There was an area of open fields divided by stone walls to the north of Smith Lane, above the Bradford Royal Infirmary, when CH Wood took this photograph from above in the summer of 1965.
Now it’s been paved and landscaped, and every day is filled with hundreds of cars belonging to employees at the hospital and visitors spilling over from the over-subscribed parking space on the site of the hospital itself. The Duke of York’s Home was (and still is) to the left of the row of hospital buildings, though it has been much extended in recent years. And the newly-constructed ENT Unit, with cranes still on the site, stands out from the more weathered rest on the right-hand side, built to replace the old Eye and Ear Hospital off Manningham Lane, near Busbys.
Immediately to the right of it, tucked away at the top of Prospect Place, is the bowling green of the West Bradford Bowling Club which continues there to this day. Above the club, then, were allotments. Now the space where sprouts and carrots grew has been given over to more hospital parking.
In the foreground of the picture is what was then Bradford Girls’ Grammar School but is now officially known as The Girls’ Grammar School, Bradford, off Squire Lane. Behind that is Ladye Royd Hall, with Daisy Bank to the far left, on the bend in Duckworth Lane.
Pictures used by permission of Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage.
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