Ian Beesley shares striking images of Bradford's textiles trade

When you think of Bradford's industrial history you might first think of the wool trade.

The city was covered with bustling mills each filled with hundreds of workers as it supplied the world with its wool.

Bobbin liggers workers at Black Dyke Mills 

Before Ian Beesley started his life as a photographer, he worked in one of Bradford's mill and shares the city's past textiles industry as it started to decline and sites shut their doors for the final time.

Bobbin liggers workers at Black Dyke 

Mr Beesley's pictures capture mill life from 1976 to 1986 as he toured factories.

His stark black and white images feature working days at Lister's Mill in Manningham, Black Dyke Mills in Queensbury, Drummond Mill, also in Manningham, and Conditioning House.

The pictures feature wool sorters, bobbin liggers and card fettlers going about their work.

His pictures were also taken as part of a tie-up he had during that time with the then named National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in the city.

A bobbin doffer at work 

He said: "Most of these places have long gone and as far as I know some of these photographs are the only existing records.

"In the early 1970s when you used to look at the city from Undercliffe Cemetery you could count 100 odd mill chimneys. There are only a few now.

"I found it incredibly boring and noisy when I worked in a mill.

"We got access to most of the mills when they were closing. Some of my friends and family worked at the mills.

"Lister's Mill was still working then. They used to make silk, they did velvet as well.

"When I went to the mills I pretty much got the idea from a lot of them then that it was a dying trade. Some of them were using machinery that was more than 100 years old.

Burlers and menders working at Drummond Mill 

"The ones that were trying to modernise left it too late. It was a shame really.

"Time moves on. Quite a lot of these places don't exist anymore.

"People from the last one or two generations would never realise that 1,000 people would be working in a very hard, noisy and hot environment like a mill.

"Mills are on the cusp of living memory now.

"I have always had a good relationship with Salts Mill. I photographed it when it was a working mill, when it was derelict and what it has become since.

"I photographed mills in Bradford for years. They wanted me back to photograph when they would close too.

"I started the mill project a few years before the National Museum of Photography wanted me to do it as a project."

Card fettlers working at a mill in Bradford 

A worker keeping a watchful eye at Conditioning House 

The scene at Conditioning House in Bradford 

A clock in Lister's Mill 

A spinner working at Lister's Mill 

A shuttle maker working at a mill in the district 

Pictures of a pair of spinners working at a Bradford mill 

Wool sorters take a break at a Bradford mill 

Wool sorters working at a mill in Bradford 

Mill workers by machinery 

The last loom is removed from Salts Mill in Saltaire 

Who is Ian Beesley?

He was born in Bradford in 1954 and after leaving school in 1972 worked in a mill, a foundry before going to work at Esholt Sewage works, where he was part of the railway gang.

Encouraged by his workmates to go to college and find a career, he took up photography and eventually was accepted to study at Bradford Art College, after which he went to Bournemouth & Poole College of Art.

On graduating he was awarded a Kodak Scholarship for Social Documentation and started to document the demise of industry particularly in Bradford and West Yorkshire.

His work is held in the collections of Bradford City Art galleries and museums, the National Media Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Photographic Society, the V & A London, the National Coal Mining Museum for England and The Smithsonian Museum Washington USA. He has published 40 books.

In 2012 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and in 2019 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bradford for his outstanding contribution to the art and culture and the social and economic development of the city of Bradford.

He is currently artist in residence for the Bradford Institute for Health Research, Gallery Oldham and Yorkshire Water.