MARTIN GREENWOOD looks at the life of Bradford geologist, historian and writer Arthur Raistrick:

This month we celebrated Yorkshire Day. There can be few Bradfordians who have done more to promote the county of Yorkshire, its history and geography than Dr Arthur Raistrick (1896-1991), born in Saltaire and educated at Bradford Grammar School. His life straddled almost the entire 20th century. On the first Yorkshire Day in the new millennium he was commemorated as ‘Dalesman of the Millennium’ by the Yorkshire Dales Society.

His early life in Bradford became closely linked with the more rural parts of the district (beyond Ilkley, Keighley and Haworth). Arthur made the Dales his home. For most of his life he lived in Linton near Grassington. On August 1, 2000, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority commemorated him here with a limestone bench, with key themes from his full life.

He was a leading geologist, industrial historian, archaeologist, National Park campaigner, pacifist, socialist, Quaker and one of the true founders of the National Park movement. His mother, aunts and uncles worked at Salts Mill. His father was a founder member of the Independent Labour Party, founded in 1893 in Bradford. His grandparents came from four dales as farmers and lead miners. Arthur left school at 16 to become an engineering apprentice, but at the start of World War One he travelled with an uncle through the North, speaking at pacifist meetings. Refusing military service, he spent three years in Wormwood Scrubs and Durham prison. His pacifism was rooted in the anti-war stance of the ILP, but some of his fellow prisoners were Quakers, and he joined the Society of Friends in 1919.

At the end of the war he took up a scholarship at Leeds University, while an apprentice, graduating in civil engineering. He completed an MSc and PhD in geology. His prison record made it difficult to find work and in the 1920s he survived on research grants and teaching for the Workers’ Educational Association. In 1929 he was appointed lecturer in applied geology at what became King’s College, Newcastle. His expertise in coal mining broadened into the history of technology, especially lead mining, smelting and ironworking, and industrial archaeology and social history. He was a prolific academic writer in geology and taught in adult education. He studied Quakerism and its influence in science and industry, leading to a seminal work on the Darbys of Coalbrookdale and their role in the Industrial Revolution.

Raistrick retired in 1956 to focus on activities in the Dales and adult education work. He led evening classes for the WEA and Leeds University until well into his 70s, including weekend courses in youth hostels, a successful attempt to attract young workers into adult education. He was president of the Holiday Fellowship and the Ramblers’ Association, active in the campaign for wider access to moorland, including the Dales and North Yorkshire Moors national parks.

Raistrick received many honours, including awards from the Geological Society and the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and honorary doctorates from Universities of Leeds and Bradford. The first Chancellor of Bradford University was Harold Wilson who offered Rastrick an OBE in 1974. An opponent of the honours system, he declined.

Raistrick bequeathed to the University of Bradford his extensive library of writings, books and maps - a record of his research into the history and geography of his county.

 

* Martin Greenwood’s book Every Day Bradford provides a story for each day of the year about people, places and events from Bradford’s history. It is available online and bookshops including Waterstones and Salts Mill.