A Bradford-born lawyer, who has family in Silsden, has taken up his post as the 684th Lord Mayor of London.

Alderman David Wootton, 61, was at the centre of an 800-year-old spectacle yesterday, as the Lord Mayor’s Show paraded three miles around the capital.

Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus after the parade, Mr Wootton said: “I am looking forward to the year ahead.

“Because I’m not a Londoner we will be paying quite a lot of attention during the year to parts of the country that are not London, including Bradford, in particular the wool trade.

“If you look at the overall economic situation you need to make the most of the skills we have got, and in West Yorkshire there is a lot of skill in textiles.”

A banquet on Monday night, hosted by Mr Wootton, will be attended by Prime Minister David Cameron and the Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Naveeda Ikram.

Mr Wootton, who lived in Horton Bank Top and Shipley, is a former deputy head boy at Bradford Grammar School and a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge.

More than 40 staff, current and former pupils at his former Bradford school travelled to London for the Lord Mayor’s Show, in which its first-eight rowing team appeared on a float close to the front of the procession.

Mr Wootton, who is believed to be the first person from Bradford to become Lord Mayor of London, invited the Bradford Grammar School party to a meeting at Mansion House on Friday, where he was presented with an old copy of their school magazine, featuring a picture of him as part of the rowing team.

His father James Wootton, who lives in Silsden, near Keighley, with his step-mother Mona, travelled to London to mark the occasion with his son this weekend.

During the parade on Saturday colourful floats and military bands led the procession past thousands of people who lined the streets along the route.

It passed off without disruption despite the procession going past a protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

Mr Wootton is married to Elizabeth, and has two sons, two daughters and three grandchildren.

He is interested in music, opera, ballet, rowing and railway architecture.

As part of an official visit in January he will tour Bradford and surrounding areas.