Beast
The Bradford Boar
The tongue told the truth.
See it clearly
- What's there
- A wooded hillside on the north-east edge of Bradford
- Legend from
- Bradford legend
- Best time
- Any
- Tone
- Playful
The man with the head got there first, but the man with the tongue won.
Bradford's coat of arms carries a boar's head without a tongue, illustrating the legend of the boar of Cliffe Wood. Bradford Local Studies says that in the mid to late 14th century a ferocious boar lived in Cliffe Wood at Undercliffe and drank at a well there. The lord of the manor offered a reward for its head. A hunter lay in wait by the well, shot it, cut out its tongue as proof and set off for the manor house. A second man found the body, cut off the head and claimed the reward, but could not explain the missing tongue. The true hunter was rewarded with land at Horton.