[4] In medieval times, the waters from one of the streams feeding Bradford Beck were redirected to power mills in what is now the Sunbridge and Thornton Road areas.

[11] After complaints, specifically from those living and working on the Aire just east of Shipley, the Bradford Corporation was forced to act.

[16] Despite the re-direction of sewage into brick lined channels and pipes in the 19th century,[17] the beck remains polluted still.

[18] In 2018, it was reported that the beck had turned yellow due to pollutive waste from some of the curry houses in the city.

Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) along the beck and crucially further upstream, allow runoff and pollutants to enter the watercourse particularly in times of high rainfall and flood.

[31] A study by the Wild Trout Trust in 2012 noted that the beck was of poor ecological quality in terms of supporting marine life.

There are too many weirs and obstacles to prevent trout and other fish to navigate upstream of the beck in its present condition.

[34] The beck is not navigable to boats at any point, however because of its underground nature, it does attract people wishing to explore the subterranean environment beneath the city.

It has even featured in a National Geographic article on the top 11 rivers forced underground, which includes watercourses in New York, Moscow and Vienna.

Moorman's nineteenth century dialect poem "A Dalesman's Litany" has the lines "I've seen snow drift down Bradford Beck/As black as ebony".

[36] The Friends of Bradford's Becks held a poetry competition with the winning entry getting lines from their poem carved into 15 stone plaques that follow the route above ground in the city centre.