University of Bradford

The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but can trace its origins back to the establishment of the industrial West Yorkshire town's Mechanics Institute in 1832. The student population includes 7,923 undergraduate and 3,742 postgraduate students. Mature students make up around a third of the undergraduate community. A total of 22% of students are foreign and come from over 110 countries. There were 14,406 applications to the university through UCAS in 2010, of which 3,421 were accepted. It was the first British university to establish a Department of Peace Studies in 1973, which is currently the world's largest university centre for the study of peace and conflict.

Nearby Places View Menu

Bradford College

Bradford College is a further and higher education college in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, with approximately 25,000 students. The college offers a range of full and part-time courses from introductory level through to postgraduate level and caters for a variety of students, including school leavers, adults wanting to return to education, degree-level students and those seeking professional qualifications.

171 m

Bradford Burns Unit

The Bradford Burns Unit is a burns research facility set up at University of Bradford following the Bradford fire disaster on 11 May 1985. The fire disaster at Valley Parade killed 56 people and injured more than 250. Professor David Sharpe founded the Bradford Burns Unit after he received many of the burns victims from the Bradford Fire Disaster. On 11 May 1985, just before half time of the old Division 3 fixture between Bradford City Football Club and Lincoln City Football Club, in the last game of the 1984–85 season, a fire broke out in the G block of the main stand at Valley Parade. The fire quickly spread and within minutes the whole of the wooden main stand was engulfed, resulting in the deaths of 56 people and injury of more than 250. After a full inquest, it was revealed that the cause of the fire was a disregarded cigarette, which had been dropped where there was a build-up of litter. This caught fire and, with the assistance of wind and a wooden stand, caused the fire to spread quickly. The horrific injuries that Sharpe had to treat along with other staff led to his setting up the Bradford Burns Unit at Bradford University to research ways of treating burns injuries. Bradford newspaper Telegraph & Argus set up an appeal to save the Bradford Burns Unit in 2009 after it was reported that the Bradford Burns Unit needed £100,000 to keep doing their research work. As a result of the need for ongoing funding for the Burns Unit, in late 2010 Bantams Trek was set up to raise money for it. It was given its name as the majority of events would involve walking. It was set up by Bradford City assistant kit manager Graham Duckworth whose first walk was from Bradford City's home ground Valley Parade to Lincoln City's home ground at Sincil Bank, a 73-mile walk completed in under 24 hours on 1 January 2011. It raised £6,660 for the Bradford Burns Unit and a presentation was made at half time of the corresponding fixture between Bradford City and Lincoln City at Valley Parade on 2 February 2011.

Bradford Dale (Yorkshire)

Bradford Dale (or Bradfordale), is a side valley of Airedale that feeds water from Bradford Beck across the City of Bradford into the River Aire at Shipley in West Yorkshire, England. Whilst it is in Yorkshire and a dale, it is not part of the Yorkshire Dales and has more in common with Lower Nidderdale and Lower Airedale for its industrialisation. Before the expansion of Bradford, the dale was a collection of settlements surrounded by woods. When the wool and worsted industries in the dale were mechanized in the Industrial Revolution, the increasing population resulted in an urban sprawl that meant these individual communities largely disappeared as Bradford grew, and in 1897, the town of Bradford became a city. Since most settlements became suburbs of the City of Bradford, the term Bradford Dale has become archaic and has fallen into disuse, though it is sometimes used to refer to the flat section of land northwards from Bradford City Centre towards Shipley. The woollen and worsted industries had a profound effect on the dale, the later City of Bradford and the wider region. The geological conditions in the valley also allowed some coal mining to take place, but a greater emphasis was upon the noted stone found on the valley floor (Elland Flags and Gaisby Rock), which as a hard sandstone, was found to be good for buildings and in use as a harbour stone due to its natural resistance to water. The dale is notable for the lack of a main river (Bradford Beck being only a small watercourse in comparison to the rivers Wharfe, Aire, Calder and Don) and necessitated the importation of clean water into the dale from as afar afield as Nidderdale. Most of the becks in the city centre have now been culverted and have suffered with pollution from the heavy woollen industry in the dale.

Reconciliation (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture)

Reconciliation (originally named Reunion) is a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos. Originally created in 1977 and entitled Reunion, it depicted a man and woman embracing each other. In May 1998 it was presented to University of Bradford as a memorial to the university's first vice-chancellor, Professor Ted Edwards. De Vasconcellos said: "The sculpture was originally conceived in the aftermath of the War. Europe was in shock, people were stunned. I read in a newspaper about a woman who crossed Europe on foot to find her husband, and I was so moved that I made the sculpture. Then I thought that it wasn't only about the reunion of two people but hopefully a reunion of nations which had been fighting." Later it was taken for repairs to the sculptor's workshop, and renamed Reconciliation upon the request of the Peace Studies Department of the University. It was unveiled for the second time, under the new name, on de Vasconcellos 90th birthday, 26 October 1994. In 1995 (to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II) bronze casts of this sculpture (as Reconciliation) were placed in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and in the Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan. An additional cast can be found in the Stormont Estate in Belfast. To mark the opening of the rebuilt German Reichstag (parliament building) and to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1999, another cast was placed as part of the Chapel of Reconciliation in Berlin.