Three quirky Bradford stories - from the mystery 'Bard of Broadway' to a fire-starting slug

Paint spillage on M606 motorway 

In January 2017, a lorry carrying 3,000 and 4,000 litres of paint shed its load on the M606 motorway, prompting a major clear-up operation.

The southbound carriageway between Staygate and the Euroway Industrial Estate was closed for some time as Highways England, the police, fire service and Environment Agency tried to contain the spill.

The M606 paint spillage was not somethign to gloss over

Sadly, the paint spillage contaminated a nearby water course. An overnight closure was put in place because part of the motorway had to be resurfaced.

While seeing the serious side of the incident, T&A readers were also quick to see its pun potential, 

"What did you expect them to do? Gloss over it?" quipped one reader.

"For the police attending the incident, it must be like watching paint dry", added another.

"I bet they'll be overcome with emulsion", said a Facebook user.

Slug sparks fire scare at Bradford house 

In October 2007, the T&A reported on a very strange call-out for the emergency services.

A slug had crawled its way into a Bradford house through a cable, sparking a fire scare.

The owners of a house in Thornton Road dialled 999 for help after smelling burning in the kitchen.

A slug not dissimilar to the one that sparked a fire scare in Bradford

Firefighters from Fairweather Green turned out shortly after 10.30pm and eventually traced the smell to a slug that had crawled up a cable from outside, scaling heights to get in through the house wall, working its way down a plastic duct until it "journeyed across a live terminal, deep-frying itself," said watch manger John Musto.

"Sadly the slug died but if anything it highlighted the fact that the family needed smoke detectors which we were happy to fit for them," he said.

Bard of Broadway laments the shopping centre delay 

In April 2009, things were going from bad to verse at the site of Bradford's mothballed shopping development.

The forlorn 'hole in the ground' become the unlikely scene of a passionate piece of poetry.

A mystery poet, dubbed the 'Bard of Broadway', daubed 18 lines of rhyming verse on the hoardings that surrounded the site of Westfield's stalled Broadway shopping centre scheme.

The hoardings where the legendary 'Bard of Broadway' penned some of his finest work (Image: T&A)

The poem, in its own subtle way, left people walking along Church Bank in little doubt that there was no rhyme nor reason to the continuing delays to the development.

The work was notable for the poet's decision to rhyme the word 'dollar' with 'tomorrow' - a rhyme that might not work so well outside Yorkshire!

Mary Frame, of Bradford Chamber of Trade, said: "This poem is very, very good. We have got a bard in our midst. In fact, the Bard of Broadway sounds quite good."

The poem included such lines as "Westfield's hole in the ground, is very big and sort of round.

"It took so long to prepare, for something that was never there.

"The Council splashed a great success, a certain sighting on Loch Ness, then a shopping mall or two, now the monster joke's on you."

Thankfully, the hole in the ground was filled by what has become a successful shopping centre at the heart of Bradford's retail offering.