Welcome to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Over 63,000 biographies, 75 million words, 12,000 portraits of significant, influential or notorious figures who shaped British history – perform advanced search
- Sign up to receive life of the day by email
- Learn about our editors and read the Letter from the General Editor Professor Sir David Cannadine
Featured
Brontë [married name Nicholls], Charlotte [pseud. Currer Bell] (1816–1855)
Born in Thornton, near Bradford, Yorkshire, the novelist Charlotte Brontë was brought up with her surviving sisters and brother in the moorland village of Haworth, on the edge of the Bradford region. The Haworth parsonage which was their home is now a museum.
Featured
Salt, Sir Titus, first baronet (1803–1876)

The textile manufacturer, Titus Salt set up in business in Bradford and successfully manufactured alpaca cloth. He transferred his business to a new mill on the river Aire, with a model village named Saltaire, now designated a World Heritage Site.
This month’s update contains a survey of biographies in the ODNB connected with the city of Bradford and its region, to mark UK City of Culture year. It brings together 325 lives, ranging from the Jesuit, James Sharp, born in 1576, to Andrea Dunbar, the playwright, born in 1961, and including the Brontë sisters, Delius, J. B. Priestley, Titus Salt with others, not only from Bradford itself, but its surrounding towns, Bingley, Haworth, Ilkley, Keighley, and Shipley.