Batley Beck

A short distance down Wilton Street was a beck (a small stream) that ran under the roadway. Batley Beck was a tiny little thing that no longer even ran at the bottom of the valley (where Bradford Road now is) but along one side of it in a channel mostly enclosed by concrete, under buildings or otherwise prevented from reaching what must have been its ancestral stream bed. That did not stop the beck from rising, after particularly strong rains, when it would overflow the banks on the downhill side and flood the houses between it and Bradford Road. The houses at the foot of Wilton Street were modified by the county council – they had concrete blocks built into the outer doorways, so to enter, even though the sidewalk outside and the floor inside were at the same level, you had to hop up and over an eight-inch step.

The beck supported an amazing variety of wildlife on its tiny banks. I remember one particular plant – jewelweed – that grew beautiful yellow flowers followed by seed pods which if you touched them, exploded, banging a spray of seeds into the air and leaving behind the curled-back green fronds that had previously formed the seedpod. It was fun to dodge along the bank and touch them to see them go off.

Unfortunately, this was almost certainly an unhealthy pastime, as the beck was used as a water supply and waste dump for every business along the road. You could tell what the fashionable color of the season was, because when the town woolen mills began dyeing, the beck changed to that color. Some years it would run lime green, some years pink, some years yellow. Even at other times of the year, the sheepy smell of lanolin hung greasily under the smell of greenery and wet earth. Unsurprisingly, there were no fish and few invertebrates in the water. It was rare to see or hear a frog amongst the explosive undergrowth.