A network of watercourses

The Beck and its tributaries drain the Bradford basin. My project title Seven Streams
denotes the seven named tributaries that rise to the west of the city and form the course of the Beck. These are Pinch Beck, High Birks Beck, Hole Bottom Beck, Pitty Beck, Chellow Dean Beck, Bull Greave Beck and West Brook. The main channel is first called Clayton Beck, then (briefly) Middle Brook and finally Bradford Beck.

The sequence of tributaries, as I understand them, is as follows:

• High Birks Beck and Hole Bottom Beck join Pinch Beck in the valley between Thornton and Clayton to form Clayton Beck
• Pitty Beck runs south-east through Bell Dean from Egypt, and joins Clayton Beck to form Middle Brook
• Bull Greave Beck joins Middle Brook from Scholemoor
• Chellow Dean Beck joins Middle Brook from the north to create Bradford Beck
• West Brook flows through Bradford University beside Theatre in the Mill, joining Bradford Beck below Bradford College

However Alfred Robinson in an article 'The Water Which Runneth to Bradford' in the Bradford & Dales Bystander (Sept. 1974) refers to West Brook as Horton Beck, and claims that it divides into two branches at Shearbridge.

There are also tributaries further downstream that join the Beck as underground watercourses and are not part of my video coverage. Bowling Beck is a substantial stream with its confluence under the brick arches near Market Street. This is followed by East Brook. On its final section between Canal Road and Shipley the Beck is joined by Bolton Beck, Trap Syke, Red Beck and Northcliff Dike.

Numerous unnamed drains and channels also discharge into the Beck, notably the outfall from Bradford Goit – the old millrace that runs on the top side of Thornton Road from Bradford's medieval mill. It joins the Beck underground at the bottom of Sunbridge Road.