Bradford is located within Torridge local authority area. Historically it formed part of Black Torrington Hundred. It falls within Holsworthy Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 352 in 1801 280 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In 1641/2 68 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Holsworthy Library. You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website

Maps: The image below is of the Bradford area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.

On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 51/5 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 51NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS421072. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS40NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 112, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 190. Geological sheet 307 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Bradford as included in the Library's Etched on Devon's memory website. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.

Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:

BRADFORD was the " broadford" over the Torridge.

Besides Bradford itself, Dunsland, Henscott, and Lashbrook are all mentioned in Domesday. Dunsland descended to the Arscotts of Arscott, by marriage with the Battyn heiress, in 1522. They held it until 1634, when William Bickford married the Arscott heiress. The Bickfords held it from 1634 until 1817. It then passed to the Coharns, and subsequently to the Dickinsons, who sold it before 1939. Dunsland House is of considerable interest. Beginning with a small early Tudor house, it shows a succession of enlargements down to the late 18th century. The original house (c. 1500) was added to about the middle of the 16th century: a record of 1580 refers to " the old parlour" and " the old kitchen," and suggests a house of some size.(D.C.R.S., I.P.M.Humphrey Arscott 1580) It also refers to the chamber or chapel over the porch, a room which may still be seen. No earlier reference to a chapel at Dunsland has been found; but this suggests a pre-Reformation date for part of the house which is confirmed by the existence of linenfold panelling in one room. The house was enlarged in 1609; much of this work also remains. It was further enlarged and embellished by Arscott Bickford, who ruled at Dunsland 1659-93. The magnificent decorated ceiling and carving in the drawing-room, c. 1680, now restored, is part of his work. Lysons says that the house was further " much improved " by George Bickford, who had Dunsland 1771-95.2 The house fell into considerable disrepair during the war of 1939- 45, but has since been rescued and carefully restored. The remains of a moat and a large fishpond SW. of Bramble Wood probably represent the site of the medieval manor house of Dunsland, before the early Tudor rebuilding on a new site.

Henscott, now a farmhouse, was the home of the Henscotts from the early 13th century until 1572 when John Henscott died. Near the farm is a small earthwork of an irregular circular plan, overlooking the Torridge valley. Bovacott was a "mansion" in the 16th and 18th centuries. On the wall of the N. aisle of the parish church is an incised slate slab, of beautiful lettering and design, to the Maynards of Bovacott, 1666-88.

The church (All Saints) is essentially an early 14th century building, with a good Norman S. doorway and a (restored) Norman font, preserved from the 12th century church. The N. aisle was added early in the 16th century. In 1550 the tower was repaired and raised, as appears by a dated stone, and the church probably reseated. A few remains of well-carved 16th century bench- ends lie mouldering at the back of the church, together with a medieval chest. Many late medieval tiles remain in the floor. There are incised floor-slabs to the Arscotts, Bickfords, Henscotts, and other local families. The church, which had become ruinous, was restored in 1869 and again in 1875-89 when the chancel was rebuilt. Nevertheless, it remains an interesting and pleasant little building.