East Bowling forms a roughly triangular area with its southern apex near Croft Street about 350m from the city centre.

"In attempting an historical and topographical sketch of the township of Bowling, we are confronted with a .. difficulty .. namely, that no published record previously existed upon which to base our efforts".

Cudworth describes the small becks which drain the area (see Map 1) noting that some do not have definite names.

John James in his history of Bradford (1841) has to refer to " a nameless beck arising to the west of Dudley Hill" - which is shown in Map 3 contributing water to the Lady Well Pool.

Cudworth could find scant evidence that the "three open field" system had ever been used in Bowling, though it was a major feature of Bradford, Manningham and Horton.

Outside of the parks of Bowling Hall the land was divided into small walled closes in pastoral use, a pattern which had prevailed since ancient times.

This was close to the railway and also the route of the coal tramway from the Burras engine to Britannia Mills staithes, (shown on map 2) opened c 1840.

"The township is well furnished with roads leading from Bradford and passing from north to south but is deficient in means of communication between east and West Bowling.

It was one of four turnpike Roads through Bowling All were built in the early 18th century - and were subsequently the scene of protests and riots and breaking down of toll bars.

Thus the economic development of these important and interdependent mineral resources, linked with the advance of cheap water transport, provided Bradford with a broad commercial and financial base upon which to build a new industrial economy in the years after 1800".

Abraham Balm, principle proponent of the canal and a major shareholder, owned coal mines in Bowling.

The seat earths of the seams yielded ganister (needed for furnace linings) and fire clay.

The partnerships which founded the new works had access to large scale capital, scientific knowledge and expert engineers, far beyond the resources of local landowners.

In 1792 Francis Lindley Wood (owner of Bolling Hall and Lord of the manor) attained his majority and proceeded to sink sunk coal mines on his estates.

From 1803 most of the mineral rights of Sir Francis's estates were leased or sold piecemeal to the Bowling Iron Works.

In February 1816 he sold all his remaining landholdings and mineral rights in Bowling and Bradford to the iron works.

Map 3 shows an area near the Parks which was so unstable it remained undeveloped until the very end of the 20th century and which still (2014) suffers from periodic shaft collapses.

The pumping shafts provided a constant supply of high quality soft water to the dye works of 1.25million gallons per day with a surplus of about 0.6 million gallons per day which was distributed via Ripley's water works to domestic and other industrial consumers.

At that date the Bradford Waterworks company (purchased by the Borough Council in 1854) could only provide a very intermittent supply of about 0.5 million gallons per day.

In 1854, the dye works, like the ironworks built its own standard gauge internal private railway with a junction with the GNR near Hall Lane.

In addition to scattering the landscape with spoil heaps and rendering the ground too unstable for building the ironworks had a disastrous effect on the atmosphere.

A constant pall of smoke and foul smelling fumes hung over the works and surrounding area "The Bowling Hell" with a high incidence of respiratory diseases.

Within the works a huge smoking spoil heap "the Bowling Coke Hill" grew continuously until the ironworks ceased production in 1906.

The iron works also used the area north of Lower Lane as additional tipping space; eventually it was covered by a plateau of slag and clinker about 50 feet deep.

St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church was closed in 1996 and the parish amalgamated with St Joseph, Manchester Road.

St Ann's was the centre of the Irish community of Broomfields, once one of the most densely populated areas of Bradford and with some of the worst slums.

By contrast in the north of Broomfields was the model village of Ripley Ville with spacious four bedroom houses for the upper levels of the working classes.