Beck caused flood chaos

But it may have been a very different story had it not been for a multi-million pound scheme a few decades ago, which tackled the growing problem of Batley Beck overflowing and flooding Bradford Road.

Flooding had always been a problem along Bradford Road, which follows the valley of the beck from Batley into Dewsbury.

It’s why Batley Carr has its name – a ‘carr’ being a swampy woodland.

The owners of property which grew around the road just had to put up with floods, the most dramatic being the ‘Great Flood’ of 1925.

As industry developed, the beck was built over, filled with rubbish and confined to smaller and smaller channels which meant, of course, that floods became more and more regular.

Each time the water damaged goods in warehouses, shops and homes. In many photographs of the floods, some of which are printed here, Bradford Road appears to be more of a river than a street.

Eventually, a scheme was hatched to clean out the entire beck, widen culverts and introduce regular maintenance.

Now, although the crossroads at Town Street still become waterlogged after heavy rainfall, it’s nothing like the problems Bradford Road used to face.