Shipley 1961

The old shops of Shipley are lovingly preserved in this film as concrete shopping centres take over and local mums with prams, and elderly townsfolk, sit and ponder the results.

This film by local filmmakers provides a real feel of a time and a place, evoking John Schlesinger’s Terminus of the same year in the way it has been beautifully crafted. The changing face of post-war Britain is perfectly illustrated here in Shipley as old mills, shops and houses are demolished, and Brutalist shopping centres rise in their place at the beginning of the 1960s. Local shoppers carry on as before as 1950s and ‘60s redevelopment transforms all around them.

This film is a further example of the filmmaking skills and attention to detail of the prolific Bradford filmmakers Harold Wood and his son David, who are best known for their films of various motor sports. Bradford and its neighbour Shipley were both towns that were largely rebuilt as a result of the redevelopment unleashed by the Tory Government from 1954, where the borough engineers and planners, together with commercial architects, redesigned city and town centres, heavily influenced by modernist architecture. It was also the age of the new shopping centres and pedestrianisation, with Arndale leading the way. This one at Shipley, opened by Bruce Forsyth, was the second one to be built in Britain.