Burn Bridge
Encyclopedia
Burn Bridge is a village in the borough of Harrogate
in North Yorkshire
, England
.
Burn Bridge is set largely on the side of a hill. The small river Crimple Beck runs through the lower area. Burn Bridge plays host to Pannal
Cricket Club and the Black Swan pub.
which runs along its southern edge.
The nearest shop, school and church are at the adjacent village of Pannal
. The village's only community centre
is the Black Swan pub, so its Fifth of November
gatherings and other annual celebrations tend to take place in the pub garden, apart from the August bank holiday
gala which takes place at Pannal Cricket Ground. A mobile library visits Westminster Drive for 10 minutes and Spring Lane for 20 minutes every few weeks.
and Leeds
, a few Menwith Hill employees and many retired people. To the west is mostly pasture
land with sheep and cattle. There are two riding stable
s in the area. To the east is Pannal which expanded, when Crimple Meadows was built in the 1970s, to the point at which it would have joined with Burn Bridge. A condition on building permission for Crimple Meadows was that there would be only a footpath and no roads, between the two villages, to maintain their separate identities.
village bus to Harrogate
at two-hourly intervals on weekdays; fewer on Saturdays. Otherwise the nearest bus route is the 36 between Leeds
and Ripon
, via Pannal
and Harrogate
. Pannal railway station
is the nearest rail link, providing trains to Leeds
, and to York
via Harrogate
, at half-hourly intervals Monday to Saturday; less frequently on Sundays.
, later a grocer's shop until the 1960s and now converted to an office.Pannal News site, Monday, April 14, 2008
by 1961
on a slope where there were once drystone
-walled pastures and a small wood. In Westminster Drive there are the two last remaining thatched
houses in the area, and a Victorian house built before 1860, which was once called The Horst.
forms the boundary between Burn Bridge and Pannal
Recreation Ground. Originally a commercial planting of softwood
, it is now owned by Harrogate Borough Council
which maintains it as a local amenity
, and is in the process of gradually re-planting it with indigenous
trees.
nearest to the bridge backed onto the milldam
, and housed the water wheel
. Now converted to housing, it still contains the original wooden bevel gears
which were driven by the water wheel
. The milldam
was fed from Crimple Beck via a goit
upstream, and the water ran off via a culvert
under the corn mill
and returned to the stream near Malthouse Lane bridge. The milldam
was drained ca.1975 and is now a wildlife preserve under a woodland preservation order
. Fauna such as woodpeckers
and willow warbler
s are colonizing this site.
The Victorian house between the courtyard and Pannal Cricket Ground is Bridge House, which was once the farm house of Thomas Hudson, who owned much of the local land to the south of Crimple Beck. His barn
stands on the other side of the cricket ground, and is now converted to housing. The barn had cow byres
and stable
s behind. The attached semicircular gin gang
, where a horse turned the grinding mill
for the corn, existed until the winter of 2010−2011, when it was demolished to be rebuilt as domestic accommodation.
was built on farmland nearby, in what is now Malthouse Lane. The malthouse
was built ca.1876 by farmer Thomas Hudson, who bought the land for the purpose in that year from landowner Eliza Penelope Bentley of Pannal Hall. Wagons brought coal and barley from a railway siding
whose remaining containing wall for the coal can still be seen by the Harrogate Line
. The malthouse
was demolished in 1975, but the malthouse
manager's house remains. The cobbled
yard of that house was the malthouse
coalyard, and steps once led down from the coalyard to the boiler
room and river. Four houses, built in 1975, now stand on the malthouse
site.
which was previously called Rose Cottage, was built before 1840. An early 20th-century photograph of the malthouse shows Rose Cottage as a much smaller single-storey building.
and SINCs, and freshwater fish
and crayfish
are protected under various Acts
. The river does have a history of mink
predating other animals, but there are still mallard
s, moorhen
s, herons
, kingfishers and grey wagtails
, besides more common birds.
downstream; as a consequence of this, Yorkshire Water built a low flood defence wall along part of Malthouse Lane and between some properties and the beck. The second shallow flood was in 2004 when the storm drain
carrying water from the Westminster estate became blocked where it ran under a house in Malthouse Lane, and the water had to find other routes to the beck
.Information from residents. These faults were corrected.
Finally in June 2007 there was a one-foot-deep flood in the area after a major but temporary National Grid gas-pipeline
-laying operation. Very wide paths of earth were exposed and compacted for the pipelaying further upstream during the works, encouraging sudden, fast drainage across acres of bare earth into the river after heavy storms, and the beck ran too full for the first time. In a similar situation at Peckham in 2003, some residents suggested that the process of laying a pipeline had encouraged flooding; however this was denied by the pipelaying company Weeks, and by the Council which had responsibility for overseeing the works. According to the Natural Gas Forum, the proper procedure when pipelaying is to erect barriers to prevent massive, sudden storm water runoff into streams, when swathes of bare earth are exposed. Compacted soil from large-scale works can lead to increased runoff and higher peak storm flows into streams. Therefore all of the above flooding was apparently due to human agency; no evidence has been discovered so far of the existence of a floodplain
here.
house in which the Dennison family of farmworker
s brought up their 21 children. The site is now part of the garden of Norfolk House.
by town planners. This is possibly because there is Burn Bridge or Pannal
on one side of these fields and, in the distance, a main road on the other side. So far, the Pannal
Village Society, local residents and certain town councillors have successfully argued against these plans, on the grounds that the village is already too much urbanised for a rural area with no official community centre of its own. It has also been suggested that Burn Bridge Road is already heavily used by commuters to and from Harrogate, such that speed-control measures have been built into the road. Already it is unsafe to walk from Burn Bridge via Burn Bridge Road to the bus stop on the Leeds-Harrogate road during the rush hour, as Burn Bridge Road is narrow and has many corners, roadside ditches and no footpath. Recent official suggestions about sites, given by town planners, are here. It was suggested in the Harrogate Advertiser in February 2008 that Harrogate Council
had conceded that development in this area would impact negatively on the environment.
has published a consultation booklet entitled: Pannal Conservation Area Character Appraisal - Draft for consultation (March 2009). This brings a small part of Burn Bridge into the proposed Pannal conservation area, while leaving most of Burn Bridge unappraised, and Burn Bridge itself is not being appraised as an independent unit. Please see Talk:Burn Bridge for further comments on this matter, which is currently under local discussion with the Council. It is not known whether there are any listed buildings in Burn Bridge as there are no Burn Bridge items on English Heritage
's Images of England site.
Harrogate (borough)
Harrogate is a local government district and borough of North Yorkshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate but it also includes surrounding towns and villages...
in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Burn Bridge is set largely on the side of a hill. The small river Crimple Beck runs through the lower area. Burn Bridge plays host to Pannal
Pannal
Pannal is a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated to the immediate south of Harrogate and in many ways is a suburb of the town. The village is served by Pannal railway station on the Harrogate Line between Leeds and York.Pannal is well known for its golf...
Cricket Club and the Black Swan pub.
Name and community centre
Although the history of its name is unknown, there has been speculation that Burn Bridge may have been named after a fire destroyed the bridge in earlier times.Information from Postcards from Pannal by Anne Smith (Self-published by Anne Smith, Harrogate. Undated; ca.2000). It has also been suggested that the bridge was named after the burn, or beckStream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
which runs along its southern edge.
The nearest shop, school and church are at the adjacent village of Pannal
Pannal
Pannal is a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated to the immediate south of Harrogate and in many ways is a suburb of the town. The village is served by Pannal railway station on the Harrogate Line between Leeds and York.Pannal is well known for its golf...
. The village's only community centre
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...
is the Black Swan pub, so its Fifth of November
Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in England. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding...
gatherings and other annual celebrations tend to take place in the pub garden, apart from the August bank holiday
Bank Holiday
A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom or a colloquialism for public holiday in Ireland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days, although the majority of the population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract...
gala which takes place at Pannal Cricket Ground. A mobile library visits Westminster Drive for 10 minutes and Spring Lane for 20 minutes every few weeks.
Residents and surroundings
This village is now mainly a dormitory for commuters to HarrogateHarrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
and Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, a few Menwith Hill employees and many retired people. To the west is mostly pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
land with sheep and cattle. There are two riding stable
Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
s in the area. To the east is Pannal which expanded, when Crimple Meadows was built in the 1970s, to the point at which it would have joined with Burn Bridge. A condition on building permission for Crimple Meadows was that there would be only a footpath and no roads, between the two villages, to maintain their separate identities.
Public transport
The only public transport serving this village is the 110 Harrogate & DistrictHarrogate & District
Transdev Harrogate & District is a local bus operator based in Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. It is part of the Blazefield Group which is itself owned by the international transport company Transdev....
village bus to Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
at two-hourly intervals on weekdays; fewer on Saturdays. Otherwise the nearest bus route is the 36 between Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
and Ripon
Ripon
Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...
, via Pannal
Pannal
Pannal is a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated to the immediate south of Harrogate and in many ways is a suburb of the town. The village is served by Pannal railway station on the Harrogate Line between Leeds and York.Pannal is well known for its golf...
and Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
. Pannal railway station
Pannal railway station
Pannal railway station serves the villages of Pannal and Spacey Houses in North Yorkshire, England, equidistant from both. It also serves the village of Burn Bridge, on the opposite side of Pannal. It is located on the Harrogate Line north of Leeds and operated by Northern Rail who provide all...
is the nearest rail link, providing trains to Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, and to York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
via Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
, at half-hourly intervals Monday to Saturday; less frequently on Sundays.
The Black Swan pub
Its local name is the Mucky Duck. Apparently there has been a hostelry on the site since charcoal burners used it in ca.1650. Opposite the pub on Burn Bridge Road was the smithyForge
A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
, later a grocer's shop until the 1960s and now converted to an office.Pannal News site, Monday, April 14, 2008
The Westminster estate
This estate, known locally as the Westminsters, contains some houses built in the 1920s. It was expanded by 147 houses in the 1950s, and c65 more were added by George WimpeyGeorge Wimpey
George Wimpey was formed in 1880 and, based in Hammersmith, operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919 and he developed it into the UK’s pre-eminent construction and housebuilding firm. In 2007, Wimpey merged with Taylor Woodrow to create...
by 1961
on a slope where there were once drystone
Dry stone
Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their unique construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing facade of carefully selected interlocking...
-walled pastures and a small wood. In Westminster Drive there are the two last remaining thatched
Thatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge , rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates...
houses in the area, and a Victorian house built before 1860, which was once called The Horst.
Allan Wood
This little bluebell woodBluebell wood
A bluebell wood is a woodland that in spring-time has a carpet of bluebells underneath a newly forming leaf canopy...
forms the boundary between Burn Bridge and Pannal
Pannal
Pannal is a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated to the immediate south of Harrogate and in many ways is a suburb of the town. The village is served by Pannal railway station on the Harrogate Line between Leeds and York.Pannal is well known for its golf...
Recreation Ground. Originally a commercial planting of softwood
Softwood
The term softwood is used to describe wood from trees that are known as gymnosperms.Conifers are an example. It may also be used to describe trees, which tend to be evergreen, notable exceptions being bald cypress and the larches....
, it is now owned by Harrogate Borough Council
Harrogate (borough)
Harrogate is a local government district and borough of North Yorkshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate but it also includes surrounding towns and villages...
which maintains it as a local amenity
Amenity
In real property and lodging, amenities are any tangible or untangible benefits of a property, especially those that increase its attractiveness or value or that contribute to its comfort or convenience...
, and is in the process of gradually re-planting it with indigenous
Indigenous (ecology)
In biogeography, a species is defined as native to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention. Every natural organism has its own natural range of distribution in which it is regarded as native...
trees.
Malthouse Lane
This marks the southern edge of the Burn Bridge settlement, and runs alongside Crimple Beck.Malthouse Lane courtyard and milldam
There were mills on the site next to Malthouse Lane bridge from the 14th century. The corn millGristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
nearest to the bridge backed onto the milldam
Mill pond
A mill pond is any body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam across a waterway. In many places, the common proper name Mill Pond name has remained even though the mill has long since gone...
, and housed the water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
. Now converted to housing, it still contains the original wooden bevel gears
Gear
A gear is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, which mesh with another toothed part in order to transmit torque. Two or more gears working in tandem are called a transmission and can produce a mechanical advantage through a gear ratio and thus may be considered a simple machine....
which were driven by the water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
. The milldam
Mill pond
A mill pond is any body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam across a waterway. In many places, the common proper name Mill Pond name has remained even though the mill has long since gone...
was fed from Crimple Beck via a goit
Leat
A leat is the name, common in the south and west of England and in Wales, for an artificial watercourse or aqueduct dug into the ground, especially one supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond...
upstream, and the water ran off via a culvert
Culvert
A culvert is a device used to channel water. It may be used to allow water to pass underneath a road, railway, or embankment. Culverts can be made of many different materials; steel, polyvinyl chloride and concrete are the most common...
under the corn mill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
and returned to the stream near Malthouse Lane bridge. The milldam
Mill pond
A mill pond is any body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam across a waterway. In many places, the common proper name Mill Pond name has remained even though the mill has long since gone...
was drained ca.1975 and is now a wildlife preserve under a woodland preservation order
Tree preservation order
A Tree Preservation Order or TPO is a part of town and country planning in the United Kingdom. A TPO is made by a Local Planning Authority to protect specific trees or a particular area, group or woodland from deliberate damage and destruction...
. Fauna such as woodpeckers
Great Spotted Woodpecker
The Great Spotted Woodpecker , Dendrocopos major, is a bird species of the woodpecker family . It is distributed throughout Europe and northern Asia, and usually resident year-round except in the colder parts of its range...
and willow warbler
Willow Warbler
The Willow Warbler is a very common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and Asia, from Ireland east to the Anadyr River basin in eastern Siberia...
s are colonizing this site.
The Victorian house between the courtyard and Pannal Cricket Ground is Bridge House, which was once the farm house of Thomas Hudson, who owned much of the local land to the south of Crimple Beck. His barn
Barn
A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house livestock or to store farming vehicles and equipment...
stands on the other side of the cricket ground, and is now converted to housing. The barn had cow byres
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
and stable
Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
s behind. The attached semicircular gin gang
Gin gang
A gin gang, wheelhouse, roundhouse or horse−engine house, is a structure built to enclose a horse mill, usually circular but sometimes square or octagonal, attached to a threshing barn. Most were built in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries...
, where a horse turned the grinding mill
Mill (grinding)
A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...
for the corn, existed until the winter of 2010−2011, when it was demolished to be rebuilt as domestic accommodation.
The malthouse
The malthouseMalthouse
A malt house, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the...
was built on farmland nearby, in what is now Malthouse Lane. The malthouse
Malthouse
A malt house, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the...
was built ca.1876 by farmer Thomas Hudson, who bought the land for the purpose in that year from landowner Eliza Penelope Bentley of Pannal Hall. Wagons brought coal and barley from a railway siding
Rail siding
A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch line or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end...
whose remaining containing wall for the coal can still be seen by the Harrogate Line
Harrogate Line
The Harrogate Line is the name given to a passenger rail service through parts of North Yorkshire and the West Yorkshire Metro area of northern England connecting Leeds to York by way of Harrogate and Knaresborough. The service is operated by Northern Rail, with a few additional workings by East...
. The malthouse
Malthouse
A malt house, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the...
was demolished in 1975, but the malthouse
Malthouse
A malt house, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the...
manager's house remains. The cobbled
Cobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
yard of that house was the malthouse
Malthouse
A malt house, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the...
coalyard, and steps once led down from the coalyard to the boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
room and river. Four houses, built in 1975, now stand on the malthouse
Malthouse
A malt house, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the...
site.
Rose Cottage
Crimple Beck Cottage, the two-storey house opposite the malthouseMalthouse
A malt house, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the...
which was previously called Rose Cottage, was built before 1840. An early 20th-century photograph of the malthouse shows Rose Cottage as a much smaller single-storey building.
Crimple Beck
Some reaches of this river which passes through Burn Bridge are protected with associated SSSIsSite of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
and SINCs, and freshwater fish
Brown trout
The brown trout and the sea trout are fish of the same species....
and crayfish
Austropotamobius pallipes
Austropotamobius pallipes is an endangered European freshwater crayfish, and the only species of crayfish native to the British Isles. Its common names include white-clawed crayfish and Atlantic stream crayfish.-Distribution and ecology:...
are protected under various Acts
Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom
An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is a type of legislation called primary legislation. These Acts are passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, or by the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh....
. The river does have a history of mink
European mink
The European mink , also known as the Russian mink, is a semi-aquatic species of Mustelid native to Europe. It is listed by the IUCN as Endangered due to an ongoing reduction in numbers, having been calculated as being more than 50% over the past three generations...
predating other animals, but there are still mallard
Mallard
The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....
s, moorhen
Moorhen
Moorhens, sometimes called marsh hens, are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family Rallidae. They constitute the genus Gallinula....
s, herons
Grey Heron
The Grey Heron , is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in the milder south and west, but many birds retreat in winter from the ice in colder regions...
, kingfishers and grey wagtails
Grey Wagtail
The Grey Wagtail is a small member of the wagtail family, Motacillidae. The species looks similar to the Yellow Wagtail but has the yellow on its underside restricted to the throat and vent. Breeding males have a black throat...
, besides more common birds.
Flooding history
Around the Crimple Beck area, at the bottom of the hill, there have been several floods in living memory. The 1940s flood rose to about a yard deep in Malthouse Lane due to a river-wall collapse downstream. The July 1968 flood rose to about a yard deep in Malthouse Lane due to a culvert collapse downstream , after which the culvert under the Leeds Road was repaired and significantly enlarged. Later there were two very shallow floods: the first in December 1983 when a householder's building works temporarily dammed the beckStream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
downstream; as a consequence of this, Yorkshire Water built a low flood defence wall along part of Malthouse Lane and between some properties and the beck. The second shallow flood was in 2004 when the storm drain
Storm drain
A storm drain, storm sewer , stormwater drain or drainage well system or simply a drain or drain system is designed to drain excess rain and ground water from paved streets, parking lots, sidewalks, and roofs. Storm drains vary in design from small residential dry wells to large municipal systems...
carrying water from the Westminster estate became blocked where it ran under a house in Malthouse Lane, and the water had to find other routes to the beck
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
.Information from residents. These faults were corrected.
Finally in June 2007 there was a one-foot-deep flood in the area after a major but temporary National Grid gas-pipeline
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
-laying operation. Very wide paths of earth were exposed and compacted for the pipelaying further upstream during the works, encouraging sudden, fast drainage across acres of bare earth into the river after heavy storms, and the beck ran too full for the first time. In a similar situation at Peckham in 2003, some residents suggested that the process of laying a pipeline had encouraged flooding; however this was denied by the pipelaying company Weeks, and by the Council which had responsibility for overseeing the works. According to the Natural Gas Forum, the proper procedure when pipelaying is to erect barriers to prevent massive, sudden storm water runoff into streams, when swathes of bare earth are exposed. Compacted soil from large-scale works can lead to increased runoff and higher peak storm flows into streams. Therefore all of the above flooding was apparently due to human agency; no evidence has been discovered so far of the existence of a floodplain
Floodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...
here.
Brackenthwaite Lane
Close to where Brackenthwaite Lane joins Burn Bridge Road was a long, narrow thatchedThatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge , rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates...
house in which the Dennison family of farmworker
Farmworker
A farmworker is a person hired to work in the agricultural industry. This includes work on farms of all sizes, from small, family-run businesses to large industrial agriculture operations...
s brought up their 21 children. The site is now part of the garden of Norfolk House.
Future building development
This village is bordered on the south and west sides by pasture, which has been at intervals identified as a greenfield siteGreenfield land
Greenfield land is a term used to describe undeveloped land in a city or rural area either used for agriculture, landscape design, or left to naturally evolve...
by town planners. This is possibly because there is Burn Bridge or Pannal
Pannal
Pannal is a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated to the immediate south of Harrogate and in many ways is a suburb of the town. The village is served by Pannal railway station on the Harrogate Line between Leeds and York.Pannal is well known for its golf...
on one side of these fields and, in the distance, a main road on the other side. So far, the Pannal
Pannal
Pannal is a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated to the immediate south of Harrogate and in many ways is a suburb of the town. The village is served by Pannal railway station on the Harrogate Line between Leeds and York.Pannal is well known for its golf...
Village Society, local residents and certain town councillors have successfully argued against these plans, on the grounds that the village is already too much urbanised for a rural area with no official community centre of its own. It has also been suggested that Burn Bridge Road is already heavily used by commuters to and from Harrogate, such that speed-control measures have been built into the road. Already it is unsafe to walk from Burn Bridge via Burn Bridge Road to the bus stop on the Leeds-Harrogate road during the rush hour, as Burn Bridge Road is narrow and has many corners, roadside ditches and no footpath. Recent official suggestions about sites, given by town planners, are here. It was suggested in the Harrogate Advertiser in February 2008 that Harrogate Council
Harrogate (borough)
Harrogate is a local government district and borough of North Yorkshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate but it also includes surrounding towns and villages...
had conceded that development in this area would impact negatively on the environment.
Consultation process for conservation area
Harrogate Borough CouncilHarrogate (borough)
Harrogate is a local government district and borough of North Yorkshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate but it also includes surrounding towns and villages...
has published a consultation booklet entitled: Pannal Conservation Area Character Appraisal - Draft for consultation (March 2009). This brings a small part of Burn Bridge into the proposed Pannal conservation area, while leaving most of Burn Bridge unappraised, and Burn Bridge itself is not being appraised as an independent unit. Please see Talk:Burn Bridge for further comments on this matter, which is currently under local discussion with the Council. It is not known whether there are any listed buildings in Burn Bridge as there are no Burn Bridge items on English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
's Images of England site.
External links
- Pannal website which includes Burn Bridge
- Harrogate Ringway walk map and images
- 1895 map showing Malthouse Lane bridge and courtyard at bottom left. Bridge House is there, with the zig-zag-shaped old corn mill just to the north-west of it (unnamed). The building just to the north-east of Bridge House was a malthouse as the map says, and within living memory was a dog food factory. All have been converted to housing. The red-marked building on the north side of the river was Hudson's malthouse, now demolished, in what is now Malthouse Lane.
- Multimap of Burn Bridge, indicating the Black Swan. Burn Bridge now comprises the western side of the conurbation with Pannal. Burn Bridge includes the Westminsters, Malthouse Lane, Burn Bridge Road, Hazel Drive, the western part of Spring Lane, Hill Foot Lane and the eastern part of Brackenthwaite Lane.
- Harrogate Borough Council
- Harrogate Advertiser, local newspaper
- Office for National Statistics: Key figures for Pannal Ward, Census 2001 Burn Bridge is included in Pannal Ward, but its population probably constitutes less than half of the ward.