The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Bradford FC, Boxing, and Walking Race
In the days when skills had to be honed on bumpy pitches, Bradford City are seen in action along with boxing at Valley Parade and wonderful film of the famous Whitsuntide Walk.
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Overview
A rare chance to see film of Bradford City at Valley Parade in the re-start of the football league after the war, when goalkeepers got bashed about and just humped the ball upfield. And even rarer film of outdoors boxing at Valley Parade and participants in the historic Whitsuntide Walk making their very distinctive way around Bradford in the rain, past billboards advertising the film ‘Cloak and Dagger’, with Gary Cooper and Lilli Palmer.
As can be seen here, when League football restarted in 1946, Valley Parade was in a ramshackle state, with the Midland Road stand having to reduce its capacity by 75% in 1948. The stand was replaced in 1951, and little changed until the fire disaster of 1985 which claimed 56 lives. It isn’t clear who Bradford are playing in these two games, the opponents possibly wearing an away kit. There is even less information on the boxing. The Bradford Whitsuntide Walk though is the oldest amateur walking race in the world. It started in 1903, when 92 competitors set off on a 39 mile walk to York, watched by a huge crowd. The walk (shortened) continued during the war and was won in 1946 by C Mengin of Highgate in 4 hours 53 minutes.
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