This year our annual conference is heading to Bradford! In this blog series, we’re chatting to members of the Heritage Network and our staff team about their connection to Bradford and West Yorkshire. To find out more information, and join us in Bradford this September, visit our website.
What’s your connection to Bradford and its heritage?
Well I’m from Yorkshire, have lived here all of my life, and I started my career as an historian in Leeds, so I’ve long been involved in West Yorkshire’s industrial and cultural heritage. Plus, I’m only based down the road in Hull, so I’ve spent lots of my spare time in Bradford this year enjoying the city’s time as UK City of Culture 2025.
Now, as Development and Outreach Officer for England at the Heritage Network, I support community and grassroots heritage projects right across the country, including in Bradford and the surrounding areas. I’m often found getting on the train to Bradford Interchange to meet with communities who are rescuing historic sites or sharing stories of the city’s past.
Bradford has this incredible layered history, and what really excites me is seeing how communities are actively engaging with that heritage in innovative ways. In my role at the Heritage Network, I oversee the West Yorkshire ‘Heritage Toolbox’ programme: a free series of skills masterclasses and professional mentoring for local heritage groups to build their capacity, running until September 2025.
What’s a community heritage initiative in West Yorkshire that you’re particularly passionate about?
I absolutely love what’s happening at Bramley Baths. Opened in 1904, the swimming baths has been saved by the community and is now the last remaining Edwardian bath house in Leeds. What makes it special is how local people rallied together to preserve not just the building, but all of the stories the place holds and the roles it plays for people, both today as well as in the past.
Bramley Baths and Community Limited was established as a way for people to come together to celebrate and protect the baths as the heart of the local community, and in the last year they’ve successfully used community shares to raise essential funds for repairs to the building’s historic roof. It’s exactly this kind of grassroots approach that shows how heritage is relevant and meaningful to people’s everyday lives. Bramley Baths are currently recruiting for a Heritage Project Director to deliver an exciting capital restoration project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and other partners.
Is there a historic site or space in Bradford that you think deserves more recognition?
Yes! A heritage treasure I’ve got my eye on is Sunwin House, the International style department store built for the Bradford Co-operative Society in 1936. This building brought modernist design principles to Bradford’s commercial heart, but it often gets overlooked, compared with the city’s better-known Victorian industrial architecture. Despite efforts to repurpose the building for community use, it’s still empty and has been declared ‘at risk’.
Sunwin House tells an important story about Bradford’s commercial heritage and its place in the broader modernist movement, while the architectural style adds richness to the city centre landscape. The building was recently highlighted in the Twentieth Century Society’s 2025 Heritage at Risk List, and with the spotlight on Bradford’s 2025 City of Culture status, as well as recent work to the Bradford Odeon, I really hope this sparks renewed interest in repurposing buildings like this.
What are you most looking forward to about the Heritage Network Conference in September?
I’m excited to have three days packed with conversations about community-led heritage and how we can better support grassroots initiatives. Bringing people together in Bradford gives us an opportunity to showcase the city’s built heritage, while sparking new ideas and fresh perspectives that can only come from being together in a shared space. Getting heritage professionals, community volunteers, funders and sector support organisations all in the same room often leads to the most innovative collaborations.
I’m also hoping for lots of practical takeaways – from how to make our heritage spaces more energy efficient, to what funding opportunities we should be looking out for in the next year.
If you’re a community heritage project in West Yorkshire (Bradford, Leeds, Calderdale, Kirklees or Wakefield), you can sign up to our Heritage Toolbox programme of 1:1 mentoring and skills masterclasses here.
Join us in Bradford this September for our annual Heritage Network Conference – it’s going to be fantastic!
