A recent article in the local newspaper led me to contact Bradford council as they’ve set up a new photo archive largely based around the commercial work of C H Wood who operated throughout much of the 20th Century. Sadly photographs of Great Horton station are thin on the ground and my morning at the archives at Bradford’s Industrial Museum proved no exception. However, I did manage to find and purchase a high resolution version of this useful aerial view from the early 60s showing the overall station area which included hitherto unknown details of the station approach and goods yard. The image clearly shows the goods yard still in use with the station master’s house still intact. However, the passenger buildings have been removed by this point. I also purchased this image scanned from a GNR-era postcard. The postcard has been published before but the high level of detail on the scan reveals previously fuzzy and guessed at details such as point rodding runs and canopy column mouldings.
The collection amounts to around 300,000 negatives and prints. However, the website only includes a small selection of photographs as they are scanned on an ad hoc basis as and when someone makes an enquiry. As well as Bradford, Mr Wood’s work extended further afield into much of northern England and Scotland. His company provided mainly aerial photographs for industry, commerce and advertising and he worked for many of the big textile, engineering and manufacturing firms in the area. Much of the work is archived by company (i.e. client) name rather than by location so if you are doing research it’s worth noting some prominent business, factory or mill names nearby to aid in your search.
Bradford Museums Photo Library
Debbie.cross@bradford.gov.uk
01274 435900
AJModels 
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