Horace Joseph Bradley was born on 11 March 1868 in east Oxford and baptised on 8 April at St James's Church in Cowley. His address was given as Robin Hood Terrace, which was built in about 1863 and was alongside the Robin Hood pub of that name in Magdalen Road.

Horace came from very humble beginnings:

• Horace's father William Bradley junior (sometimes William James Bradley) was born in Oxford in c.1833. He was the son of William Bradley senior, a basket-maker. At the time of the 1851 census William junior (18) and his brother James (13) were both faggot-makers, living with their parents and four sisters at Bridport Street, St Ebbe's
• Horace's mother Hellen or Helen Apthorpe was born at New Road, St Clement's and baptised at St Clement's Church on 6 January 1828. She was the daughter of the St Clement's shoemaker James Apthorpe and his wife Elizabeth Jefferies, who were married at St Martin's Church on 29 November 1818. Helen's father died at the age of 38 and was buried at St Clement's Church on 13 October 1835, and her mother became a laundress and moved to Bridge Street, St Ebbe's.

It seems likely that Horace's parents met in St Ebbe's, but they both gave their address as Headington when on 22 September 1855 they were married at St Andrew’s Church there. Both could sign their names, and his father gave his occupation as a labourer. Their first four children were born in Headington, with the last three baptised at St Andrew’s Church:  Arthur William Apthorpe Bradley (1856), Louisa Maria Bradley (1858), James William Bradley, known as William (1860), and Mary Ann Bradley (1862).

Horace's parents then moved to Robin Hood Terrace in east Oxford and their youngest three children were born there and baptised at St James’s Church in Cowley, as east Oxford had no church of its own until 1875: Edwin Henry Bradley (1867), Horace Joseph Bradley himself (1868), and Thomas Walter Bradley (1869/70).

On 19 April 1869 (just after Horace’s first birthday and when his mother was expecting her seventh child), his father William Bradley died at Robin Hood Terrace at the age of 37 and was buried in St James’s churchyard in Cowley six days later.

His widowed mother Helen then moved with her seven children to Charles Street in east Oxford and went out to work as a nurse. At the time of the 1871 census she was staying 6 Clifton Villas, St Clement’s with a mother who had a week-old baby, leaving her own seven children, including Horace (3) and Thomas (1), at home in Charles Street, presumably under the care of the two eldest children, Arthur (14), who was an unemployed printer, and Louisa (12).

The 1881 census shows Horace (13), who was still at school, at home in Charles Street with three of his siblings: Mary (17), Edwin (15), who was working as an errand boy, and Thomas (11). Again his widowed mother Helen was away from home.

In 1891 Horace (23) was working as a billiard marker and living in Hertford Street with his mother Helen (62), who was now a general shopkeeper there, and his older brother Edwin (24), who was a builder. The number of the house is given as 4, but there were then only ten houses in the street, Numbered 1–10, and the shop is almost certainly 38 Hertford Street (on the corner of Percy Street), which Horace gave as his address when he got married the following year.

On 20 October 1892 at Cowley St John Church, Horace Joseph Bradley married Alice Gurden: both were aged 24. Horace described himself as a a dairyman living at 38 Hertford Street and Alice, who was born in Circus Street in east Oxford in 1868 and was now living at 48 Howard Street, was the daughter of the carpenter Edwin Gurden. They had three sons:

• Horace Fred Bradley (born at 38 Hertford Street on 10 October 1893 and baptised at Cowley St John Church on 26 November)
• Gordon Bradley (born at 38 Hertford Street on 9 March 1897 and baptised at Cowley St John Church on 29 April)
• Norman Douglas Bradley (born at 209 Iffley Road on 9 June 1906 and baptised at Cowley St John Church on 26 July).

A report in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 30 September 1893 about a failed application to transfer the licence of the Saddler’s Arms beer-house from Speedwell Street to 38 & 40 Hertford Street reveals that Horace owned No. 38 Hertford Street while his brother Edwin Bradley, now a builder of 109 St Clement’s Street, owned No. 40 next door.

38 Hertford Street, the large double-fronted house on the corner, had a dairy in its
large back garden facing Percy Street. No. 40 is the smaller house to the left, behind the hedge

When Horace Joseph Bradley (32) was admitted to the United Grand Lodge of England on 4 December 1900 he described himself as a commercial traveller, but just a few months later the 1901 census shows him still working as a dairyman from his home at 38 Hertford Street and living with his wife Alice and their first two sons Horace (7) and Gordon (4).

At some point between April 1901 and June 1906, Horace and his family moved to Ilford House, 290 Iffley Road, leaving his dairy at 38 Hertford Street (named the Oxford Dairy Co. Ltd.) in the care of a manager.

In about 1909 Bradley went into partnership with Henry Stephen Kingerlee, John Edward Elliot, and Joseph Douglas Elliott to carry on business as J. E. Elliott & Co., electrical engineers of 12 Broad Street, but the partnership was dissolved on 18 November 1911.

In the 1911 census Bradley (42), who described himself as the Directory of a Dairy Company, was living at 290 Iffley Road with his wife and their three sons, plus a general servant. Meanwhile his mother Helen was a patient at St John's Hospital for Incurables on the west side of Magdalen Road. .

On 3 April 1912 his son Horace Fred Bradley (18) travelled to Canada. He returned to England and served in France in the First World War from 5 April 1915. He then joined the Royal Air Force and served in the Engine Repair Depot at RAF Abbasia in Egypt until 7 December 1921. He eventually lived at Boars Hill Copse.

His mother Helen Bradley died at the age of 83 at Pile Road (now Oxford Road, Cowley) and was buried in Cowley St John churchyard on 25 November 1913.

At the time of the 1921 census Bradley was living with his wife at 290 Iffley Road and described himself as a caterer and employer at 15 Cornmarket Street (then the Weeks & Co Bakery). He continued to prosper and became a well-known businessman in Oxford, owning the Cadena Café and the George Restaurant as well as Weeks' Bakery.

By 1923 he was the President of the Clarendon Club and also appears to have owned Grimbly Hughes's grocer's shop in Cornmarket, as on 7 March 1923 the Oxford Journal Illustrated published a photograph of a presentation made by “Mr H. J. Bradley of Grimbly, Hughes and Co. Ltd” to an employee who had worked there for 53 years.

By 1925 Bradley had moved to Barton End, a large late-nineteenth-century house in Barton Lane, Headington:

In 1925 Bradley presented a 50 guinea trophy as a competition prize in the summer show of the Oxfordshire Horticultural Society, and in 1927 a Championship Challenge Bowl.

His youngest son Norman, who gave his address as Barton End, went to Freemantle, Australia at the age of 19 on 5 June 1926 to work as a farmer, but later came back to England.

Bradley owned various properties in Oxford, including 17 Queen Street where Harry Neville Prior of Highfield House had his furniture shop. On 30 June 1925 Bradley, still described as a dairy man, assigned the residue of the lease for a "messuage or tenement and premises formerly called The Dolphin and then Prince Albert and a shop and furniture warehouse” at 17 Queen Street to the Electra Palace (Oxford) Ltd.

In about 1927 Bradley was appointed a Justice of the Peace.

Bradley contributed in a number of ways to the Headington community. In 1928 he presented the Bradley Hospital Cup for a charity football competition to be known as the Headington-Wingfield Hospital competition. In 1935 he held a Silver Jubilee party in his house and garden for all the residents of Barton village and Barton Road. His lasting legacy was to donate the land of the former nursery opposite Barton End to be used as an amateur sports ground by Headington Cricket Club, which was being squeezed out of the Manor Ground by Headington United Football Club (of which he had been a director).

On 1 October 1929 Bradley bought Quarry Farm, and on 29 April 1930 he sold it to Oxford City Council for development. (In the event they sold it on again to a private developer, and Wharton Road was cut through it.)

By 1934 Bradley was Chairman of the Oxford & District Gas Company and a Director of the South Midland Gas Corporation Ltd.

The 1939 Register shows Horace Bradley, described as a Director of Public Companies, living at Barton End with his gardener and housekeeper. Meanwhile his wife Alice Bradley, described as independent, was living on her own at 268 Iffley Road. Their son Norman, who was a bakehouse manager, was living at 110C Banbury Road with his wife Hettie Joyce Bradley and their daughter Maria (born 10 December 1931). They later lived at The Paddock, Boars Hill.

Horace Joseph Bradley died at Barton End at the age of 77 on 27 December 1945. His funeral was held two days later at St Andrew's Church, and he was one of the first Headington people to be cremated. His will was proved in the Oxford District Probate Registry on 1 May 1946, and his executors were his sons Horace and Norman, and Herbert Montague Lodge.

His widow Alice Bradley died at 268 Iffley Road on 21 March 1955. Her effects came to £975 3s. 10d., and her executor was her son Horace, a company director.

In 2016 thirty houses called “The Willows” were built on the cricket ground in Barton Road that had been donated to Headington by Bradley.

Horace Bradley's name survives in the Bradley Recreation Ground in Barton Road.