Bradford on Avon understand · Bradford on Avon tourist information
All Destinations | Europe | Asia | North America | Africa | South America | Oceania | Hotels
Bradford on Avon tourist information
Bradford on Avon tourist information
Built in the same fine oolite limestone as Bath, the town was already a settlement in the Iron Age, and people have been living there ever since. The foundations of a large Roman villa - the centre of an estate many miles across - were recently found in the grounds of the town's secondary school, and it has one of England's few surviving Saxon churches and a magnificent medieval Tithe Barn, crowned with one of the largest stone roofs in the country. But the handsome buildings which climb up the hills from the 'broad ford' (and, since Norman times, the bridge) across the river are mostly Georgian, the legacy of a few hundred years of prosperity as a centre of a textile industry making fine woollen cloth from Cotswold sheep. Towards the end of the Georgian period the industry and its money moved north to Yorkshire and Lancashire, and building largely stopped for around 100 years. The old textile mills were taken over in the 20th century by the rubber industry, making goods like tyres (and the small-wheeled Moulton bicycles, briefly famous in the 1960s and 70s as town runabouts), but that too eventually moved away. Today Bradford is largely a residential town.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Bradford on Avon
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Bradford on Avon - updated Apr 2024
SAVE up to 75% on Last Minute deals! Search for discount Bradford on Avon hotels, motels, apartments, hostels, guest accommodations and vacation resorts. Book now and pay at the hotel. Instant email confirmation!
>>> SEARCH FOR DEALS <<<
WHERE TO TRAVEL NEXT IN 2020
Bradford on Avon Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.