Whilst our LHI-funded Archaeological Survey produced some fascinating information and speculation about the long history of Buck Wood, the 'alternative' history of the area is also worth recording and investigating - what might be called the folk history, the stuff on which myths and legends are founded.

We begin with this Oak Tree, which is reputed to be an example of the ancient healing tradition whereby pain was transferred from a sufferer to an inanimate object, or even to another animate object such as a dog or cat. Thus, an item such as a handkerchief belonging to the subject would be tied to the branch of a tree, or cast into running water. In the case of the toothache tree, a nail would be hammered into the trunk of a tree – preferably an oak tree – with the intention of leaving the pain in the tree, rather than in the tooth! There are several groups of nails firmly embedded in the trunk of this oak – they may not have cured the toothache, but at least they seem not to have injured the tree too much.

Wright Watson, the author of 'Idlethorp', an idiosyncratic history of the area, describes one case of a witch who burnt to death in Buck Wood, at the time when the corpse of a calf belonging to a local farm, apparently cursed by the witch, was thrown on a fire. She had been gathering firewood in the Wood at the time, and her remains were discovered in the Wood, incinerated without any discernable cause.
Witches were often merely the local ‘wise woman’ with a useful knowledge of healing herbs of course. If such a woman was eccentric in her ways, and a source of annoyance or embarrassment to local people, the label of ‘witch’ could easily lead to difficulties for the woman. In our second case of witchcraft, this familiarity with herbs had been used maliciously, leading to an unusual number of sudden deaths in the community. Mad Alice, a 16th century recluse who lived in the Wood was accused of using her magic powers to cause these deaths, and was destined to be burnt at the stake after her ducking in the river to prove her a witch. It was a fate she narrowly missed by, it is said, her unnatural prowess in swimming, unencumbered by her clothes which had been removed in order to search her body for marks of evil. It was never known where she finally re-emerged from the river, if indeed she did.

The springs arising throughout Buck Wood are nowadays simply of passing interest, as an annoying source of mud, or at most a habitat for damp-loving species. Many springs in Bradford have been well-known in the past for their qualities of healing or spirituality; others produced a valuable supply of water for their surrounding hamlets – Burnwells in Thackley is a local example. Could one spring in Buck Wood have been a centre for healing? Remains of a stone-edged depression or pool may suggest that such a site may well have existed in the past, used perhaps for ritual purposes connected with healing. There is no evidence that the waters in Buck Water have any actual beneficial properties – such as high levels of sulphur or iron – that would give them anything other than a placebo effect, but this has also been the finding of other springs (such as Spink Well) in the locality.

Wright Watson described the local Guytrash as ‘a big dog with very broad feet – some say webbed feet – shaggy hair, drooping ears, and eyes as large as saucers. It walked with a loud “splashing” sound that made the flesh creep of those that heard it; and the gleam of its saucer eyes transfixed anyone unlucky enough to see them’. Fortunately it hasn’t been seen yet by members of the Friends of Buck Wood intent on bat-watching at dusk. We would probable assume it to be something much more prosaic if we did see it, and would try to find it in a Field Guide to Mammals.
In a Wood with such a long and varied history it would be surprising if there were no reports of ghostly figures roaming amongst the trees. The local story of a ‘Monk’s track’ through the woods, reputedly used by monks travelling between the neighbouring priory of Esholt and Kirkstall Abbey, has been linked to ghostly dark-robed figures at night in Buck Wood, near the site of the ancient stepping stones which cross the River Aire below the woodland.
UFOs - or strange lights in the sky - are a more recent phenomenon, and the Wood, where it borders on the open curve of the canal and river, has been the source of at least one such supposed sighting. The strange markings shown here, on bare earth within the Wood, are perhaps a further indication of such inexplicable occurrences.