Back in the days of long ago, when hardly anyone had a car, public transport was the only way of getting yourself out of the city and into the green fields. The development of the tram network made all sorts of outings possible.

That was something two men called Leach and Moxon realised. They saw an opportunity and put together a modest booklet called Delightful Walks From Tram To Tram, a copy of which was loaned to us by Audrey Roper, of Thackley.

Unfortunately it’s undated, but was probably produced in the first decade of the 20th century. Two of the walks pass through Esholt and there is no mention in either of them of the sewage works, construction of which began in 1910.

In their preface, Leach and Moxon (first names unknown) say: “Now that the facilities for getting almost anywhere for miles around our City of Bradford are so easy and abundant, we think that our little book showing where to go and how to get there, will prove useful and handy to scores of city workers who are cooped up during the week and obliged to rely on their weekends for fresh air and exercise… “We have arranged walks from 1½ miles for the indifferent walkers, up to ten and a dozen miles for the enthusiast.”

Here’s a walk using the Allerton tramcar and paying a fare of 2d.

“Ride to terminus at Sandy Lane, walk through Sandy Lane village, proceed straight at Cottingley Road to Cottingley (passing ivy-covered church), then turn right along Lane on the low side of Sun Inn (Nancy Moore’s) across the fields to Bingley Road, and turn right for Nab Wood car. Fare from Nab Wood to Bradford, 2d. Distance to walk, 2½ miles.”

Can you imagine how it must have looked around that area then, when there were green fields in the spaces that are now filled with private developments and the Cottingley estate?

This next 6¼-mile walk from Baildon Bridge, though, is virtually unchanged in its later stages. It starts at Baildon Bridge, a 2d tram ride from Bradford.

“Ride to terminus, and proceed straight along Baildon Road, passing through Baildon village, up North Gate and on to the Moor. Having reached the Moor, take the second turning left for Sconce village and follow Sconce Lane to Hawksworth Lane, and turn again left for Dick Hudson’s. From there, take main road down into Eldwick, walk forward through the Glen to Saltaire, and catch a car for Bradford at top of Victoria Road. Fare back to Bradford, 2d.”

The moorland stretches remain relatively unchanged, though the road-walking nowadays would be a matter of dodging the traffic.

With its modest penny cover price, the booklet obviously relied for its profitability on the sale of advertising space, to companies whose names are long gone. The East Morley & Bradford Deposit Bank Ltd had its head office in Manor Row and a branch in Town Hall Square.

The City of Bradford Co-operative Society’s Café at 65 Sunbridge Road was offering “The Best Dinner in Town” of meat and two vegetables for 6d and a full four-course dinner for a shilling. Its advert declared: “A good meal is just as essential as a good walk.”

At W E Furbank, gentlemen’s hatter, in Upper Kirkgate, you could buy “celebrated” silk or felt hats or “newest shapes in caps” cut from Donegal and Harris tweeds and other cloths.

Or try this advert from tobacconists David Laycock & Co, in Kirkgate. It’s for “three grand smoking mixtures” – “Samzown” at 6d an ounce, “Hudson’s” at 5d and “Verigud” at a mere 4d.

The copywriter waxed lyrical: “To a smoker nothing can be more agreeable and pleasing whilst slowly wending his way in the country between one terminus and another, than adding to the virtues which nature supplies in the charming scent of the moorland heather, the bracing air of the hills and viewing the beauties of nature spread out before one’s vision under a cloudless sky; by the knowledge or satisfaction that it is his privilege to enhance such enjoyment with a whiff to be obtained from either of the three good mixtures as above described, or smoking a ‘YF’ cigar which may be had almost anywhere at 2d or 3d each…”