Salts Mill. Not only is this an excellent representation of Bradford’s roots in the textile industry, but Salts Mill offers so much more. Food, shopping, heritage and culture all combine to make passing a day or two incredibly easy. Across the road you’ll also find the Things to do in Bradford burial ground of Sir Titus Salt and his family.
Bradford Industrial Museum. This museum is housed within a fully functioning spinning mill and is hidden just off Harrogate Road. It’s a real treasure and an excellent chance to revisit Bradford’s industrial past. Listen to the clinking and clanking of machinery at work and learn about the practices which made Bradford one of the most important places in the country. The textiles gallery has also recently been refurbished up on the first floor and is now really attractive and accommodating. If you’ve got kids they’ll even get a chance to take a ride in a horse drawn carriage! Bradford Mela. You can only catch the Mela at certain times of the year, usually at the beginning of summer time. In its time it was the largest Mela in Europe and would attract well over 100, 000 people for the weekend. You can hop from stage to stage and absorb all of the spectacular bhangra bands.
National Media Museum. No matter when you visit the National Media Museum, it’s always an event. You can watch a family film for around £1 and these screenings are nice and laid back, so you needn’t worry about your kids settling. The family screenings welcome children of all ages and other parents are likely struggling with the same issues! There’s also a dedicated arts and crafts centre on the top floor where you and the kids can build and partake in activities relating to the films. If you don’t have kids, the National Media Museum offers the cream of the crop in terms of British cinema and beyond.
Roberts Park. Okay, this is only park. But it’s a stunning one and you can easily spend an afternoon here with a picnic on a glorious summer’s day. Why not buy an ice cream from the barge? Don’t forget to take a loaf of bread along to feed the many ducks, geese and swans who reside there. The Leeds-Liverpool Canal also runs through the park and makes for a stunning walk if you have a couple of hours free. If you’re there as a family there’s also an excellent play area to keep the children occupied. We are taught from a young age not to discriminate against other people because of their heritage, race or colour of their skin. Most children understand that it is wrong to single out and pick on another person simply because they are of a different background to them, so why is it that professional adults cannot abide by the same law?
A Bradford solicitor has won a landmark case in racial discrimination after she was suspended from working at her law firm because she joked that she was, ‘a friend of Osama Bin Laden’ because of her Muslim heritage. The comment was made in obvious jest, and she even stated that she was totally against the 9/11 bombings, however it led to her being suspended from her place of work.
A Bradford employment tribunal declared that there was, ‘not a shred of evidence’ to support the treatment of the solicitor, and demanded for her to be reinstated and issued a full and unequivocal apology. Funnily enough, the Bradford lawyer said that she would have been happy with a simple apology at the time and to let the whole thing blow over, yet it led to her hiring a Bradford employment solicitor and embarking on a seven year legal battle that cost the taxpayer £500, 000 in additional costs.
She stated that she was sure that this treatment would not have occurred had she not been a Muslim and Asian and asserted that this case was not about the money but about the principle. To back this up she is apparently using the pay out to build an orphanage in Pakistan.
The employment tribunal stated that for any employer to act the way that the bosses in question had acted was unacceptable, but for such a public body that the lawyer worked for, who have a responsibility to act in a proper and decent manner, to act in the manner that they did could only be described as astonishing. Apparently, ‘serious’ questions had to be asked about the chain of command that could lead to such an incident taking place to find out where the buck stops and who is ultimately responsible.