Shipley is a historic market town and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Located on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Shipley is directly north of the city of Bradford. The population of Shipley at the 2011 Census was 15,483. Until 1974, Shipley was an urban district in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The town forms a continuous urban area with Bradford.
Shipley was shaped largely by the Industrial Revolution and, in particular, the growth of the textile industry. Textile manufacture dates from pre-industrial times. As the place name indicates, Shipley had a history as sheep grazing land, so wool was plentiful, and the River Aire was a ready source of water for powering water mills and cleaning processes. There was a fulling mill in Shipley by 1500 and two more by 1559. Another mill was built by the Dixon family on the banks of the Aire in 1635. New Mill on the far side of Hirst Wood was built in the 1740s and by the late 18th century between 9,000 and 10,000 pieces of broadcloth were being fulled annually at Shipley’s mills.