VISITORS to Bradford Cathedral learned about various aspects of life in the city, from the history of its waterways to the famous Jowett cars, at a weekend of Heritage Open Days.

Guests included members of the Friends of Bradford’s Becks, showcasing their trail marking the route of the beck under the city centre; Jowett Car Club, with a display of classic cars and items relating to the Jowett family’s Idle car factory; and the Canal and River Trust, looking back at the old Bradford Canal.

Michael Scott revealed his model of Bradford Cathedral which he is creating for his miniature town, Chandwell, that includes replicas of buildings in the city. Michael told visitors about the year-long project to build a replica Cathedral from cereal packets glued together.

Michael, who describes his model as “a West Yorkshire town, set in 1993” became interested in model-making as a child, watching his grandfather work on his N Gauge model railway. During lockdown he started working on his own model railway, which turned into a whole town. Chandwell includes replicas of buildings including Bradford’s Midland Hotel, the New Beehive pub and Shipley clock tower.

When he set about building a model of Bradford Cathedral he “spent hours looking at it in minute detail”.

“I watched videos, made measurements, read books, really got to know the building. It took about 35 hours to break it down into manageable sections, and draw them all out. I ended up with 23 separate parts, glued together to make a whole,” says Michael, who has been working with the Cathedral’s Director of Education and Visitors, Maggie Myers.

“The cathedral building is complex; it has evolved over centuries. The biggest challenge has been to work out how all these sections fit together.”

The Heritage Open Days also brought a group of bell ringers to the Cathedral as part of a “day of ringing”.

Because Bradford Cathedral doesn’t have its own regular team of bell ringers, Tower Captain Dale Barton and the team invite ringers throughout the year - and last Saturday’s ringing day coincided with this year’s Yorkshire Churches Day.

Maurice Calvert, Ringing Master for the Western Branch of the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers, said: “The people ringing were members of the YACR branch covering Bradford, Halifax, Calderdale and the Yorkshire Dales. We combined things this year into what we call a ‘Quarter Peal day’, so those members wishing to take part could ring quarter peals together. A quarter peal takes about 45 minutes of continuous ringing. We ran four time slots on the day, starting with a quarter peal attempt at St Andrew’s, Gargrave before heading to St Michael & All Angels in Haworth alongside a concurrent ring at All Saints in Bingley. After that it was over to Bradford Cathedral then we finished at Holy Trinity in Idle.

“Anyone looking to learn to ring church bells an go to cccbr.org.uk/bellringing/learn. It’s a wonderful, centuries-old hobby, exercising both mind and body and it is suitable for learners aged between 10 and 70.”

* For more about the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers visit yacr.org.uk

* Find out about what bell ringing involves in a video recorded at Bradford Cathedral: visit youtube.com/watch?v=4IJGSdn6KNk