Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan
borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills
of the Pennines, 8.6 miles (14 km) west of Leeds, and 16 miles
(26 km) northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in
1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897. Following local government
reform in 1974, city status was bestowed upon the wider metropolitan borough.
Bradford forms part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation which in
2001 had a population of 1.5 million and is the fourth largest urban area
in the