The Bradford Canal - Page 3

Frizinghall

At the end of Poplar Crescent, the ground in front rises (Fig. 3.1), as previously mentioned, an ideal place to restore Crag Locks. Fig. 3.2 - Looking back towards Poplar Crescent from the higher ground.

The route can then be seen rough shrub land with a dip in the ground level (Fig. 3.3) on the edge of some playing fields.

the canal then passes the edge of the brick structure (Fig. 3.4), arriving at Gaisby Lane Bridge and Frizinghall Mill (Fig. 3.5) on the Owlet side of the valley. Between the current site of the brick building and the bridge stood a large wharf serving Bolton Wood Quarries. The stone from Gaisby Rock and Elland Flags was of such high quality and was exported widely, as well as being used to build much of Bradford itself. The 1908 map shows fixed and travelling cranes along the canal side used for loading barges with the finest Yorkshire sandstone. Such was the demand that when the canal was closed and drained in 1867, it was the quarry owners that bought and restored the canal with pumping stations alongside each of the locks. Despite the close proximity of the railway line, a branch was never built to serve the quarry, the owners citing access difficulties. Most of the quarries were closed down during the 1st world war and were never reopened due to a deteriation in the quality of the stone. Today, a small scale quarrying operation is still carried out on the site.

Bridge 5 - Gaisby Lane

At Frizinghall Mill, the canal crosses under the minor road Gaisby Lane (Fig. 3.5). The Bridge (Fig. 3.6) over the canal at this point has been refurbished (April 2004), and major works took place for over a month. I'm not quite sure what they were doing, I suspect strengthening it for lorries due to new EU regulations (and Bolton Wood Quarries located further up the hill). At one point I thought they had started work rebuilding the canal! However one interesting point is that regulations have recently been changed governing historic canal sites, and legislation has been brought in ensuring that new road building cannot destroy the route of a former canal if there is a likelihood that it may be reopened in the future. So the question is were the Gaisby Lane bridge repairs carried out because they had to leave it in or because it was cheaper to repair than flattening the bridge??? Mind you this is Bradford council, so I'll assume the latter for now!

Before the bridge stood the old Frizinghall Chemical Works, formerly Frizinghall Worsted Mill, more recently a dump, and even more recently re-landscaped and flattened. The original route now enters the modern industrial world of timber yards and office blocks, and would previously have seemed to be an impossible restoration project without flattening a large number of buildings; however as mentioned earlier, Bradford council own much of the land, and would quite happily turf out the odd business for the restoration of the canal.

The building we see today on the Bradford side of Gaisby lane (with the chimney) is a later development, and stands on the former site of St. Lawrence's Church is currently used as a car repair workshop (Fig. 3.7) and used to be the home of Diamond Seal Windows. Here the canal route follows that of the steel fencing to the right into the wooded area at the rear of the photograph, where our intrepid explorer gets quite muddy and tangled in shrubbery!

At this point the Bradford Canal enthusiast has a split choice - Bradford Waterway's own project plans divide the route into two stages - the first being the route we have just taken from Shipley Junction to Gaisby Lane where a marina would be built and the canal restored in a sympathetic traditional style. From this point onwards phase two of their project plans to take a thoroughly modern canal through to a brand new wharf at Forster Square. More about the project can be found at www.bradfordwaterways.co.uk

Stanley Road - our next destination runs towards us, parallel with the left hand side of the brown building in the centre of the picture. As it reaches the near left corner it bends sharply to the left rising to cross the canal at Bridge 6.

Stanley Road - Bridge 6

In 1853 the canal once more ran through open countryside, and whilst on it's right is now the parkland, the left are flats and houses, most modern replacements following 20th century slum clearances. A short distance from Gaisby Lane, a winding point was provided on the left hand side for turning round boats, now the site of a bungalow and garden. It is not clear from the map, however the towpath appears to continue on the west side (right hand side heading towards Bradford) for the entire course of the canal. A bridge now takes the canal under Stanley Road, which does not appear on the 1853 map, as there was no road back then. As with Bridge 2 above Lock 1, the canal appears one one side of the road, but on the other, the ground reaches up to the same height as the road.

My quest to find the route in 2005 was quite a challenge as this part of the course leading up to the bridge is heavily overgrown, and needs to be approached from the Stanley Road bridge end, there is no access from the mill. There is an area of open parkland, used for football, rugby and cricket, so the wood appears to be a popular dumping ground for all sorts. The view here is looking back towards Shipley and Frizinghall Mill, and whilst there are no signs of the canal, it's route is a clear dip in the ground level (Fig. 3.9)

In the middle of summer it was a mass of greenery and rubbish and I struggled to even see the underside of Stanley road bridge on my first visit. But I eventually made it through the jungle!

All that was to change - In late April 2006, work began clearing the site under the bridge (Fig. 3.10). At present it is not clear exactly why. Whilst ground level had been raised on the Bradford side of the bridge to meet the road as the canal was filled in, on the other it is at canal water level and the arch bricked up. Over the course of a week the area was cleared using a crane (Fig 3.11) to drop skips over the side of the bridge way and the brickwork removed revealing the underside of the bridge (Fig 3.12). It may have simply been to allow access under the bridge and check the structure (Fig. 3.15). With the wall removed a galvanised steel fence has been put in it's place with large gates to allow for access.

Fig. 3.13 - The caption on the bridge reads "Holdsworth & Sons Boiler Makers Bradford York 1891". Although odd that York seems to be a bit of an afterthought!

Fig. 3.14 - The floor level appears to be concrete suggesting that the bridge may have had past use for storage or as a workshop of some sort. Again, no direct sign of the canal. At this juncture it's worth pointing out that the Leeds and Liverpool and  the Bradford branch has / had broad beam locks, so it's not just for "narrow" boats. With Stanley Road Bridge being a later addition, it is clear that it spanned the entire canal, there would have been no narrowing of the width at this point, two broad boats could happily pass beneath side-by-side unlike at Gaisby Lane. At the rear of the bridge you can see a brick wall up to half height used to hold back the soil when the canal was in-filled from the opposite end.