Scheme aims to reduce sewage spills at famous beck

Yorkshire Water says the work to improve water quality at Cottingley Beck is expected to be completed by December

A £2.4m project to reduce sewage spills into a Bradford beck best known for being close to the scene of a world famous photographic hoax has got under way.

Yorkshire Water said work had started at Cottingley Beck to build a large storage tank and a rising main - a pressurised pipe which lifts sewage into the public sewer.

The work was expected to be completed by December and it was hoped it would cut discharges from the nearby Manor Drive storm overflow by 46%, the firm added.

The "Cottingley Fairies" photographs, taken near Cottingley Beck between 1917 and 1920, which depicted two young cousins alongside what appeared to be magical creatures, caused a worldwide stir at the time.

'£180m investment'

Yorkshire Water said the new storage facility at the beck would hold excess wastewater during spells of heavy rain.

Pumps would then return the storm water to the sewer network for full treatment, rather than it being discharged into the beck.

Martin Ineson, a Yorkshire Water project manager, said: “This is just one part of a £180m investment across the region to reduce discharges from our most frequently operating overflows.

“By increasing storage in the network, we’re able to slow the flow of wastewater and rainfall through the sewers during periods of prolonged or heavy rainfall."

Hoax photographs

A series of the famous "fairy" photographs taken near Cottingley Beck sold for more than £50,000 at auction in 2019.

The pictures were taken by 16-year-old Elsie Wright and her nine-year-old cousin Frances Griffiths.

The hoax fooled many people including Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

It was not until 1983 that Frances Griffiths confessed the photographs had been faked - although she maintained one photograph was genuine.

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