Helen Bradley was born in Lees, a village outside the industrial cotton town of Oldham. She was born just prior to the Edwardian era, a golden age, when Britain was the envy of the world, a confident wealthy superpower.

She began to paint only in her sixties in order to show her young granddaughter what life was like when she herself was a child. It was a time of prosperity and the extended family and her 'naive' narrative paintings reflect this.

Her works are documents of social history, always accompanied by a detailed description, recording social conventions, costume, lifestyle, and portraying the growing urban sprawl.

Her work was much admired by Lowry (q.v.) and can be compared to that of the American artist, a contemporary, Grandma Moses.