There’s a widespread fascination in Bradford with the Walls of Jericho which until 1986 were a unique Thornton landmark. Constructed between 1847 and 1891 to retain spoil from the quarries at Egypt and Bell Dean, they were used in the early 1980s on posters to promote tourism in Bradford.
Then problems began. The weight of material packed behind them was rendering them unsafe. It was eventually decided that most of the walls must come down and a new bypass road be built. The work was done in 1985 and completed by mid-January 1986, when Egypt Road reopened to road traffic.
On hand to record the work with his camera was John Bakes, whose aunt Mrs Dorothy Bentham lived in one of the cottages at Egypt, at the end of the walls.
The photographs here are taken from a sequence of images he took to capture the time when the Walls of Jericho came tumbling down to enable the traffic to flow smoothly and safely through Egypt.
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