There's an over flow from the canal to the river via a pipe following Redcote lane. It burst under the railway bridge a few years back and alarmingly eroded a lot of material from the bridge footings. I've always wondered if it goes under the electricity substation or was diverted around.
Thought the idea of looking as far back as possible on maps may reveal another beck that has been obliterated by roads and houses etc.Nearest I can get is on Leeds/Bradford road where Broadlea Hill rises up the hill with contours in a series of descending "V" shapes typical of those that accommodate a beck.
Tithe map or more clearer first OS map reveals a small lake as part of the Gardens of Sandford House, albeit a distinct stream is not marked actually feeding the lake.
Below the lake over the Leeds Bradford Road there is a sizeable stream marked flowing down to the canal and possibly on to the river before the Canal was dug.
Field trip/dog walk required, and so it was a climb over the wall job into that broad strip of often wild and derelict forgotten land either side of the canal and river full of overgrown scruffy land often littered with rubbish, various gas electric sewage and water service stations mains and pylons, and plenty of keep out and private signs, with associated fencing and barbed wire.
All nicely ignored by the locals....
Where any stream may have flowed the Leeds Bradford Road forms a formidable barrier. Thick pipeworks appear from the tall stone retaining wall that holds up the road as a kind of dam and pipework appears out of that and then dissapears underground below a sub station.
Maybe this carries the water from what was once a "Sandford Beck" before the old road existed
Intrepid exploration below the sub-station then reveals the prize, and rather deep watercourse appears and carries straight on down to the canal. For all it's depth there was little water in it, if it ever was a stream it is easy to speculate that before the Leeds Bradford road was built many years ago, then it would have flowed with water, the lake seems to confirm that
On the tithe map there are later matching maps in which the "stream" is nicely marked, however it's marked as a "drain" which it sadly probably has to be classed as such today, but all the evidence you can still see in the shape of the land points to the natural lie of the land accommodating a stream wether or not it flowed with water all year round.
At it's outlet a mighty 2 foot main pipe rises out of the ground to cross the canal on concrete plinths and girders, and I wonder what's in that?
Statistics: Posted by The Parksider — Thu 30 Jun, 2016 6:02 am
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Statistics: Posted by Gars28 — Thu 10 Mar, 2016 9:52 pm
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Statistics: Posted by Gars28 — Thu 10 Mar, 2016 7:20 pm
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Statistics: Posted by Gars28 — Thu 10 Mar, 2016 4:37 pm
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Statistics: Posted by Gars28 — Thu 10 Mar, 2016 4:21 pm
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The little stream that flows under Harrogate Road and under Alwoodley Lane, then into Wigton Knowle, does flow into a drain which goes around the eastern side of the reservoir.
I've spent a lot of time at Eccup during the summer and managed to trace some of the little streams in the area. I used a Philip's street atlas of West Yorkshire as a map, so all place references can be found there.
From the map, the stream that runs under Harrogate Road, Alwoodley Lane and into Wigton Knowle, appears to drain into the reservoir at the deep inlet at the south-east corner. However, it drains into a small culvert, hidden by trees, a few yards short of the apex of the inlet.
Once underground, it is joined, on the left, by another culvert which surfaces to the west of the inlet. This stream can be traced, on the surface, as far west as the area near Reservoir Lodge. I haven't followed this stream to its source as it flows into the Reservoir Lodge gardens.
The culvert follows the eastern edge of the reservoir and somewhere close to the gatehouse at the end of the lane leading down to the reservoir from Harrogate Road. The waters from the culvert emerges at the top of a magnificent flight of 142 steps and joins Eccup Beck.
I'm surprised that the culvert outfall hasn't been mentioned before, but it is hidden just inside the treeline. For completeness, I looked at the drainage of the north side of the reservoir. Eccup Beck runs in an open ditch along the north side of the reservoir with a very short modern culvert which takes it under the road across the embankment into a steep open channel which runs diagonally down the embankment.
I've put together a small website with some photographs at http://www.urbanredux.uk
This is fantastic - I've meant for ages to go up to Wigton Knowle and find out what happens to this beck, but just haven't had chance. Good to finally confirm what I suspected, ie that it doesn't flow into the reservoir but gets diverted around it, albeit in the opposite direction to what I'd assumed.I've spent a lot of time at Eccup during the summer and managed to trace some of the little streams in the area. I used a Philip's street atlas of West Yorkshire as a map, so all place references can be found there.
From the map, the stream that runs under Harrogate Road, Alwoodley Lane and into Wigton Knowle, appears to drain into the reservoir at the deep inlet at the south-east corner. However, it drains into a small culvert, hidden by trees, a few yards short of the apex of the inlet.
Once underground, it is joined, on the left, by another culvert which surfaces to the west of the inlet. This stream can be traced, on the surface, as far west as the area near Reservoir Lodge. I haven't followed this stream to its source as it flows into the Reservoir Lodge gardens.
The culvert follows the eastern edge of the reservoir and somewhere close to the gatehouse at the end of the lane leading down to the reservoir from Harrogate Road. The waters from the culvert emerges at the top of a magnificent flight of 142 steps and joins Eccup Beck.
I'm surprised that the culvert outfall hasn't been mentioned before, but it is hidden just inside the treeline. For completeness, I looked at the drainage of the north side of the reservoir. Eccup Beck runs in an open ditch along the north side of the reservoir with a very short modern culvert which takes it under the road across the embankment into a steep open channel which runs diagonally down the embankment.
I've put together a small website with some photographs at http://www.urbanredux.uk
So having studied the OS map afresh via Bing, would I be right in thinking that having gone down the 142 steps, it joins Sturdy Beck (another waterway close to my heart...) and ultimately discharges into the lake at Harewood House?
Remaining mystery: where does it come from? It appears from under the road at Brookhill Crescent, leaving us to guess its source. I've posted my guesses further up this thread (spring at that point, fortified by land drainage from the Sandhill estate, plus maybe some kind of outflow from Moortown East Service Reservoir) but it would be nice to confirm it somehow.
Statistics: Posted by mark1978 — Thu 26 Nov, 2015 12:51 am
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I've often walked by the "western inlet" and had thought that the water going in there will likely eventually go to the reservoir. The course can be followed for a while by the few short stone structures by the track that have manhole like covers on them, but those structures seem to disappear (at least from easy view) before reaching the reservoir dam end. Many years back now, finding it could be opened, I opened the cover at the first structure just after the 'western inlet' and looked down its short shaft to the narrow water course. One thing I do recall were some interesting white fungus-like growths on the shaft wall.
Statistics: Posted by Leodian — Tue 03 Nov, 2015 9:43 pm
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From the map, the stream that runs under Harrogate Road, Alwoodley Lane and into Wigton Knowle, appears to drain into the reservoir at the deep inlet at the south-east corner. However, it drains into a small culvert, hidden by trees, a few yards short of the apex of the inlet.
Once underground, it is joined, on the left, by another culvert which surfaces to the west of the inlet. This stream can be traced, on the surface, as far west as the area near Reservoir Lodge. I haven't followed this stream to its source as it flows into the Reservoir Lodge gardens.
The culvert follows the eastern edge of the reservoir and somewhere close to the gatehouse at the end of the lane leading down to the reservoir from Harrogate Road. The waters from the culvert emerges at the top of a magnificent flight of 142 steps and joins Eccup Beck.
I'm surprised that the culvert outfall hasn't been mentioned before, but it is hidden just inside the treeline. For completeness, I looked at the drainage of the north side of the reservoir. Eccup Beck runs in an open ditch along the north side of the reservoir with a very short modern culvert which takes it under the road across the embankment into a steep open channel which runs diagonally down the embankment.
I've put together a small website with some photographs at http://www.urbanredux.uk
Statistics: Posted by ultrix — Tue 03 Nov, 2015 1:42 pm
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Statistics: Posted by mark1978 — Mon 15 Jul, 2013 1:24 am
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Statistics: Posted by mark1978 — Mon 15 Jul, 2013 1:23 am
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