Bradford Under Snow

The end of Edwardian Britain, a horse drawn snow plough trundles along, while Bradfordians enjoy the stillness of the deep snow.

A set of weary looking horses pull a snow plough through the street of the then recently built Forster Square, in front of the now demolished Midland Railway Station, just before the outbreak of World War One. Heavy snow is seen in Victoria Square and in Lister Park, where three girls walk arm-in-arm, and a woman walks pushing a pram around the lake, past the bandstand and boat house. Elsewhere, on the river at Saltaire, a couple go out in a rowing boat.

This film is part of the Fisher Collection of films, which was sold to the Bundesfilmarchiv sometime around 1975, and later acquired by the Imperial War Museum. The only clue to the maker of the film are the initials “HPL”. Nor is it known with certainty what the year is, but there is evidence from the Bradford Daily Telegraph which reports a snow storm in Yorkshire over the weekend of January 11/12th 1913: “From an early hour this morning the Corporation had the work of clearance in hand, some 800 of the regular staff being assisted by 350 casual labourers . . . under the superintendence of Mr Inger, thousands of tons of snow being tipped into the beck. […] Today there were 175 horses and carts engaged in the work.”