Historically Bradford was a a large textile city with many mills and at one time was considered the wool capital of the world.
Trading in wool was carried out in the wool exchange that was built in 1867 by architects Lockwood and Mawson. The design is similar to the great Flemish Cloth Halls on mainland Europe but the style is Venetian Gothic, particularly in the polychromy and the serrated openwork of the parapet cresting.
The building was intended to reflect the importance of Bradford as an important textile city.
On the façades facing Market Street and Bank Street are thirteen roundels with larger than life size carved busts of notable people: Facing Market Street Bradford industralists (Cobden, Salt and Lister), inventors of important machines for the Industrial Revolution (Stephenson, Watt, and Arkwright), and politicians (Gladstone and Palmerston); and facing Bank Street five explorers: Raleigh, Drake, Columbus, Cook and Anson.
This bust is in the middle of the facade on Market Street and represents Samuel Cunliffe Lister whose Bradford textile mill was the largest textile mill in the North of England.
Samuel Cunliffe Lister
Samuel Cunliffe Lister’s grandfather was a successful mill owner in the nearby town of Addingham and so he came from the right background for himself to also become involved.
His career started when his father built him and his brother a mill in Manningham, the suburb of Bradford where this park is located, in 1838.
As well as running the mill he invented the Lister nip comb, which straightened and separated raw wool at the start of the creation of worsted yarn. This revolutionised the industry and significantly reduced production costs.
He also developed a silk-combing machine that could make good quality yarn from silk waste at a fantastically reduced price. He also developed machinery for the manufacture of piled fabrics.
In the meantime his factory expanded and became the biggest mill in the north of England employing 11,000 people. This was one of the mills that turned Bradford from a small rural town into one of the biggest woollen towns in the world.
Indirectly he was responsible for the growth of sheep farming in Australia, because the increased demand for wool could not be met from English farms.
One of the darker aspects of his life was his treatment of his workforce. Trade had been badly affected by import duties imposed by the USA, and he was keen to protect his profits.
In late 1900 he summarily reduced his worker’s wages by 25%. This led to a bitter industrial dispute and strike, but he effectively starved them back to work.
This and other disputes in nearby factories led to the formation of the Independent Labour Party in Bradford. This organisation was the early beginnings of the modern Labour Party, the current opposition party in the U.K.
He was also successful in his life outside of business and In 1887 he was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire. In 1891 he became a peer and took the title the First Baron of Masham, a small Yorkshire town near to a house he owned.
In 1870 he sold the the grounds of Lister’s family home, Manningham Hall and the surrounding area to Bradford City Council at a cheap price on the condition that they used the land to form a public park maintain it for the benefit of the people of Bradford. He later paid for the demolition of his house, and the erection of a new art gallery. The gallery, known as Arkwright Hall, was completed in 1903 and was the centre piece of the Bradford Industrial Exhibition of 1904, which was visited by the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The park and art gallery are still popular visitor attractions.
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