As a commercial centre Bradford is advantageously placed with regard to both railway communication and connexion with the Humber and with Liverpool by canal, and through the presence in its immediate vicinity of valuable deposits of coal and iron. The principal textile manufactures in order of importance are worsted, employing some 36,000 hands, females considerably outnumbering males; woollens, employing some 8000, silk and cotton. The corporation maintains a conditioning-hall for testing textile materials. A new hall was opened in 1902. Engineering and iron works (as at Bowling and Low Moor) are extensive; and the freestone of the neighbourhood is largely quarried, and in Bradford itself its use is general for building. It blackens easily under the influence of smoke, and the town has consequently a somewhat gloomy appearance. The trade of Bradford, according to an official estimate, advanced between 1836 and 1884 from a total of five to at least thirty-five millions sterling, and from not more than six to at least fifty staple articles. The annual turn-over in the staple trade is estimated at about one hundred millions sterling.
Bradford was created a city in 1897. The parliamentary borough returned two members from 1832 until 1885, when it was divided into three divisions, each returning one member. The county borough was created in 1888. Its boundaries include the suburbs, formerly separate urban districts, of Eccleshill, Idle and others. The corporation consists of a lord mayor (this dignity was conferred in 1907), 21 aldermen, and 63 councillors. One feature of municipal activity in Bradford deserves special notice--there is a municipal railway, opened in 1907, extending from Pateley Bridge to Lofthouse (6 m.) and serving the Nidd valley, the district from which the main water-supply of the city is obtained. Area of the city, 22,879 acres.
Bradford, which is mentioned as having belonged before 1066, with several other manors in Yorkshire, to one Gamel, appears to have been almost destroyed during the conquest of the north of England and was still waste in 1086. By that time it had been granted to Ilbert de Lacy, in whose family it continued until 1311. The inquisition taken after the death of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, in that year gives several interesting facts about the manor; the earl had there a hall or manor-house, a fulling mill, a market every Sunday, and a fair on the feast of St Andrew. There were also certain burgesses holding twenty-eight burgages. Alice, only daughter and heiress of Henry de Lacy, married Thomas Plantagenet, earl of Lancaster, and on the attainder of her husband she and Joan, widow of Henry, were obliged to release their rights in the manor to the king. The earl of Lancaster's attainder being reversed in 1327, Bradford, with his other property, was restored to his brother and heir, Henry Plantagenet, but again passed to the crown on the accession of Henry IV., through the marriage of John of Gaunt with Blanche, one of the daughters and heirs of Henry Plantagenet. Bradford was evidently a borough by prescription and was not incorporated until 1847. Previous to that date the chief officer in the town had been the chief constable, who was appointed annually at the court leet of the manor. Before the 19th century Bradford was never represented in parliament, but in 1832 it was created a parliamentary borough returning two members. A weekly market on Thursdays was granted to Edward de Lacy in 1251 and confirmed in 1294 to Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, with the additional grant of a fair on the eve and day of St Peter ad Vincula and three days following. In 1481 Edward IV. granted to certain feoffees in whom he had vested his manor of Bradford a market on Thursday every week and two yearly fairs, one on the feast of the Deposition of St William of York and two days preceding, the other on the feast of St Peter in Cathedra and two days preceding.