The Goit

Bradford Goit was a medieval millrace, redirecting water from Bradford Beck to power manorial cornmills probably situated between Aldermanbury and Godwin Street. It seems that Bradford's first steam-powered factory, Holme Mill, was built alongside the Goit, and other early industrial development was concentrated in this area, which lies between Thornton Road and Sunbridge Road, just west of the city centre.

John Johnson's 1802 map of Bradford and Rapkin's 1854 map both show the Goit as a major feature, branching off the Beck near Water Lane.

An area of notorious slums until the 1850 Bradford Improvement Act, Goitside was designated a Conservation Area in 1992, and featured in the Allsop Masterplan. But despite the renovation of some individual properties, the area as a whole remains extraordinarily undeveloped and derelict, with Victorian and later industrial buildings in varying states of decay.

Most remarkably of all, it is still possible to trace the line of the Goit for about a quarter of a mile as it approaches the city centre. From the bottom of Lower Grattan Road steps lead down to an alley between dilapidated buildings, and you can walk over enormous flagstones covering the brick-lined channel of the old watercourse. Further on, in the vicinity of Soho Street and Tetley Street, the Goit runs beneath loosely laid metal plates. It makes a fascinating if insalubrious exploration. Further progress is prevented by the New Southgate multi-storey car park, which has presumably swept away all underground features, but the location of this car park on a street called Goitside indicates the original continuation of the Goit's route towards the city centre.

A photographic survey of Bradford Beck undertaken by C.H.Wood in 1962-63 includes a shot of the Goit's underground outfall to the Beck at Aldermanbury.