On the front cover of the latest issue of the local history journal The Bradford Antiquary, there’s a photograph of a formidable-looking lady with what at first glance appears to be a cake on her head.

Underneath what is in fact a small white hat with a dark bow is Miss Mary Eliza Porter, the first headmistress of Bradford Girls’ Grammar School which officially opened on September 29,1875.

Nowadays, the school is located in spacious grounds on Squire Lane, but 138 years ago, the newest addition to industrial Bradford’s academies of learning started out in Hallfield Road, just off Lumb Lane.

There were many speeches that Wednesday, says Pauline Ford, former social sciences librarian at Bradford University, in her article for the Antiquary. The first speech was given by Miss Porter.

“She emphasised the need to learn things thoroughly, and to have a love of learning for its own sake that they could follow later in life. ‘If they wanted to develop intelligence in their pupils they must give them them time to think,’ she said.

“Also, she was against ‘high pressure’ systems of learning. Her ideas on education were summed up in the resolution moved by Sir Matthew Wilson in the evening meeting. ‘This meeting recognises the importance of a sound and liberal education for girls’.”

Pauline heads her article with a quote from F S Powell in 1868 when the subject under discussion was a series of lectures for women.

“‘...there appeared to be a great apathy in connection with education – especially the education of girls – in Bradford, and the first establishment of lectures for ladies was a great deal sneered at, as being in advance of the time...’”

Six years later, in 1874, there was talk of a different nature, giving the best education possible at Bradford Girls’ Grammar School.

What happened in those six years? A central government Schools Inquiry Commission reported, confirming the bad state of boys’ grammar schools and, in a separate chapter, the bad or superficial education served up for girls. And then in April 1868, the Bradford Ladies Educational Association was founded.

When the constitution of Bradford Girls’ Grammar School was drawn up it included subjects such as reading and writing, mathematics, English grammar, composition and literature; history and geography; Latin, natural science, political and domestic economy and health; needlework; drawing and singing; calisthenics.

Securing a first-grade school for girls (the basis for a university education) had been Bradford’s great achievement, Pauline says.

“Not regarded as a city of high culture, it had stolen a march on other cities, and especially its neighbour, Leeds, in securing a first-grade education for its middle-class girls,” she adds.

The Bradford Antiquary, Third Series, Number 17, edited by Bob Duckett, is published by the Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society.