This is one of a large collection of films made by local Bingley filmmaker Eric Hall. Eric made his first film six years earlier in 1929, which is also held at the YFA with the title Random Recordings, along with many others. For more information on Eric Hall see the Background Information for Ower Bit bog Oil (1963), also on YFA Online. The YFA has several films showing silver Jubilee celebrations: at Long Preston and Wigglesworth, at the village of Kirkby Malzeard and at Pool in Wharfedale.

 

The Silver Jubilee celebrations can be seen to be at least, if not more, spectacular than those accompanying those of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.  Both in the run up to the First World War and after it, events associated with the Royal Family were given much public prominence.  The Royal Family were the symbolic heart of the propaganda of nationalism, and already in 1935 the threat of another war was in the air. It is interesting to view the historical reenactments at the beginning of the film in this light: from the knights, presumably off to fight in the crusades, to the civil war and other civil conflicts.  

 

Bradford Jubilee is a great example of a film that shows events ands places that have almost passed out of history: even Bradford Local Studies has relatively little material relating to what is seen in the film. We must be thankful therefore that someone like Eric Hall was around to capture such a remarkable amount of the events brought together for this occasion. In particular, in this film Hall has some excellent footage of Peel Park and of Bradford trams. 

 

The idea for Peel Park got off the ground at a public meeting in 1850, three years after Bradford became a Municipal Borough. Right from the beginning, the first in 1853, the Park has been a place for galas and other events. This was a boom period for urban parks, with the recognition that there was a need for space within the rapidly growing, and densely packed, cities. It became the first publicly owned park in Bradford when it was transferred to Bradford Corporation in 1863. Salford had opened a park also named after the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, in 1846. Peel died in 1950 after a riding accident and this may account for the Park being named after him (his family was originally from Yorkshire before moving to Lancashire).

 

The film shows the trolleybus turning circle at Tyrrel Street and Sunbridge Road. Film of earlier trams in Bradford can be seen in Bradford Town Hall Square (1896), also on YFA Online (with more in the Context on this film). Bradford  was the first city to introduce trackless trolleybuses, seen in the film, in June 1911 – manufacturing their own vehicles. Later on the motorbus was introduced in 1930, and trams, on rails, ran until World War Two. The cables connecting to the overhead electric lines on the trolleybuses often came adrift requiring a special implement to re-connect them, and also often sent electric shocks to the passengers.  Nevertheless, they remained until 1972. The YFA has a film of the last tram to run in Bradford, made by Cawood Filmmakers.

 

One other notable fetaure in the film is the brass band that plays at various locations. This might well be the Bradford Victoria Brass Band: a self-supporting band that was Bradford’s only brass band, and the winners of the Belle Vue Golden Jubilee Cup for Marching and Deportment in 1935.

 

Stanley King, Bradford Corporation Tramways,  Venture Publications Ltd, 1999.

D.M. Coates, BradfordLocomotives International, 1984. City Tramways 1882-1950,

This provides a history of Peel Park and a virtual tour of what it looks like today.

 

 

J Bentley, Illustrated Handbook of the Bradford City Parks, Recreation Grounds, and Open Spaces, 1926

Hazel Conway, People's Parks: The Design and Development of Victorian Parks, Cambridge University Press 1991.

Undercliffe Remembered, Eccleshill Local History Group, 2000.