The name Bradford is derived from the "broad ford" at Church Bank (below the site of Bradford Cathedral) around which a settlement had begun to appear before the time of the Norman Conquest ("Bradeford" in the Domesday book of 1086). The ford crossed the stream called Bradford Beck.

1283 – The Parish of Bradford was in existence

1461 – Bradford was granted the right to hold 2 fairs

1500 – A grammar school existed in Bradford

 -  The wooden houses in the town were rebuilt in stone

1557 – 1558 – The plague broke out in Bradford

1771 – The first bank opened in Bradford

1774 – Bradford canal was built and in 1777 it was connected to the Leeds-    Liverpool canal

1793 - Piece Hall was built were cloth could be bought and sold

1823 - The streets of Bradford were lit by gas

1841 - There were 38 worsted mills in Bradford town and 70 in the borough and it   was estimated that two-thirds of the country's wool production was       processed in Bradford.

1843 – An infirmary was built

1846 - The Leeds and Bradford Railway opened Bradford's first railway station at     the bottom of Kirkgate

1847  - A corporation was formed to run Bradford
  - Bradford was incorporated as a municipal borough and later became a      county borough

1848 - The first modern police force in Bradford was formed

1848-49 - 420 people died during a cholera epidemic

1853 – 1871 - Titus Salt built a model village at Saltaire

1863 – Peal Park opened

1864 - A Wool Exchange was built

1867 – The Bradford Exchange railway station opened

1872 - The first public library opened

1873 – City Hall was built

1882 – Horse drawn trams ran in the streets and replaced by steam driven trams
  in 1883 and electric ones in 1898
 - The boundary of Bradford was extended to Allerton

1889 – Electricity was first generated in Bradford

1897 – Bradford was made a city

1898 - The first electric trams ran

1903 -  Bradford City Football Club was established

1904 – An industrial exhibition was held in Bradford
 - Cartwright Memorial Hall was built

1910 - Benjamin and William Jowett started making cars in Bradford. The Jowett  Company made cars until 1954

1911 - Britain's first trolleybus service opened in Bradford

1914 – The Alhambra Theatre opened

1916 – A fire broke out in a munitions factory. Over 2 days several explosions     occurred and 39 people were killed  and 2,000 houses damaged

1919 – Bradford Parish Church become a cathedral

1931 – Leeds Bradford Airport opened

1956 – The Topic Folk Club was established

1959 - Cliffe Castle Museum opened

1966 – The University of Bradford received its Royal Charter

1971 -  The Kirkgate Centre opened
  - The Arndale Centre opened

1974 - Bradford Industrial Museum opened
 - Bradford was made a Metropolitan District Council

1975 - Bradford was one of the first areas of the UK to get a local commercial     radio station Pennine Radio
1977 - A transport interchange was built

1978 - The Colour Museum opened

1983 - The Museum of Photography, Film and Television opened

1985 – A fire struck at the football ground and killed 56 people

1990 – Bradford Law Courts were built

1996 – The Wool Exchange was refurbished and opened as a shopping centre

1997 - The Peace Museum opened

With the best of intention all of the above information is true, correct and given in good faith, however, we cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions contained within the above.

Equally we recommend that should you need or want to find out more you should conduct more detailed independant research.