Tong, West Yorkshire: A rural oasis fighting to stay green

Being located high on a ridge between Pudsey Beck and Cockers Dale, there’s sweeping views of farm fields, trees overhanging the village’s main thoroughfare of Tong Lane, flanked by a lengthy and beautifully maintained drystone wall.

Tong Beck runs south of the village, crossing Tong Lane at both its extremities. Disaster struck in 2017, when for four days an estimated 20 million litres of raw sewage was discharged into the watercourse. It was caused by the failure of a valve at Yorkshire Water’s Dale Road sewage pumping station in Cockersdale, near Bradford, for which the water firm was fined £233,000.

An investigation into the impact of the pollution by the Environment Agency found that it had caused significant damage to the ecology of the beck and led to the death of hundreds of adult and juvenile brown trout downstream of the pumping station.

While it’s thought Tong was named after a fork in a river, as if to emphasise its location and separation from the Bradford suburb of Tong Street, the entrance signs announce ‘Tong Village’, which despite some modern residential developments, remains unmistakably a village, both in size and character.

Nevertheless, the village’s green surroundings look set to diminish in the coming years, with developers submitting plans for a £155m neighbourhood west of Tong, with up to 1,000 homes on a 125-acre site, alongside 95,000 sq ft of employment floorspace, a primary school, and an 11,000 sq ft neighbourhood centre, which could be used for pubs, hot food take-aways, or commercial uses.

The Westgate Hill site, currently used as agricultural land, includes a large section of Green Belt land near Tong which has been allocated for development in Bradford Council’s draft Local Plan.

The planning application has been branded by the Tong and Fulneck Valley Association as “irreversible destruction of the green belt”.

Tong has maintained a similar, liner layout to the settlement recorded during the reign of George I due to enclosures of land. South of Tong Lane, field boundaries on a 1725 map of this date appear to follow the pattern of early strip fields, while enclosures to the north of the road formed larger parcels of land and woodland.

Setting the tone on the western edge of the village stands the grade I listed Tong Hall, heralded by grade II* listed gate piers, which was built in 1702 by Sir George Tempest, whose Norman Catholic family were handed land following William the Conqueror's invasion.

Its Historic England listing states it is and “the only house of any consequence in the Bradford area to be built of brick”, partly due to its proximity to the brick-making industry centre of Leeds. Another rare feature, in the hall’s doorway fanlight, is a stained glass sundial dating to 1709, depicting the sun and the four seasons.

Since the Tempest family left the hall during the Second World War, the three-storey Queen Anne manor house, which has a circular carriage sweep in front of the main entrance, has had numerous functions including as a Co-operative Youth Centre, a training college, a hall of residence and a museum.

Currently serving as a business hub, the hall formed the heart of the Tempest estate, which worked to prevent overpopulation of the village as well as helping to maintain the numerous 17th and 18th century workers' cottages and farmsteads and the neighbouring 12th century chapel off Tong Lane.

Rebuilt in 1727, the two-tone St James's Church has remains of the medieval place of worship in its tower, including a Norman window, but is largely classical in design. Unlike the vast majority of churches dating back three centuries, its interior has changed little since Georgians used the box pews, gallery, squire and parson's pews.

In the surrounding manicured churchyard still stand some 18th century stocks retaining the cross bar. Indeed, the village is generally well-kept and free from litter, but Bradford Council says fly-tipping in the area surrounding the village is the highest among the wards that make up Bradford South.

Opposite the church stands one of the village’s oldest buildings, the late 17th century Church Farmhouse - one of three farms in the village - and a few doors down is the School Rooms and Post Office, which date to 1736. Tong Village Community Association manages the historic property as a village hall featuring a diverse programme of events, including community lunches, Tiddlywinks Parent and Toddler Group, Women’s Institute meetings, children's parties, small wedding receptions, and mid-weeks groups such as yoga.

Albeit with a more limited heritage, another popular venue in the village, for the last three decades, is Goodalls Ice Cream Parlour on Tong’s eastern fringe on a working farm.

Another popular hub for villagers is The Greyhound pub, a low-beamed Georgian inn with Jacobean Revival details, that offers a range of events and is fully booked for Mother's Day. What must be among Yorkshire’s smallest cricket grounds, which has been famed for balls flying into neighbouring gardens and hitting cars, is beside the pub.

While Tong Taveners’ history goes back to a club first recorded in a journal in 1871, it wasn’t until 2022 that the pub’s owners Greene King applied for permission from Bradford Council to install more outdoor seating and netting to protect drinkers from stray cricket balls.

asAS