Helen Bradley was a local artist, born in 1900, who was brought up in Lees and her wonderful paintings depict her childhood in Edwardian Lees and Oldham. They are colourful and bright, and the four books that she published in the 1970’s, show some of her paintings along with a text to accompany them, telling the stories of her childhood and family life.
Many of her pictures show Miss Carter Who Wore Pink. Although she won a scholarship to Oldham School of Art in 1913, she only began to paint seriously in later life, mainly to show her grandchildren how different her own childhood had been. Her original paintings are now extremely collectable.