Thackley

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Thackley
Yorkshire
West Riding

Thackley Corner, Thackley
Location
Grid reference: SE175387
Location: 53°50’38"N, 1°44’2"W
Data
Post town: Bradford
Postcode: BD10
Dialling code: 01274
Local Government
Council: Bradford

Thackley is a small village suburb near Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The village is loosely bordered by the village of Idle to the south, to the west by the West Royd area of Shipley and elsewhere by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Thackley is the northernmost part of Bradford south of the River Aire.

History

In Buck Wood, an enclosure has been unearthed, of a settlement occupied from Neolithic to post-Roman times.[1][2] A substantial boundary wall had been built of local unworked stone, enclosing a natural terrace of level ground now surrounded by woods,[1] which formed an oval enclosure. The remains of a quern stone for grinding grain was found within this central area. Leading away from the enclosure is an orthostat wall of large stones, part of a network of such walls in the wood.[1]

Former works premises on Thackley Road

Historically the area formed part of the Lordship of Idle.

In the 17th century a tanning industry developed and in the 19th century sandstone was quarried, and mills were built for a local cotton industry.[3]

Brackendale Mill was a woollen mill established circa 1800 in the north of Thackley.[4] The mill was extended in 1829 with an engine house and water wheel[5] and in the 1870s a steam powered weaving shed was added to the site.[4][5] Today the mill building is living accommodation.

Recent dwelling development on Weavers Croft off Crag Hill Road occupies part of the site of the former Bowling Green Mills.

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was built through the far north of Thackley in the 1770s.

In 1845 railway construction began with the building of a two-track Thackley Railway Tunnel under Thackley Hill;in use up until 1968. In 1900 a second adjacent and parallel tunnel was added on the northern side of the original to create a fast passenger line and a slow goods line on the Airedale Line.

Between 1908 and 1939 sickly children from Bradford were bussed in to attend the Open Air School in Buck Wood. A plateau formed from tunnel wasted near the main entrance to Buck Wood was used as a playground by children at the school and traces of the foundations of the school buildings can still be seen beyond the steps leading down from the north-east edge of the plateau.

Buck Mill Lane bridge and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal

Buck Wood

The entrance to Buck Wood

Buck Wood, of 104 acres, lies to the north of Thackley. The wood covers an area of fairly level high ground, as well as the steep north-facing slope down to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

Above this valley Buck Wood forms a broad semi-circular zone of woodland, adjoining other similar woods that are part of a woodland corridor stretching along the Aire Valley.

Buck Wood lies above a layer of millstone grit rock with numerous rocky outcrops, especially on the steeper slopes, where quarrying has taken place.[6] The wood contains a mixture of habitats, with areas of both broad-leaved woodland and mixed deciduous/coniferous plantations.

Pictures

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Thackley)
The canal near Thackley
The canal near Thackley  
The canal and Buck Wood
The canal and Buck Wood  
Windhill Co-operative Society, Leeds Road
Windhill Co-operative Society, Leeds Road  
Methodist Church community centre
Methodist Church community centre  
New apartments off Park Road.
New apartments off Park Road.  
Stone-built urinal on Leeds Road.
Stone-built urinal on Leeds Road.  
* listed building

Sport

  • Cricket: Thackley C.C.
  • Football: Thackley F.C.

Outside links

References