Bradford on Avon grew up around the 'broad ford' on the River Avon, which gave rise to the place-name of 'Bradford'.

In 1540, when John Leland visited the town, he mentioned that Bradford Bridge had nine fair arches of stone, as it still does today. Two of these arches, on the eastern side, under the blind house, date from the 13th century and the rest are 17th century. The original ford was used up until the 19th century.

The first known settlement was in the Iron Age at Budbury, on the northern hill above the town. The Romans also settled this site and in 1976 the remains of a Romano-British house were excavated. More recently, in 2002, a mosaic was uncovered.

In the Anglo-Saxon chronicle Cenwalh, the King of Wessex, fought a battle in 652 at Bradonforde be afne. In 705 St. Aldhelm is mentioned as abbot of a monastery, which was along the northwestern bank of the river, westwards from the site of the present Holy Trinity church. The foundation of the Saxon church of St. Lawrence could originally date from this early period and would have served both monks and the secular community.

The main settlement was little more than the size of a village to the south of the river, around where St. Margaret's Hill is today. The size of the Saxon village is not known but the monastery gave the community an importance in church matters and assemblies and councils were held here. At a royal council in Bradford in 954 Dunstan, later Archbishop of Canterbury and chief adviser to King Edgar, was created Bishop of Worcester.

In1001 King Aethered II gave the estate of Bradford to Shaftesbury Abbey. He also proposed the relocation of the bones of King Edward, the Martyr, to Bradford, as being a safer place than Shaftesbury during the escalating Viking raids of the early 11th century. This did not happen but it is believed that the present Saxon church could have been built to accommodate the relics.

What is now the lower part of Woolley Street, running parallel with the river on the northern bank, was originally St. Olave's Street. This commemorated a church with a dedication to a Scandinavian saint, indicating Viking influence, and possible settlement, in this area in the 11th century.

When the Domesday Book was compiled (1086) the estate was still owned by Shaftesbury Abbey and was one of only ten places in the county to have burgesses. After the Norman Conquest the Abbey of Shaftesbury continued to hold the manor of Bradford (about 5,000 acres) and changes would not have been too noticeable.

A large Norman church was built in the mid 12th century. The Norman period also saw the building of the first stone town bridge.

In the 14th century Shaftesbury Abbey built the tithe barn, to the rear of Barton Farm, for the storage of tithes due to the Abbey. Barton Farm itself is referred to as the 'manor house' in the 16th century and it is likely that it was the centre of operations for the Abbey's farming and the tenants in their manor from an early date. Barton Bridge was built in the 14th century to connect the Barton Farm complex with its lands to the north of the river.

Commercial development was also taking place in the town and in the second half of the 15th century the cloth industry expanded and became really important. At this time the industry was concerned with the production of undyed broadcloth and the most important Bradford family were the Hortons. Thomas Horton (died 1530) built the Church House, endowed a chantry (1524) and built the chantry priest's house on the site of the present chantry, added an aisle to the church and built the church and manor house of Westwood.

It was around this time that Bradford witnessed the barbaric spectacle of a public burning at the stake. One resident, Thomas Tropnell, denied the doctrine of transubstantiation - the fact that the bread and wine taken at the eucharist literally were the body and blood of Christ - and was burned to death in the market place at the bottom of Market Street.

Eight years later, in 1540, John Leland visited the town. He found 'a town all made of stone' with a 'good market once a week', standing on the north bank of the Avon. He wrote that 'All the town of Bradford standith by clothmaking' and when he left he travelled across 'A little street (paved way) over Bradford Bridge and at the end of that is a hospital of the Kings of Englands' foundation' (believed to be the leper hospital). He also commented on a 'quarry of fair stone on the right hand side of the road to Trowbridge'.

By the mid 16th century the clothier Thomas Yerbury was flourishing in the town and he was the founding father of an important family in the cloth trade. At the end of the 16th century The Hall, was built by the Hall family, who had been prominent local landowners from at least the mid 13th century. The new building replaced a medieval 'hall' house, which Leland had noted as 'a pretty stone house at the east end of the town'.

The early 17th century saw a severe outbreak of the plague in 1609 and continuing decline in the old undyed broadcloth industry.

Most of the earlier domestic buildings date from the 17th century, which seems to have been a time of expansion and rebuilding, with surviving examples in Coppice Hill, White Hill and elsewhere.

By the mid 1660s there were meetings of Dissenters (non-conformists) in the town and the new generation of clothiers were prospering by introducing the weaving of fine coloured broadcloths (medleys).

The great clothing families in Bradford were the Yerburys (strong Royalists) and the Methuens. In 1659 Paul Methuen brought in Richard (Derricke) Johnson, a spinner from Amsterdam, and his family to introduce new techniques to the local industry. In 1674 James Brewer of Trowbridge brought three Dutchmen to Bradford and from them Dutch Barton, where they lived, gets its name.

New buildings continued to be erected, with weavers' houses evident in Newtown and Middle Rank. In 1698 the Grove Chapel was built for a Presbyterian congregation, and is the oldest serving non-conformist chapel in the town.

In 1700 John Hall built the new almshouse for men that still exists at the junction of Trowbridge Road and Frome Road.

The 18th century saw some fine houses (such as Westbury House, Moxhams, and St. Olaves) built in the town but Bradford did not have the large number of clothiers' mansions of this period that are to be found in neighbouring Trowbridge.

John Wesley came to the town in 1739 and preached to 1,000 people at Bearfield on 17th July.

The cloth trade continued to flourish in the town and the main clothiers besides the Yerburys were the Threshers, Cams (Chantry House), Tugwells, Shrapnells (Midway Manor) with John Rennison, Francis Hill and Joseph Phelps. The latter was involved in a riot in 1791 which resulted from the introduction of scribbling machinery. Phelps converted a wool carding machine for scribbling and, although machinery such as spinning jennies had been used in the town for four years, local people protested that the hand scribblers would be thrown out of work. A mob of nearly 500 gathered outside Westbury House, the home of Phelps, and demanded that he should give up the machine. When he refused stones were thrown, windows broken and people injured. Phelps and his friends fired on the mob, killing a man, a woman and a child and seriously wounding two other people. The situation worsened and eventually the machine was handed over and publicly burned on the town bridge.

The greatest impact on the town at this time was the building of factories for powered machinery, some major ones being:
Greenland Upper Mill c.1804 (John Hinton, later Thomas Tugwell)
Greenland Middle Mill c.1807 (Stoddart, Gale, Howell & Co)
Kingston Mill c.1807 (Divett & Co.)
Abbey Mill (not present building) c.1807 (Saunders, Fanner & Co.)
Greenland Lower Mill c.1808 (William and Philip Shrapnell)

Steam power (with beam engines) was swiftly introduced into these new and substantial factories and many were purpose-built for such powered machinery.

In 1810 the Kennet and Avon canal was opened for its full length and by 1823 there was a 'handsome and commodious' wharf at Bradford. Passenger boats, known as fly boats, were operating a daily service to Bath, Bristol and London by 1830.

By 1834 part of the town was lighted by gas.

By the 1830's the cloth trade was in decline. In 1841 the local bank failed, because it was very heavily involved with two of the local mills. Many people were out of work and it was said that 400 had to go to the workhouse.

Many factories closed during the next few years and the 1840s were a time of great depression. The only major textile company to survive this period was Edmonds & Co. of Abbey Mill. Despite this recession, Christ Church was built in 1842

In 1848 Stephen Moulton took advantage of the empty factories to start a rubber industry in the town in association with Captain Palairet of Woolley Grange. He bought Kingston Mill and other factories plus The Hall as his own residence.

1848 saw the building of the railway station although there was no railway line until 1852 when, on 2nd February, the Bradford loop opened providing rail links to Trowbridge and Bath.

The town hall was built in 1855, the cemetary opened in 1856 and the old almshouses were rebuilt by John Bubb in 1868.

The cloth industry survived and in a late spell of prosperity the present Abbey Mill was built. In 1905 an era ended when the last cloth mill in the town shut down.

During the First World War 488 Bradfordians served in the armed forces. The town war memorial (dedicated on 2nd August 1922) in Westbury Gardens has the names of men who gave lives in the war.

Council houses were built between the wars and in 1923 the first urban branch library in the county was established by Wiltshire County Council in Westbury House, later moving to Church House.

In 1939 Bradford on Avon Maternity Hospital was opened at Berryfield on the Bath Road but plans for a general hospital were shelved owing to the outbreak of the Second World War. It was 1947 before the Bradford and District Hospital (now Leigh Park Hotel) opened in Frankleigh Road.

In 1956 George Spencer Moulton & Co. became part of the Avon Rubber Company. Production at Bradford continued until 1992 when the main factory closed.

Today the town remains popular with tourists and the number of visitors increased with the restoration of the Kennet and Avon Canal. Many of the former mills have been converted to retirement flats, apartments and housing developments.

The redevelopment of the central Kingston Mill and New Mill site continues to generate much controversy, with the only looser being the buildings which are gradually falling down while developers and locals argue how best to save them!