BRADFORD-ON-AVON

town (parish), West Wiltshire district, administrative and historic county of Wiltshire, England, on the River Avon (Bristol Avon). Its limestone houses rise up the steep side of a valley, and the river is spanned by a medieval bridge complete with chapel. A local monastery existed in the 7th century, and in Abbey Yard, presumably its site, stands the Saxon Church of St. Lawrence, discovered and carefully restored in 1856. The monastery was sacked by the Danes in 1003. Bradford became a busy centre of the medieval wool trade and later was known for its manufacture of fine broadcloth. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, this declined, and the last cloth mill closed in 1905. The main industry today is the processing of rubber. Pop. (1991) 8,815.