Comedian Adrian Edmondson goes back to school at Thackley Primary

Young bookworms at Thackley Primary School will now be able to curl up with a book in their new state-of-the-art library.

Bradford-born comedian Adrian Edmondson went back to school last week to officially open their new state-of-the-art library which is set of encourage a love of reading. 

Adrian lived on Highfield Road as a child before achieving fame as a comedy actor, winner of BBC’s MasterChef and is currently playing the role of Malvolio in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Twelfth Night.  He has recently written a very well received children’s book called ‘Tilly and the Time Machine’ which children in KS2 have been reading.

The library, which has the capacity for 3000 books, is three times bigger than the previous library and is now fully accessible to all as it is situated on the ground floor.

Head of School, Annette Patterson said:  “We hope our new school library will become the heart of Thackley Primary School.  It will absolutely improve the children’s learning experiences and we really can’t wait for it to be finally open!

“A well-stocked, well-designed and well-used library will have a lasting affect on generations of children at the school. It will help us to foster a love of reading in all of our children which we know is so vital.”

The new school library will be open during and after school and will be appointing new junior librarians to look after the library and their all-new, broad selection of books.

During his visit to Thackley Primary School he read the children excerpts from his book, Tilly and the Time Machine – released earlier this year, posed for photos, answered questions from pupils and signed books for children, staff and parents.  

He had also brought a number of his favourite children’s books to present to the library.  

Thanks to questions from the school’s inquisitive reading club, the group found out that Mr Edmondson would travel back to the days of Lord Nelson if had a time machine, that he is a fan of TV comedy The Windsors and that he has a pet Whippet.  

His next book will be released in January and it is about a boy who becomes friends with a talking Shetland Pony.

Bradford Council’s Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Education, Employment and Skills, Coun Imran Khan said:

“Congratulations to the staff, pupils, parents and carers at Thackley Primary School who have worked together to make the new library possible and encourage a love for reading.  I am sure all the children will embrace the new area and it will become the heart of the school and full of bookworms.”

Follow Thackley Primary School: @ThackleyPrimary and Ade Edmondson: @AdrianEdmondson

Bingley Music Live – what else is happening?

Bingley Music Live boasts more than just this year’s top name line-up – there is also a host of food stalls, bars, market stalls and a children’s area to explore.

People at the Bradford Council-run event at Bingley’s Myrtle Park on 1-3 September will be spending several hours on site, so the wide range of food and drink stalls is a good chance to refuel.

Restaurant and catering firm Zouk have won the catering contract for this year’s festival. They are offering 17 food stalls featuring Indian and Caribbean street food, Turkish, Chinese, wood-fired pizza, Mexican, fish and chips, Moroccan and burgers.

A wide range of alcohol and soft drinks will be served at the festival bar, including lager, cider, wine, spirits and sodas and cask ale is available at the Discovery Stage bar. For something a little different, there is a cocktail bar and a gin bar.

The Kids Zone area gives younger visitors the chance to let off some steam with activities including a Spider Mountain (climb and slide), party bouncer with slide, rodeo bull, den-building, play tent and sand.

For those who fancy a bit of shopping, there will be a ‘mini village’ among the trees of over 20 stalls. Their wares will include glitter face and body painting, ethically-sourced clothing and wearable art and jewellery. Official Bingley Music Live and band merchandise is also available to purchase from a stand in the middle of the site.

Special support can be found at the site’s Welfare Tent which will provide: a nappy change area, dedicated children’s toilet and Changing Places toilet (for people who cannot use standard accessible toilets), sun lotion and a lost children service.

The popular fancy dress feature returns this year, with blue theme which means people are invited to dress from top to bottom in blue.

Acts at this year’s festival include Manic Street Preachers, Kaiser Chiefs, The Wombats, Maximo Park, Badly Drawn Boy, Soul II Soul, Pete Doherty, Milburn, Feeder and many more. There is also a chance to see the big names of the future on the Discovery Stage.

Coun Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Environment Sport & Culture, said: “With so much going on at Bingley Music Live, there is something to occupy everyone, to keep the children entertained and to keep everyone fed and watered. The fancy dress theme will also make for some fantastic photos.”

Tickets are now selling fast – please note that child weekend tickets and child Saturday tickets have all sold out. Tickets can be purchased via www.bingleymusiclive.com or Ticketline on 0844 8889991. Adult weekend tickets are £70 plus booking fee and child weekend tickets are £35 plus booking fee. Single day tickets are priced at £35 each for adults (plus booking fee) and £30 for children (plus booking fee). Adult day tickets are also available at Bingley Pool and Bradford and Saltaire Visitor Information Centres.

People can keep up to date on the event by following Bingley Music Live on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. #BMLive17

Bingley Music Live Day Tickets Now On Sale

Single day tickets for Bingley Music Live are now on sale!

With just eight weeks to go until the late summer Bradford Council-run festival, it is time for people to start planning their weekend, as who plays what day is revealed.

Day tickets are priced at £35 for adults and £30 for children plus booking fee and available via: www.bingleymusiclive.com

The stellar three day line-up at Bingley’s Myrtle Park on 1-3 September, includes:

• Friday – Manic Street Preachers; Maximo Park; Cabbage and Twin Atlantic.

• Saturday – Kaiser Chiefs; Pete Doherty; Milburn; Sundara Karma and British Sea Power

• Sunday – The Wombats; Feeder; Soul II Soul; Badly Drawn Boy and Little Comets

The entire line up, day by day and stage by stage can be found on the BML website – www.bingleymusiclive.com

Coun Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Culture, said:  “With such a packed line up of big names it is a difficult choice for anyone who would prefer to just come for one day. But now they know when each act will play, they can make an informed decision.”

Full weekend tickets are still available, priced at £70 plus booking fee for adults and £35 plus booking fee for children (aged 3-15).

Further details of how to purchase these tickets and information on camping and accommodation are available on the festival website.

Follow BML2017 on Twitter: @BingleyFestival

Facebook: @bingleymusiclive

 

 

Just two weeks left to see Splendours of the Subcontinent

There are just two weeks left to see Splendours of the Subcontinent: A Prince’s Tour of India 1875-6 exhibition in the north of England before it moves on to Leicester.

The free exhibition, which contains Indian works of art from the Royal Collection, tells the story of the grand tour of the Indian Subcontinent made by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in 1875-6.

The exhibition has been developed in collaboration with Bradford Council’s Museums and Galleries Service and Royal Collection Trust, and runs at Cartwright Hall in Bradford until 18 June.

Since opening in March Splendours of the Subcontinent: A Prince’s Tour of India 1875-6 has proved extremely popular, with a well over 18,000 visitors enjoying the special exhibition to date.

Maggie Pedley, Bradford Council’s Libraries, Museums and Galleries Manager, said: “This exhibition has been so successful. We have had over 18,000 people from all over the country coming to see the amazing objects so far.

“As there are only two weeks left for people to see Splendours of the Subcontinent: A Prince’s Tour of India 1875–6 in Bradford, I would encourage people to hurry up and not miss out.”

In October 1875, the Prince of Wales set off on a four-month tour, visiting over 21 localities which today encompass India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal.

He travelled nearly 7,600 miles by land and 2,300 miles by sea and met over 90 rulers of the different regions he visited. His visit sought to establish personal links with the local rulers and strengthen ties between the subcontinent and the British Crown prior to the declaration of his mother, Queen Victoria, as the Empress of India.

Over 70 exquisite works of art that were presented to the Prince as part of the traditional exchange of gifts will be on display at the exhibition alongside watercolours, photographs and items from the Council’s own collection of South Asian metalwork.

A beautifully illustrated full colour catalogue accompanies the exhibition for £15.95 whilst stocks last.

Cartwright Hall is open 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Friday and 11am to 4pm on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. For further information and bookings contact Cartwright Hall Art Gallery 01274 431212 email cartwright.hall@bradford.gov.uk or visit www.bradfordmuseums.org.

Final line-up for Bingley Music Live

The stellar line-up for Bingley Music Live 2017 has now been completed and is looking like the strongest in the festival’s history.

New additions to the line-up come in the form of heavy hitting artists such as Sundara Karma, Badly Drawn Boy and Twin Atlantic who will be taking to the main stage across the weekend.

Music fans will also have the chance to catch some of the UK’s hottest new acts on this year’s Discovery stage, headlined by over-night sensation Tom Grennan, London gals The Big Moon and hotly tipped locals The Orielles.

They are joining an already full-to-bursting weekend programme for the Bradford Council-run event on 1-3 September at Myrtle Park which so far boasts Manic Street Preachers, The Kaiser Chiefs, The Wombats, Maximo Park, Pete Doherty, Soul II Soul, Feeder, Milburn and Cabbage.

Up and coming indie rockers Sundara Karma hail from Reading and have been compared to Arcade Fire and U2. Their debut album, the sagely titled ‘Youth is only even fun in Retrospect’ was released in January.

Damon Gough a.k.a Badly Drawn Boy celebrated the 15th Anniversary of his Mercury Prize winning album The Hour of the Bewilderbeast last year. The critically acclaimed debut album catapulted the artist into the spotlight with tracks like ‘The Shining’ and ‘Everybody’s Stalking’, he then went on to soundtrack the hugely successful Hugh Grant film ‘About A Boy’. Q Magazine have named Badly Drawn Boy as one of their ‘50 Bands to See Before You Die’.

Glasgow’s Twin Atlantic formed in 2000 and came to prominence in 2007 with their debut EP ‘A Guidance from Colour’, as well as support slots with the likes of Smashing Pumpkins and Blink-182. Their most successful singles so far have been ‘Heart and Soul’ and ‘Brothers and Sisters’, both from their 2015 album ‘Great Divide’. They were also named ‘Best UK Band’ at the 2016 SSE Scottish Music Awards. Their fourth studio album ‘GLA’ was released in September 2016.

Steve Hartley, Bradford Council’s Strategic Director, Place, said: “This year’s line up is looking better than ever and tickets are already being snapped up. We are on course for a fantastic late summer festival for 2017.”

The final phase of tickets are now available via Ticketline and available from the festival website www.bingleymusiclive.com

Weekend tickets are selling fast. Get your tickets for £60 as from Monday, 12 June, adult weekend tickets will be priced at £70.

The Council has joined forces with Bradford and Bingley Rugby Club to provide this year’s camping facilities – more details can be found on the festival website.

For the full festival line-up, updates and the latest information follow us on:

Twitter: @BingleyFestival

Facebook @bingleymusiclive

Instagram thebingleymusiclivefestival #BML17 Hashtag.

Free arts and entertainment to be held in city centre

A series of free events is coming to Bradford city centre this spring, including parades, talent shows and live entertainment.

The Creative Streets programme features colourful costumed parades, a quirky talent quest, an innovative indoor ‘art and performance park’ and an entertaining and interactive treasure hunt.

Bradford city centre will come alive with Bhangra, Bollywood and African drumming dance acts, cycling activities and a range of creative costume-making workshops.

Bradford’s cutting edge arts company, The Brick Box, will stage a follow-up production of their highly successful, Wild Woods ‘indoor woodland’ and performance space.

The Wild Woods in Bloom will put the spring back into Darley St and celebrate the new season with colourful and interactive installations, live performances from a host of exciting local talent, amazing workshops, family fun and games, and delicious food.

Local master mask and puppet makers, Cecil Green Arts whose workshop was destroyed in the Drummond Mill fire, will run a flamboyant Puppet Parade featuring huge colourful papier mâché pieces created by local people at special workshops.

The vibrant Puppet Parade will celebrate everything about Bradford and be accompanied by local musicians from Punjabi Roots Academy and Moseke Music.

There will be opportunities for budding cyclists to take part in Spring Flower and Shamrock Cycle Parades, and special workshops will be held to help people make costumes and decorate their bikes.

There will be chances for people to try out a range of ingenious and innovative adaptive bikes designed to cater for all ages and abilities and compete in various Tour de Yorkshire inspired activities at Bradford Capital of Cycling.

Shipley-based arts company, Q20, is teaching local school children costume design and construction, and street theatre skills so they can perform at a colourful Pirate Parade, complete with a mobile galleon.

Hundreds of young recruits will join local artists, John and Charlotte Lambert and Scott Vipond-Clarke, to rampage through Bradford city centre’s streets showing off their newly acquired buccaneering skills at a Pirate Parade.

The Pirate Pirade finishes with a swashbuckling picnic at Oaster Square.

Q20 will also stage a quirky talent quest, Top of Town’s Got Talent on 1 April.

Local people are being encouraged to ‘make an April fool of themselves’ by showcasing their special talents which could include anything from acrobatics, poetry, plate spinning, clog dancing to ear wiggling.

The fun continues with the April Fools’ Wacky Cycle Challenges where families can try out a range of unusual bicycles including reverse bikes which go backwards when you pedal forwards, tiny ‘monkey bikes’, tall ‘over-sized’ and companion bikes.

People can also try hand-cranked and recumbent cycle challenges.

Families will enjoy an interactive and dramatized treasure hunt where they will meet some larger than life characters, performed by Bradford Adept artists, Shanaz Gulzar and Steve Manthorp.

Participants of the In for a Penny Treasure Hunt will solve a series of clues to win a specially minted ‘Yorkshire Penny’ which can be kept or exchanged for discounts in selected  Bradford stores.

Lovers of Bollywood and Bhangra will enjoy an explosive performance from Bradford’s South Asian arts school, Punjabi Roots Academy in Balle!! Balle!

Punjabi Roots Academy will stage, The B3ats, a pioneering fusion music event featuring eastern and western instruments and a professional DJ.

The Academy will also run drumming workshops along with African drummer, Moses Ekebuisi.

Creative Streets runs from 11 March to 30 April in the ‘top of town’ area of Bradford including Darley Street, North Parade, Kirkgate Market and Oastler Market.

All events and workshops are free of charge.

Coun Alex Ross-Shaw, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said: “Creative Streets will be lots of fun and we’re inviting everyone to come into Bradford to enjoy the free workshops and entertainment.

“This project is part of our on-going support designed to attract more people into the ‘top of town’ area of Bradford city centre and support the businesses in that area.”

For further information visit: www.facebook.com/CreativeStreetsBd

 

 

Bradford schools helping pupils become ambassadors for Anne Frank exhibition

Bradford secondary schools are being encouraged to take part in a programme which allows young people to train to become ambassadors for an exhibition honouring the life of the famous Jewish diarist Anne Frank.

The work encourages young people to engage in challenging issues such as human rights, prejudice, discrimination, extremism, and to look at what history tells us about the consequences of intolerance, hatred and division.

The Anne Frank History for Today is a touring exhibition which introduces young people to the lives of Anne Frank’s Jewish family in Nazi Germany, and looks at both the rise of institutional anti-semitism and the tragedy of the Holocaust.

Through Bradford Council’s Stand up, Speak out, Make a Difference programme schools can choose to host both the Anne Frank History for Today and an exhibit called Remembering Srebrenica, which has been developed by the council honouring the Bosnian Muslims killed in a massacre in 1995.

At each school up to 20 young people will be trained, by members of the Council’s Diversity and Cohesion staff, to be ambassadors who will explain the significance of these events to their peers and to pupils from visiting primary schools.

These ambassadors are also given further training with the Anne Frank Trust to allow them to act as guides for a major national touring exhibition Anne Frank and You which will be hosted in Bradford during March this year at Kala Sangam.

Geraldine Cooper, Bradford Council’s  Acting Head of Diversity and Cohesion said: “The programme uses the exhibitions as a stimulus to allow young people to take part in workshop discussions about difficult issues around prejudice, hate crime and modern day genocide.

“It is a powerful education programme because it is peer led. Young people are helping other pupils to learn about history and to challenge intolerance in a way that is relevant to them. A strength of the programme is that there is no criteria for who should take part.

“Schools decide themselves which pupils should become ambassadors. Pupils can be put forward for a number of reasons and we know it can have a real impact on their confidence and the rest of their education.

“There is still some availability to have the Anne Frank History for Today exhibition come out to Bradford secondary schools this year and we would strongly recommend getting involved.”

Coun Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills said: “We can be proud of the way this programme allows our young people to learn about challenging issues around intolerance and helps pupils to educate their peers about the importance of rejecting hatred.

“This programme not only allows pupils to learn important lessons from history but also helps to develop their confidence and maturity and gets them to consider the importance of the society they grow up in.”

There is limited availability for further secondary schools in the Bradford district to participate in Stand up, Speak out, Make a Difference 2017.

City Hall – Bradford’s Jewel in the crown

Bradford is an increasingly sought-after filming location and our very own City Hall could be described as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the many fantastic filming locations across the district.

City Hall is a popular site for TV production companies and has been used to film some of the country’s best-loved soaps and popular dramas.  This year alone we have welcomed cast and crew from ITV’s soap opera, Emmerdale, Channel 4’s drama, National Treasure and most recently ITV’s drama, DCI Banks, starring actor Stephen Tomkinson, which filmed on 27 April 2016 in the Civic Reception Rooms.

(Picture above shows Stephen Tomkinson and co-star Caroline Catz outside the Reception Rooms during filming.

Bradford has been a popular film location since the beginning of cinema and showed some of the first film screenings outside of London at the People’s Palace, on the site where the National Media Museum now stands.  Many years ago the Bradford District was home to 56 cinemas and has been host to over 100 TV and film shoots.

The widely acclaimed 1959 film Room at the Top featured City Hall and it was reshot for a modern audience in 2010.  Other popular locations in City Hall are the Victorian courtroom, the civic reception rooms as well as the corridors and front steps.

Coronation Street filmed the famous murder trials of Gail MacIntyre and Tracy Barlow who both took to the stand in City Hall’s historic Victorian court rooms.

BBC1 drama, The Syndicate starring Lenny Henry was filmed in City Hall as was the ITV production, The Great Train Robbery, starring Oscar winning actor Jim Broadbent.

Filming crews not only descend upon City Hall, but many communities, landmarks and neighbourhoods across the district.  The city’s Crown Court was recently home to the BBC docudrama Moorside Project, a two part series airing this autumn about the disappearance of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews, starring award winning actress Sheridan Smith.

Len Palmer, City Hall’s Facilities Manager said:  “City Hall is a beautiful building and is a popular venue in the city to facilitate filming for popular TV production companies.  Filming at City Hall has merited national coverage – the benefits of which include positively promoting Bradford and adding to the region’s ever increasing rich filming heritage.”

Bradford City of Film
Bradford was the world’s first UNESCO City of Film.  Bradford has a long history associated with film and filmmaking dating back to the birth of cinema and has long been acknowledged by the film industry as a film-friendly city.  Bradford is a key location for film and TV production and further information can be found by visiting the Bradford City of Film website.

About City Hall
The heritage of City Hall dates back to 1847, when Queen Victoria signed a Charter of Incorporation which brought together the then-separate towns of Bradford, Manningham, Horton and Bowling as a single borough.

This expanded authority needed a council, and with the charter came the permission to elect a body of 42 councillors, 14 aldermen and a mayor. Their original home wasn’t at City Hall however.  It was on Swain Street, in Fire Station House.  This was Bradford’s first Town Hall, which remained in operation for more than a quarter of a century.

As the new borough grew, it quickly became apparent that a bigger, more “fit for purpose” building was required. Rather than simply plough ahead and commission a new home, the Council in 1869 took the rather forward-thinking decision to organise a competition for prospective designers and architects to submit their plans.

There were 32 entries received, and the winning design was judged to be that submitted by Lockwood and Mawson, a Bradford architect firm which was given the commission and contracted John Ives and Son of Shipley to build it on the present site.

It took three years to build, and the final bill was £100,000. The building was 70ft high and 275ft long, with a 217ft clock tower. It was officially opened by the Mayor, Alderman Matthew Thompson, in 1873.

But the borough and the Council continued to grow, and before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 the Town Hall had been extended several times – notably in 1909 when a new Council chamber, committee rooms and Banqueting Hall were built, and in 1914 when the entrance was redesigned and a staircase incorporated.

The next major development took place in 1965 when a £12,000 refurbishment and facelift took place.

Bradford became a city in 1897 and finally had the City Hall it is now so proud of.