Bradford Beck, our beck, runs unseen beneath the very heart of Bradford. Some cities have managed to bring their hidden streams back into the daylight. Unfortunately in central Bradford, the Beck runs mostly under buildings so “daylighting” the beck is not an easy option. However, if we can’t see the Beck, a good start is to know where it is.
We have marked the Beck’s route through the city centre with 15 plaques in the pavement. Each plaque carries a couplet from a poem about the Beck. The first plaque is at the side of the old Odeon cinema, soon to be “Bradford Live” and as you walk the route, you follow the flowing Beck across the city centre. The map shows where you can find the plaques in Bradford’s pavements.
There are several ways to take the tour:
You can go to the Beck Poem below, where each couplet in the poem will take you to its plaque.
If you prefer to walk with paper in your hand, scroll down and print off a walk guide.
Bradford Beck
On westerly moors
Rise Chellow, Pinch, Pitty
Energy once harnessed
To power this wool city
Goit and Beck in parallel
Power in, waste out
Spectral Saxon elders
Mourn memory of trout
In pure flow below Sunbridge
Fish once chased
Cherished sparkling Beck
Degraded to a midden
Jane Callaghan
FOBB © 2015
15 voices read ‘Beck’
