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In Sept 2017 a sink hole with the visible size being more the size of a bath has appeared in Baildon centre at the zebra crossing on Browgate;

There have been several articles T & A site. This is one of the early ones  here

On Wednesday 27 Sept 2017 a digger and dump truck were working in the car park digging out on that side in a way that looks as though it is to allow access and investigation.

It turns out that the roof of the Barnsley Beck culvert has collapsed. The culvert also has lots of large stones in it that have been washed down from further up. Winches and buckets are being used to clear it away so that the water can flow properly.

It looks as though material from the buildings that were in that area when it was cleared for building Ian Clough Hall and the car park in the 1960s had been used for in-fill. During the digging out of the car park to provide access for the work to be done on the culvert the stones shown here were found.

This carved stone is from The Mechanics Institute building. The clock in the building was moved to the Liberal Club. The carving is only right hand half. The full message was reported on in the Bradford Observer on 1 June 1870, see below. However the stone says "this Institute" not "this building"


MECHANICS INSTITUTE CLOCK

The Bradford Observer 1 June 1870

A new public clock set in motion on Monday night. It is the Mechanics Institute and has a dial at each end of the building. Beneath the dial on the NW side of the building is a square stone which bears the following.

This clock was raised by public subscription, through the energy of the Baildon Glee and Madrigal Society, and placed in this building for the special use of the village'.

The clock was started by Mr W Holmes at 8.00pm. The clock was made by Jonathan Cryer of Bingley and cost about £120 including the shafting to the second dial, which meant running the length of the building.

Mr James Fyfe of Shipley said it would ’teach the young people of Baildon how to keep good hours.He hoped that they would learn to know the value of time and improve on it and be prepared to enter, when they had done with all earthly things where clocks will not be required


 

This section of tiling was dug out of the car park and is thought to be from the front of a butcher's shop that was on Browgate before the car park and Ian Clough Hall work was started. It should be possible to get more information to support this.

The photo below was taken on 28 Nov 2017 from inside the culvert looking downhill.

As you can see the culvert is a decent size and slopes downhill very steeply. Almost all the clearance has been completed. The rebuilding work started soon after this and the car park was back in use before Xmas.

Barnsley Beck spends quite a bit of its time underground. It starts on Baildon Moor near the 3 reservoirs, goes under Pennithorne Avenue near the junction with Moorgate and then almost immediately goes under ground to come out again just below Butler Lane. It then goes behind Baildon Hall and the houses on Whitelands Road. It can be seen in the garden of the bungalow across the road from Barnsley Beck Grove where it goes under Station Road. It then stays under ground along behind the houses of Netherhall Road. It then goes between the two houses on Netherhall Road that have the widest driveway - numbers 71 and 73. It then goes under Woodcot Avenue and shows itself for a metre or so before going under the Charlestown Allotments. There is a cover over the culvert on the right of the road leading into the allotments just above the houses behind Barnsley Cottage. It then goes under Otley Road, through Charlestown Cemetery and then into the River Aire.

The connection between the beck and Barnsley is that the beck starts on Baildon Moor which is on the edge of the Barnsley coal seam.