mayor (this dignity was conferred in 1907), 21 aldermen, and 63
councillors. One feature of municipal activity in Bradford deserves
special notice--there is a municipal railway, opened in 1907, extending
from Pateley Bridge to Lofthouse (6 m.) and serving the Nidd valley,
the district from which the main water-supply of the city is obtained.
Area of the city, 22,879 acres.

Bradford, which is mentioned as having belonged before 1066, with
several other manors in Yorkshire, to one Gamel, appears to have been
almost destroyed during the conquest of the north of England and was
still waste in 1086. By that time it had been granted to Ilbert de Lacy,
in whose family it continued until 1311. The inquisition taken after the
death of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, in that year gives several
interesting facts about the manor; the earl had there a hall or
manor-house, a fulling mill, a market every Sunday, and a fair on the
feast of St Andrew. There were also certain burgesses holding
twenty-eight burgages. Alice, only daughter and heiress of Henry de
Lacy, married Thomas Plantagenet, earl of Lancaster, and on the
attainder of her husband she and Joan, widow of Henry, were obliged to
release their rights in the manor to the king. The earl of Lancaster's
attainder being reversed in 1327, Bradford, with his other property, was
restored to his brother and heir, Henry Plantagenet, but again passed to
the crown on the accession of Henry IV., through the marriage of John of
Gaunt with Blanche, one of the daughters and heirs of Henry Plantagenet.
Bradford was evidently a borough by prescription and was not
incorporated until 1847. Previous to that date the chief officer in the
town had been the chief constable, who was appointed annually at the
court leet of the manor. Before the 19th century Bradford was never
represented in parliament, but in 1832 it was created a parliamentary
borough returning two members. A weekly market on Thursdays was granted
to Edward de Lacy in 1251 and confirmed in 1294 to Henry de Lacy, earl
of Lincoln, with the additional grant of a fair on the eve and day of St
Peter ad Vincula and three days following. In 1481 Edward IV. granted to
certain feoffees in whom he had vested his manor of Bradford a market on
Thursday every week and two yearly fairs, one on the feast of the
Deposition of St William of York and two days preceding, the other on
the feast of St Peter in Cathedra and two days preceding.

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