A brief on Bradford and a bit beyond

Our charming, (we think),  nay! we know, character house is located in Allerton,
Bradford and I would say without any botheration to undertake research to uncover anything to the contrary that Allerton’s most recent claim to fame is that not too many moons ago, there was apparently a trans-continentally-renowned celebrity cheeky-pukka chef who, surely not sick of globe trotting!, bestowed his luminary presence upon, and displayed his culinary competence at, the localized `Café West` community centre as part of his national mission of being bent on halting the good people of Britain from gorging themselves to early graves, that are near-literally being dug by their very own teeth so it seems. 

A further, and century-spanning, attempt to claim said fame for Allerton is that it is the merest of minutes away from the villaged vicinity of Thornton, that boasts the harboring of the still finely erected former humble abode that allegedly witnessed the birthing of those bygone Bronte types.

What !     You've never heard of the Brontes !        Hmmm,    maybe we can lure your, much coveted, participation in our Prized-up competitive pages with the fact we are mere, convenient, minutes away from the local spot of wooded and watered beauty, Chellow Dene, with its roam-worthy reservoir of Victorian origin and not departing from luring you with alluring attributes I shall inform you of the doorstep open expanse and abundantly lush greenery of Ladyhill Park both of which are fine ample spaces that are simply salves for the sorest mind when perambulating around their circulatory charms, taking the, not-too fume filled air and simply relaxing with your fondest family members,   or not,  depending on bond strength, yet we are only 5 - 20 minutes,.... dependant on, that old necessary pesky the traffic,...from the hustle and bustle of the city's centre,
Bradford is not without its problems, but what place isn`t, it’s in early stages of, temporarily shelved, regeneration. a subject that often fills a webbed-page of the local media host with LOL
girth-gripping quips from the locals who bandy their highly entertaining, worthy-of-word-space witty tidbits, often barbed but never boring.   So, said shelving has left our city centre with surely the world's most famous hole and quite far from it's peak potentia,l but this doesn’t overshadow its other outstanding and entertaining attractions mostly all within `spittin` distance.

The City clearly looks to be bound towards an identity of media and is the home,    yes!  to the hole,  but also to  ` BRITAINS MOST VISITED MUSEUM,`......well ... outside the bounds of Londinium,... said mecca for inquisitive types namely being the National Media Museum which is well worthy of a visitation and is the permanent venue for exhibitions of film and photography media from days of yore to present presentations.   It’s chocked full of interesting facts, is fun to visit and its free,   YES FREE. (well mostly)  It houses two,  not-so free,  establishments for the display of current cinematic motion content, of which one is the huge, 'n` in your face,  almost literally,   Imax screen.   Bradford is not without it's own film-founded fame, being renowned for such tales as that of Billy the most compulsive tale-telling liar, to supposedly truer tales of fairies, bedecking gardens and dells with their supernatural cavorting and shenanigans.

The Bradford Animation Festival is an annual gem held at the Media museum, `obviously` every year, it's an amazing and Luminary Star, both of real and toon-type, studded event, is Britain’s grandest and oldest festival of the type that attracts the most luminary artisans d'animation from both days of yore to bang up to the minute cool creators of the likes of Nick Park of lovable Wallace and Gromit fame to award-winning AL Jean of THE Simpsons who graced it with his eminent presence in 2008.  

If you care to drive or hop onto transport for public purpose then within a span of time from perhaps 10 mins to an hour or so, you can access ample areas of beauty, interest and enticing treat which as I have already bandied the Bronte name I’ll hastily mention Haworth, the pretty little hilly village with its famous  olde worlde incline full of, days of yore and cobbled, charm.   Said cobbles, though picturesque, wreak havoc on even the most gainly of gaits     T' Brontes,   the lucky bunch,  moved to Haworth and this is where the renowned Wutheing Heights, amongst their other works, was both written and set.  Another of Bradford's renowned tales, it tells of that doomed and love-lorn, heather-trekking duo of, some say a romantic, but perhaps more aptly, but not too surprisingly, a vengeful cad and his dearly beloved who was too-soon sadly departed to nothing more than an apparition that, apparently and posthumously, whinged at his window,    Must be true, kate bush doesn`t look the type to cast defamatory aspersions,   Oops that's enough wandering,   for me, in my mind,   not them,  they're long past roaming the moors partaking in sheer wild, reckless and lusty,    surely prohibited in those days,  abandon.
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Yet again, minutes away from our soon-to-be-gifted abode and dependant on traffic timing, is Lister Park that was,   quite rightly I do declare,  (in my admittedly, limited knowledge of the states of others)   voted Britain’s best park in 2006, with its bounded-within Baroque style building 'Cartwright Hall' that was purposely fashioned to house, not merely bric-a-brac,  no!    just because this is Bradford and way north of Watford gap doesn`t mean that we haven't discovered and don't display real art,  because we do, admittedly not in abundance,  but it's ample enough to attract interested admirers of it's mighty fine pieces of pictorial, and other magnificent, form. 
 
If looking at art however doesn’t stir your senses,  either mildly or into some kind of a frenzy,  there's the simply beautiful, and let's not be forgetting Britains once best, park with it's localised lake for the boating brigade, no doubt 'twas once bedecked with genteel, and those that coveted to be such, folks, but now mostly populated with we, the hoi polloi,   This aquatic expanse is the home, hunting, or merely having a while-away of the day, ground, for hundreds of birds that flock in eager droves, to your feet, to be fed. 
We,have loved to partake in the pleasures of this park on what must be zillions of occasions over what feels like eons of time and have never visited it without feelings of gratitude for its being in Bradford as it is an oasis of beauty and peace in a, some would say, crazy world.

Mere minutes on from Lister Park is the Village of Saltaire with it's pleasurable parade of Independent shops and the truly most-magnificent and colossal building, Salts Mill.  The village was built in it's entirety by Sir Titus Salt for the philanthropic purpose of both pleasuring, and providing humble habitats to, the local population thereby creating some measure of comfort to his community crew of mill operatives
in the bygone days when Bradford was a thriving provider of woolled produce.of the purest and globally acclaimed kind.   Long after this industrious local-to-said-global market had declined, then pretty much  died, the visionary Bradford Lad Jonathon Silver..., sadly no longer around to enjoy the splendour he created....  restored it to its current glory,  with its chock-full-of-Hockney Gallery,   The Diner, a retreat for edible treats, the bookshop with books, books, books and more books all laid out amok tabled tops.  

When you’ve done dining and dallying it's nice to meander outside and along the canal or better still, without any concern for incredulous bystanders, run like the wickest of kids and enjoy a kick-about, with a ball of course, in the field that stretches out along-side said canal.  If you haven’t run since you were a kid try it, if you haven’t kicked a ball, what on earth are you waiting for.

No more than a stone's throw from the aforementioned historic and open haven is a favourite ‘doorstep’ stop for many a Bradfordion,   Baildon Moor.   It's been a longstanding tradition in Bradford, since we were kneehigh to grasshoppers at least, that persons looking for a little bit of peace, go in mini droves to the moors,    Yes to fly a kite and take a lengthy perambulation without seeing another soul,  but also to simply partake in a treat for kids aged from 1 -101, which is to just to nestle in the snug comfort of your vehicular carriage with a cheap and whippy treat of iced type or a mountain of chips all salted and vinegered up, and simply view the span of the landscape for an hour or two, doing nothing more than watching dots grazing in fields and clouds gracefully drifting by.
 
Within 30 minutes to an hour are the renowned areas of Holme Firth, of ‘Where T'Heart Is’ and ‘Last of the Summer Wine.., a tale of pensionable and famously stockinged persons...fame.
or Esholt where Emmerdale was once filmed, almost last, but definitley not the least of these localities are Leeds, the paradise of yorkshires fashionista, the beautiful town of Harrogate where you might leisurely parade `or bathe` with toffs and tourists and the medieval City of York with its Viking past and ghostly-walk present, all are near enough for a pleasant day out for any fortuitous winner of our property.

Bradford is pretty much well located in England, it's 200 miles to to the aforementioned city of Londinium origin, 200 miles to bonny Scotland, 100 miles to `The Toon` also know to southerners as Newcastle and even less to Whitby, Bridlington and hordes of other coastal delights..