The first Becknic.

On Sunday 30th June we held the first Becknic – that is a picnic on the Beck!

A few voluneteers started the day off with a litter picking excercise round the area between Poplar Road and Shipley station. The worst area was behind the Nisa store on Valley Road – it would seem that the rear of the store is popular with some drinkers and where do they like to throw their empty cans – yes over the fence into the Beck of course! Well done to David Brazendale who was suitable dressed in chest high waders who worked tirelessly on the bank getting the rubbish out – including a large Costa Coffee display stand and a wooden pallet as well as very many empty cans.

The Bradford Voices choir assembled under the railway arch by Shipley station and sang some suitable songs – the most appropriate was called Hidden Waters which was written for ‘Bradford, the Musical‘ in 2005 by Janet Wood. They were conducted by their musical director Ana Hayrabedian.

Stephen Bland also finished off the last of the updated signs – covering over the old Contaminated Water ones with ones saying it was the Bradford Beck and giving out the contact details for Beck group.

After the choir had performed we moved onto the area of grassland over the the Beck on Vallery Road, we were lucky with the weather as the sun shone for us. The choir sang another couple of songs and then Eddie Lawler (the Bard of Saltaire) ended the afternoon with his song about the Beck.