General - Help With Raising Awareness of Bradford's Culverted Becks

[Rob2CV]

I'm a member of the Friends of Bradford's Becks (FoBB).
FoBB strive to raise awareness of the plight of Bradford's Becks and to try help improve them. I have spent the past 10 years observing reporting and investigating pollution in Bradford. I have learned much about the culverted parts from the great Bradford Beck threads posted here.
We are involved with a project to document the industrial history of the Bradford. Much of this is to do with the textile industry which was the source of Bradford's wealth and rapid growth in the 19th century. Gross pollution of Bradford Beck was one of the costs. I'm sorry to say that the indifference towards the beck that this created still goes on today.
We are planning to build an interactive map showing the old courses of the Becks before they were culverted. It would be wonderful to be able to incorporate some of the photos taken by members here into the map. This is an idea that has been inspired by the brilliant Hidden Manchester Map.

If you have posted about Bradford and are able and willing to help with locating photos then please do get in touch!
Many thanks
(-:

 

[Esoteric Eric]

Hi, I'll send you a direct message.

 

[Rob2CV]

Esoteric Eric,
Many thanks for getting the ball rolling with this!
(-:

 

[jezzyboo]

Enjoyed the drains Bradford offered please feel free to use any of my pics for your research

 

[Rob2CV]

jezzyboo,
Many thanks for your kind offer. I'm glad that the bowels of Bradford gave satisfaction!
Do you think that you would be able to locate your photos on a map?

 

[jezzyboo]

jezzyboo,
Many thanks for your kind offer. I'm glad that the bowels of Bradford gave satisfaction!
Do you think that you would be able to locate your photos on a map?

yes i think so its hard to tell exactly where you are underground as the system does not always follow roads etc where we entered or exited or where we came to an open air section i have tried to pinpoint the nearest road on my reports , hope this helps

 

[Rob2CV]

 

[Rob2CV]

Above is the start of the interactive map of Bradford's Becks which FoBB has been working on. It has been made with the Google Earth file which was compiled by UrbExers (sorry, I don't know who exactly but thank you!) after years of dedicated exploring. I would like to populate interesting points shown on the map with the best photos that are available. Does any one have a suggestion of how we could progress and manage labeling and sharing photos? Is it possible to set up a private "working group" here where those who would like to help could share and discuss? Lots of the photos on the threads here are quite low resolution. It would be nice to have full size photos.
Thank you, in anticipation.

FoBB map (copy) – Felt

The only cloud-native GIS platform.

felt.com

 

[popebenedictus]

Early in my career I worked at MWH Global with the team who designed and built the 1993ish Bradford Beck Tunnel scheme.
They came from the devolving of Bradford City Councils drainage department so I suspect if there are any archives on the scheme the council will have them

 

[Rob2CV]

popebenedictus
Thank you for your interest and sharing that you actually worked on the Bradford Beck bypass, I imagine that was quite an undertaking!

I do have some flat bed scans of pen and ink technical drawings from surveys which were done in 1990 of some of the culverted water courses. These were shared with FoBB by the council. I have been overlaying them on modern maps to trace the course of the culverts which has proven to be a much more absorbing and time consuming exercise than I ever anticipated it would be. Very few of the paper drawings fit the modern maps, they all need to be tweaked to a greater or lesser extent. I have plotted the course of Bradford's Becks using the 1852 OS map as a point of reference. From the few sections of Bradford Beck which remain above ground in the urban areas, they correlate very well to the 1852 map.

 

[Parky]

Above is the start of the interactive map of Bradford's Becks which FoBB has been working on. It has been made with the Google Earth file which was compiled by UrbExers (sorry, I don't know who exactly but thank you!) after years of dedicated exploring. I would like to populate interesting points shown on the map with the best photos that are available. Does any one have a suggestion of how we could progress and manage labeling and sharing photos? Is it possible to set up a private "working group" here where those who would like to help could share and discuss? Lots of the photos on the threads here are quite low resolution. It would be nice to have full size photos.
Thank you, in anticipation.

FoBB map (copy) – Felt

The only cloud-native GIS platform.

felt.com

Is there any way to download this as a KML file?

 

[paulpowers]

@Ojay and @Squirrell 911 are the people to talk to
They did an amazing series of reports on the tunnels and shit pipes below Brapford