Water, Water Everywhere

I was at Barden on the beautiful Wharfe today with both MrsB and my mum for a nice walk. Mum was not feeling too well (very bad back) but what a beautiful day to lift anyone's spirits.

I am a sucker for a nice bit of stone-carved typography, but struggled to decipher this lovely inscription found on the wall of the old bridge over the river as we parked-up. I hadn't spotted it before, probably because I am usually too preoccupied looking for fish rises from here.

I found out afterwards that the bridge is Grade II Listed and features in one of Pevsner's Buildings Of England guides. It listed the inscription as saying: "This bridge was repayed at the charge of the whole West Riding 1676". Logical I suppose, but I was a little disappointed with it.

It seems the bridge had been rebuilt in 1676, because it had been washed away three years earlier. Several other town bridges along the Wharfe were also destroyed in that same flood. We hear so much talk of flash flooding being a modern phenomena to do with global warming today. It just goes to show.

For the benefit of my mum's current bad back, it was just an easy walk today, and a simple slow loop downstream to the Strid Wood and across the 'aquaduct' bridge and back along the other bank.

I already knew that this second bridge carried quite a bit of history, and today holds a function far more important than it's outward appearance as just a footbridge:

In the 19th century areas such as Bradford had increased rapidly in size due to the Industrial Revolution. The city was already being served in terms of water for wool-washing and power, but cholera was rife because of polluted drinking water, and lack of a proper sewerage system.

The ingenious yet simple solution of Bradford Corporation was to build a cluster of big reservoirs in Nidderdale, and to pipe all the collected water using only gravity to fall the 31 miles to Bradford. This same pipeline bridges the Wharfe via Barden Aquaduct, and most importantly, is still serving Bradford even today.

Postscript: Source to City is a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund designed to raise awareness and understanding of the construction of 11 such reservoirs built in the Nidderdale Area of Natural Beauty.