In April I returned to live in Bradford after living in various places over the past fifty years. Since the move I’ve had a chance to reflect on how it feels to be back ‘up North’. It may be fanciful but I really feel that Bradford is happy to have me back. For my part I am discovering that this much maligned, but to me beloved, city has a lot more going for it than many people think.
First, I’m really happy to be living near my family again and getting to know them better. My sister, brother in law and myself have flats in the same sheltered housing scheme and one of my nephews and his family live nearby. My niece and her family live quite near also. The family helped prepare my flat before I arrived.
We live in an area on the western fringes of Bradford called Thornton. Probably its major claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of the Brontes. Their house is now a cafe called Emily’s! Thornton used to be a village outside Bradford and still feels like a village with old houses and steep, uneven streets. A bright sunny day shows off Thornton in all its old fashioned charm but we did have snow one morning in May! We are about six miles from the city centre and, apparently, if you travel out from the city centre in most directions fields and small villages and hamlets appear. On the eastern side this is not the case as it is there where Bradford merges into Leeds.
The bus service during the day and during the week is great but buses are less frequent in the evenings and on Sunday. I love the bus ride into Bradford and I’ve also travelled further afield, Keighley, Shipley, Halifax and even taken the train to York and Leeds. It takes about twenty minutes to get into town and I am still struck by how much the city centre has changed and how much of it is still the same.
Sometimes in the city centre I come across a building or a street which hasn’t changed at all. When this happens memories come flooding back. Not dramatic memories but many small, sometimes poignant, ones. Actually, there is one dramatic memory. Several times a week I pass a run down former cinema and concert venue where I saw the Beatles in the early sixties.
Live Adventurously 