Buttershaw is a residential area of

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It is bounded by Horton Bank Top to the north,

Wibsey Wibsey (population 14,530 – 2001 UK census) is a ward within the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, West Yorkshire, England. The population had increased to 14,671 at the 2011 Census. Wibsey is named after Wibsey village which m ...

to the east, Woodside to the south and Shelf to the west. Buttershaw consists mostly of 1940s

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

with the building starting in 1947 and continuing until the 1960s. Since the 1980s, many of the older homes around Buttershaw (including some of the blocks of flats that appeared in several of the film's scenes) have been demolished to be replaced by new homes.

History

Bradford Trolleybus at Buttershaw Terminus - geograph

The original settlement of Buttershaw was about to the east, which is why Buttershaw's church of St Paul's is in

. The settlement moved west in the 19th century with the building of Bottomley's Mill on Halifax Road and the construction of workers' cottages (such as Bottomley Street) adjacent to the existing settlement of Beck Hill. The construction of the council estate moved the centre of the district northward on to what was then farm land, which prior to the 20th century had been extensively mined. The

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map of 1852 shows the density of mines across the area, and that for 1910 shows the conversion to farm land.

Education

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s in the area include Farfield Primary & Nursery School, Reevy Hill Primary School and St Paul's Church of England Primary School. The rugby union player

Frank Whitcombe Jr Frank William Whitcombe (21 July 1936 – ) was a rugby union footballer of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s who played Rugby Union (RU) for Bradford RFC, Keighley RUFC Northern Command and Army Rugby Union, playing at Prop, i.e. number 1 or 3, and r ...

attended Buttershaw St Paul's Church School

Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in the Buttershaw area of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. History It opened on 3 September 1956 as Buttershaw Secondary School, with on ...

is the main

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

serving the area. It opened in 1956 as Buttershaw Secondary School on Reevy Road. It has since been renamed Buttershaw

Comprehensive School A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

, and over the years it has evolved into an Upper, then High School. 2008 saw the opening of a new building at the school. As the new building was opened the school was renamed Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College.

Appearances in popular culture

Buttershaw's council estates gained notoriety in 1986 when they were featured as the setting for most of the scenes in the film ''

Rita, Sue and Bob Too ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' is a 1987 British comedy-drama film directed by Alan Clarke, set in Bradford, West Yorkshire about two teenaged schoolgirls who have a sexual fling with a married man. It was adapted by Andrea Dunbar, based on two of ...

'', based on plays by local resident

Andrea Dunbar Andrea Dunbar (22 May 1961 – 20 December 1990) was an English playwright. She wrote ''The Arbor'' (1980) and ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1982), an autobiographical drama about the sexual adventures of teenage girls living in a run-down part of ...

. The estate gained something of a cult status thanks to the film, although at first there was much discontent among local people who complained that it further tarnished the estate's already undesirable reputation.

Clio Barnard Clio Barnard (1 January 1965) is a British director of documentary and feature films. She won widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards for her debut, '' The Arbor'', an experimental documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. ...

's film ''The Arbor'' was partly shot in Buttershaw, and in 2013, Buttershaw was the setting for her film '' The Selfish Giant'', which had a limited release but was generally well-received by critics.

References

{{Bradford Areas of Bradford

History

Education

Appearances in popular culture

See also

References