3.012 BRA c1849 LIS BHM 818 B11

G.T. Lister, surveyor, Bradford

Tracing paper Scale: 1 chain per inch 50*42 cm Condition: fair

This plan exemplifies the rapid expansion of Bradford during the nineteenth century. It contains a set of field boundaries and ancient thoroughfares, like Westgate and Brick Lane, but also a long terrace of new houses. The surveyor who produced the plan, and evidently liked Gothic lettering, was George Thompson Lister (1793-1851). He was active as a land agent and auctioneer in Bradford during the mid-nineteenth century. William Cudworth mentions him at some length. He inherited the Bolton House estate but lost it to Samuel Hailstone when his Red Beck mill failed. Successful in his second career he was land agent to Miss Jowett at the Clockhouse Estate, Manningham in 1840. At one time he was in partnership with John Ingle. He was a classical scholar and great wit but as his weight approached 30 stones he became ‘a conspicuous object in the streets’. He built Hollin Close, Bolton for himself, where he died in 1851.

The direction indicator confirms that the top of the plan points to the south-west. No purpose for the plan is directly stated but land sales and new road development are likely possibilities. No date is provided but internal evidence suggests a date which must be after 1845 and before Lister’s death in 1851. The street arrangement is similar to the 1849 borough map and the first OS map of the area (survey completed 1850). These have provided the provisional date that I have used.

If we start at the bottom of the map we have the ground surrounding the old Bradford Infirmary. The name ‘Westgate’ is pencilled in. There was already terraced housing in Queen Street and King Street which now no longer exists. Brick Lane has been renamed City Road but is still in essentially the same position. Cropper Lane is now called Rebecca Street. West Grove Street and its terraces, clearly visible here, are also present on the first OS map but now only a stump remains leading off Westgate and called Sedgefield Terrace. The rest has been swept away by subsequent redevelopment.

Thornton Road remains and the road shown here leading from it and joining West Grove Street must be Water Lane. The inverted V leading off Brick Lane are Gaynor Street and Raven Street. The space between these and West Grove Street (now containing Akram Street and Vaughan Street) was not developed as the plan suggests and most significantly Sunbridge Road was created horizontally across the centre of the plan in 1873.

The printed names of several of the land-owners are easily read. We have an old friend, Rev Godfrey Wright, and also the Black Abbey Dole. According to Cudworth the Dole was a land-owning charity set up in the seventeenth century (1686) by William Field and others. The profits from property near Brick (Breck) Lane were to be used to benefit the poor of Bradford. A portion of land is marked ‘sold by Mr Lister in 1845’ but I’m not sure if this Mr Lister is our surveyor since the surname is such a common one locally. The hand-written names are not so easy to read and the only land-owner I’m certain of is Joshua Lupton who in the mid-nineteenth century was a woolstapler, and borough alderman. He was involved in public works such as the Infirmary, the improvement of the borough’s water supply and rail service, and the operation of the Mechanic’s Institute: he died in 1852.