X25    BRA c.1870 DIX

Size: 16” * 21”

Material: paper

Scale: 20’ to 1”

Condition: Good

In my survey of the Local Studies Library reserve map collection I have found a large number of plans showing Goitside and the surrounding areas. Presumably this is indicative of the many changes that occurred in this location during the mid to late nineteenth century. This example does not have a year attached but evidently post-dates the development of Godwin Street in the early 1870s. The surveyors were the well-known partnership of Dixon & Hindle.

The Lord of the Manor of Bradford once had the medieval right to a corn-milling monopoly at the Soke Mill, which had stood above Aldermanbury for centuries. I believe that the district was once called St Helena, and the Soke Mill evolved into the Queens Mill. I have read that at one time the mill was divided between flour and worsted production, but I am sure that by the time of this plan it was purely a textile mill. The old goit which drew water from the Bradford Beck, and supplied it to the mill, is today culverted. Goitside, which runs parallel to Thornton Road, is one of the city’s most neglected areas.

It is clear that this area was undergoing complex and radical remodelling in the late nineteenth century. Bradford Corporation had bought out the Lord of the Manor’s right in 1870. Almost immediately clearance of much property in this area began, and modern Godwin Street was created. The street arrangement of this plan is very different from the 1854 Bradford map. By 1861, Aldermanbury and Wade Street are present but of course there is no Godwin Street. Presumably Bradford Borough is buying up property prior to redevelopment. The Dixon & Hindle town plan of a decade later shows Godwin Street completed: Wade Street clearly approaches Godwin Street at a shallow angle, and the two appear to be linked by flights of steps.