Besa bridge

fevlad · Post by **fevlad** » Mon 03 Mar, 2008 8:28 pm

how did it get its name?

wiggy · Post by **wiggy** » Mon 03 Mar, 2008 10:12 pm

fevlad wrote: how did it get its name? WHERE IS IT?

buffaloskinner · Post by **buffaloskinner** » Mon 03 Mar, 2008 11:23 pm

Its in Hunslet just near the old station, wasnt there a bees nest near it when it was built!!

buffaloskinner · Post by **buffaloskinner** » Mon 03 Mar, 2008 11:26 pm

Here it is right next to the Funeral Directors. I suppose it took its name from the street which it is on Beza Street.

fevlad · Post by **fevlad** » Tue 04 Mar, 2008 8:13 am

thanksbut where does the name beza come from?The area used to be a major engineering area, and I do know that there was a weap0on called a BESA machine gun, for a while I thought there may be a connection there, but the spelling is different, and the weapons weren't made in Leeds and the bridge pre dates them anyway.

frisbee · Post by **frisbee** » Tue 04 Mar, 2008 8:16 pm

It's called the Beza bridge, and its called that because the Beza Beck runs underneath it. The Beza beck thats runs through Hunslet is almost entirely culverted now. It used to run from the Hunslet Lake, under the bridge, along Midland Road, crossed Low Road and entered the Aire near Thwaite Gate.

LS1 · Post by **LS1** » Wed 05 Mar, 2008 8:51 am

The only thing I can find is from Wikipedia..."Theodore Beza (Théodore de Bèze or de Besze) (June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Protestant Christian theologian and scholar who played an important role in the early Reformation. A member of the monarchomaque movement, who opposed absolute monarchy, he was a disciple of John Calvin and lived most of his life in Switzerland."Not unusual thought for street names to seem totally random, see the Street Names thread for more examples of streets named after seemingly random people.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 05 Mar, 2008 9:22 pm

frisbee wrote: It's called the Beza bridge, and its called that because the Beza Beck runs underneath it. The Beza beck thats runs through Hunslet is almost entirely culverted now. It used to run from the Hunslet Lake, under the bridge, along Midland Road, crossed Low Road and entered the Aire near Thwaite Gate. Is it an extension of belle isle beck that ran past Parkside?

frisbee · Post by **frisbee** » Wed 05 Mar, 2008 10:11 pm

The Parksider wrote: frisbee wrote: It's called the Beza bridge, and its called that because the Beza Beck runs underneath it. The Beza beck thats runs through Hunslet is almost entirely culverted now. It used to run from the Hunslet Lake, under the bridge, along Midland Road, crossed Low Road and entered the Aire near Thwaite Gate. Is it an extension of belle isle beck that ran past Parkside? Actually I stand corrected, the beck is not called Beza Beck its called Balm Beck.Balm Beck starts at Moor Rood, at the point where Belle Isle beck merges with the beck that run's parrelal to Dewsbury Road (I don't the the name of the other beck). The route of the Balm Beck ran through the Recreation ground between Moor Road and Arthington Avenue (which was once a boating lake!) up past Norwich Ave until it reached the Bridge that goes over the railway. It than ran alongside Midlan Rd, crossed Pepper Rd and Low Road and then into the Aire. It is difficult to find any trace of the beck now as it was culverted in the 60's, but there are a lot of photo's of it on Leodis.

fevlad · Post by **fevlad** » Thu 06 Mar, 2008 12:21 pm

fascinating stuffso are we going with the 16th century ecclesiastic then?