The flagstones are back! 

The saga of the Thwaites Brow Snicket

An ancient snicket runs down from Calton Road, to Spring Avenue, then on through Park Wood, across Parkwood Street and eventually right down to Low Mill lane.

Over the first weekend in May, thieves tried to steal the flagstones, but were interrupted.  Police and Bradford Council were informed - but the Council seemed to continue the theft by taking the flagstones away.  After a vigorous community campaign led by Judith Brooksbank, the Council bowed to public opinion and the flags have been relaid.

A local resident spotted what was happening when thieves tried to take the flagstones from part of the snicket between Calton Road and Spring Avenue at Thwaites Brow.  He disturbed them and the thieves left without any stones.  Two local men (one being the curate) rescued the loosened stones and called the police on the weekend of 2nd/3rd May.

Bradford Council sent some men with a van on the Tuesday and they levered up flagstones (which was not easy) and took them away into "safe keeping."  The only flagstones to have been removed were taken by Bradford Council.

The flagstones have been on the snicket for many years.  A local resident brought Judith a photo this morning showing flagstones on the snicket in a photo taken about 1910/1920, so the flagstones were there from at least that time.  She doesn't agree that they should be removed by Bradford Council.  She says, "Where could they put them safe from thieves?  Only somewhere out of the public's way, surely.  They are very much part of the character of Thwaites Brow."

Judith is campaigning along with residents of Thwaites Brow and Long Lee for Bradford Council to return and restore the flagstones as soon as possible.  She has written to Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, the Bradford councillor responsible for Highways, and to council officers.  She and other residents have been in touch with the Keighley News.

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After Judith led local residents in a campaign to have the historic flagstones re-instated in the snicket through Thwaites Brow after Bradford Council removed them last Tuesday, workmen were already there this morning relaying them.  A local resident who is a builder said they were doing a first rate job.  Judith has been to have a look and the workmen have told her they are specialists in this type of work.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth agreed to the request after receiving such a lot of complaints about the loss of the flagstones.

A local resident has suggested that the village's lapsed Neighbourhood Watch group to be revived and Judith is going to talk to a police representative about that today.

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Last night Judith spoke to Inspector Simpson at Keighley Town Council Neighbourhood Watch meeting and asked him about the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme.  She has also contacted a local resident who has been a Neighbourhood Watch chairman in Thwaites Brow to ask his advice.

The topic will be raised at the Long Lee Neighbourhood Forum meeting at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday 14th May at Long Lee Village Hall (along the footpath next to Southam's Shop.)

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Unfortunately the police officer who was to attend Long Lee Neighbourhood Forum was unable to be there after all, so Judith has contacted the police to ask for a Neighbourhood Watch Special to be held rather than wait six months for the next scheduled forum.

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A snicket is a pedestrian path or bridleway.  The snickets through Thwaites Brow may have originally been built as bridleways for horses and carts to bring stone from the quarries and coal from the small coal mines which were in Park Wood.  The two, flagstone-paved snickets (both rights of way) through the village are an integral and historic aspect of the village of Thwaites Brow, and probably unique in the area.  The snicket Judith is campaigning about is one of the two paths which go from different parts of Thwaites Brow and join up to go, eventually, through Park Wood.  That path is a right of way through the woodland to Parkwood, the community below the wood.

One of the points Judith made when campaigning for the woodland of Park Wood was that this path is recognised by Bradford Council as a right of way through the wood.  Judith succeeded in getting them to admit the idea for a new road through the woodland had been "a mistake."  After following a residential street in Parkwood and crossing Parkwood Street the path then goes downhill alongside the new houses called Lower Laithe to join a path to Low Mill Lane.

This lower part of the path was the subject of an earlier campaign of Judith's to have the footpath restored after Skipton Properties blocked it off when they built Lower Laithe.  The footpath was re-opened.

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