliq Arabic Calligraphy workshop, using bamboo pens and one of the hand ground inks sourced from Bradford. The workshop is suitable for absolute beginners as well as those who know Arabic. (Help will be available!)
Razwan will also hold a talk on the diverse ways inks were made for traditional Arabic Calligraphy and how this has fed into his project.
For adults and children over 11 (who will need to be accompanied by an adult). All materials provided and you are welcome to bring along a sketch book! Must be pre booked via Eventbrite. Minimum donation £1 PAYF.
Venue: Heritage Craft Room, Bradford Industrial Museum, Moorside Road, BD2 3HP
Phone: 01274-435900
Website: bradfordmuseums.org
Heritage | Arts & Crafts