Bradford 2025 – from the Broad Ford to Bradford – a Living Timeline
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A Cathedral Living Timeline experience, which brings Bradford’s story to life.
At the heart of this educational experience for schools is an interactive guided tour of the Cathedral, making use of authentic period costumes, the building and artefacts, to tell the story of the Cathedral and Bradford itself. The Cathedral Living Timeline helps children to make sense of the past, exploring periods that range from Saxon times, to Victorian Bradford, through to the twenty first century.
Content
Participants will encounter different historical periods in various locations around the Cathedral, learning about the people and events that have shaped Bradford. Although aimed at Key Stage Two, the Time Line experience may be adapted to suit Key Stage Three. Everyone who now lives in Bradford has their roots somewhere else! The Living Timeline explores this across the centuries.
It covers:
• The importance of the place by ‘Broad Ford’ in Saxon times – the kirk (church) in the wood
• The Norman period and the influence of the de Lacy family
• The legacy of the Bradford stonemasons and the building of the present church
• Tudor times in Bradford
• Bradford and the English Civil War – ‘The Battle for the Steeple’
• The life and work of the famous 17th century Bradford born astronomer and mathematician, Abraham Sharp
• Victorian Bradford, including the impact of industrialisation
• The life and times of William Scoresby
• The William Morris windows
• WW1 in Bradford; the Bradford Pals and Louisa Pesel
• 1919 Bradford – a cathedral for a new city
• Twentieth century immigration, sojourners and settlers
• Bradford today- diversity in Bradford and learning to live together.
Through exploring this heritage, the Living Timeline has the power and potential to influence the present, encouraging participants not just to think about what has been, but about what could be. Helping them not only to understand the world in which they live, but how they may shape the one in which they wish to live.
Bradford 2025, is the perfect time to do this and to discover the Cathedral’s significant role in the City’s history, stretching back almost 1,400 years and to learn more about the key events, and the diverse people, that have made Bradford the distinctive religiously and culturally diverse place it is today.
Schools may book the Living Timeline experience on Mondays and Tuesdays. A session lasts two hours. Please contact education@bradfordcathedral.org to book. There is a charge of £3.50 per child. Early booking is advisable.
