Bradford Canal

[Pluto]

Just a note to say that Sunday is the 150th anniversary of the Bradford Canal reopening after its closure following one of several cholera epidemics in Bradford. It was to survive a further 99 years, finally closing in 1922. Almost all the terminal section has been built over, but a surprising amount of the lower section survives, including almost all the bridges, two lock houses, and one engine house. The canal, as reopened in 1873, relied upon water being pumped up from the L&LC, and the condition of the pumps was one reason for the canal's final closure.

[magpie patrick]

I don't think I was aware it had closed earlier - I knew of the 1870's reopening and it's reliance on pumping to avoid the polluted water supply - presumably the earlier closures had the same problem but nor real solution?

[Pluto]

You need a copy of my 2016 L&LC history, which includes a chapter on the Bradford. Basically, the canal was authorised to be fed from the East Beck, which joined Bradford Beck close to the canal basin. To improve water supply shortly after the canal opened, water was taken from Bradford Beck. Although an unauthorised supply, no one complained until at least 50 years later. Bradford Beck had by then become highly polluted and that water ended up in the still waters of the canal, and these were suggested as the source of several epidemics in the area. The canal was prosecuted by Bradford Corporation, who were the body which should have controlled pollution in Bradford Beck, and the canal was forced to close in the mid-1860s. A new canal company reopened the canal in 1873, with clean water pumped up from the L&LC who, together with the A&CN, took over the canal a few years later. The poor condition of the pumps 50 years later was a major reason for the 'new' canal closing in 1922, though lack of a clear transport policy by the new Ministry of Transport, formed in 1919, was perhaps the most significant reason. A Ministry of Transport having no clear transport policy; who would have thought that possible.

[pearley]

Strangely, Canal Road is a good place to see a few of the existing bridges.