Social Improvement: Civic Pride

Bradford’s Industrial Revolution – Information Sheet

Social Improvement: Civic Pride

We think of Victorian cities as filthy places, riddled with poverty and disease. Indeed,the human cost of Bradford's rapid growth from a country town to industrial giant was enormous. Most ordinary people suffereddire living and working conditions. It was clear that the physical, social and moral environment had tobe improved.

As the 19th century progressed, many great developments improved the health and well-being ofcity dwellers. By the mid-centurytown councils were established innewly developing industrial cities, with the power to bring aboutthese much-needed changes. Bradford became a Municipal Borough in 1847.

Bradford Corporation earned a reputation for municipal improvement, and in 1873 City Hall was built to house the council and reflect theborough's pride in its achievements.Improvements includedthe supply of clean water and gas, building sewage systems,providing schools, public parks and wash houses, and a police force to tackle crime.The filthy canal, called 'River Stink' was drained and a tramway system developed which enabled people to live outside the town centre. In 1899 the borough became the first in the country to supply electricity. In 1897 the borough was granted city status.

A real sense of civic pride emerged - people saw their city as a symbol of a confident and prosperous society. This pridecan be still be detectedin the grand architecture, statues, theatres, art galleryand public squares of Bradford city centre.

One Bradford landmark which combines civic pride with improvements to public health is Undercliffe Cemetery. In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, the only place to bury the dead was in the churchyards of parish churches. As industrial towns grew larger, death rates shot up due to poor living conditions and epidemics of disease. Parish churchyards became severely overcrowded, and were feared as health hazards.

In 1851, theBradford Cemetery Company bought a large piece of land at Undercliffeand laid out one of the most magnificent burial grounds in Britain. Unlike churchyards, where rich and poor could be buried side by side, Undercliffe Cemetery was divided into areas, where the best plots cost more money and were open only to wealthy families. Here they built grand memorials and monuments. Remoter areas of the cemetery were allocated to people who could not afford their own grave and coffins were buried several deep.

The Brogden family, from Moorside House at Bradford Industrial Museum,are buried at Undercliffe cemetery. The inscriptions on their memorial stonereflect thehigh rate of infant ortality(deaths) in the 19th Century.William and Sarah Brogden had ten children, six of whom died before they were three years old. This sad death tollin an averagemiddle-class familyis a testament tothe seriousthreats to human life from disease, pollution and poor sanitation.