Stepping back in time in Bradford

Led by our guide, the two-hour walk takes guests on a whistlestop tour of Bradford, offering a rare glimpse into the city’s largely forgotten canal heritage.  

Made possible by our Community Roots programme, which is supported by funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, the walk transports us back in time to discover how the canal helped to shape the modern multicultural city we see today. It’s a wonderful way to explore Bradford as it celebrates being the UK City of Culture in 2025.

In the late 18th century, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Bradford was a small market town with a population of around 6,000 people. However, the surrounding area was rich in natural resources, with an abundance of stone, coal, and iron.  

With the construction of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, a cohort of local businessmen, led by Abraham Balme and John Hustler, saw an opportunity. They realised that the addition of a Bradford arm of the Leeds & Liverpool would create lucrative trade routes across Yorkshire, the North West, and beyond. 

The Bradford Canal Act was signed in 1771, and three years later, the canal was officially opened, with the final piece in the jigsaw, the iconic Bingley Five Rise Locks, linking the city to neighbouring Skipton. 

When the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was finally completed in 1816, it connected Bradford to the North Sea and the rest of the world. Soon, wool, stone, iron and coal were flowing out of the city, into Liverpool and across the globe. Within a few decades, the little rural hamlet in West Yorkshire had become an industrial superpower, earning the nickname, ‘Wool Capital of the World’.

By the middle of the 19th century, the population had swelled to over 180,000, as people flooded in from across the UK and Europe to fill the mills, ironworks and factories. But while the canal was undoubtedly the making of Bradford, it would soon bring the city to its knees. 

Originally, the canal was fed by Bowling Mill Beck, but as traffic along the route grew, it became clear that this was no longer enough to maintain water levels. To keep the canal and the money flowing, and without seeking proper legal permission, the canal company began drawing water from Bradford Beck, a stagnant, polluted river running through the heart of the city.  

It created a lethal cocktail. Already awash with rubbish and raw sewage, the canal became a toxic, disease-ridden soup, with one local paper dubbing it: “That seething cauldron of all impurity.” 

Things came to a head in 1849 when the city suffered a major outbreak of cholera, which claimed the lives of 406 people. Through a combination of neglect, greed, and woeful mismanagement, the canal, which had put the city of Bradford on the map, had become a public health hazard. 

There was now a growing clamour for the polluted waterway to be closed, and over the next two decades, a legal tug-of-war ensued between the canal company, its shareholders, and Bradford City Council. Eventually, in 1866, an order was issued to close the canal. 

Although the canal was reopened in 1872, with new pumping engines installed at the locks to solve the water problem, it would prove to be a false dawn. In the intervening years, time and trade had moved on. Railways had spread their tentacles across the country, providing businesses with a cheaper, more efficient way to move cargo. In 1922, with traffic dwindling, Bradford Canal was closed forever.

Today, to the casual observer, there are few clues that the canal was ever here. But if you look close enough, you’ll find echoes of Bradford’s infamous waterway scattered throughout the city.  

Beginning at Bradford Cathedral, our guided walk takes you along the old route of the canal, to uncover the city’s forgotten history. You’ll see the old canal basin and pump houses, visit the former home of Abraham Balme, and learn the fascinating story of the tongueless boar, which now adorns the city’s crest. 

Although Bradford Canal was ultimately a failed enterprise, for a time, it put Bradford at the epicentre of global trade, shaping the city we see today. It may have been drained and infilled, its locks demolished, and its bridges abandoned, but somehow, Bradford Canal still runs through the city, like an invisible thread, tying us to our industrial past.