Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Shipley Glen Tramway is a cable hauled funicular railway running up the wooded hillside of Saltaire to Shipley Glen and opened in 1895.
Shipley Glen was a Victorian era playground. In the 1800s it was an extremely popular destination thanks to easy rail links from Bradford and Leeds. At the top of the hill was an amusement park, a fairground, rides, a Japanese garden and a camera obscura. The Tramway was built to get people to the top without walking up a steep hill.
The massive fairground gradually vanished, and the Glen became a recreational ground. Today the Tramway itself is the last survivor of a completely vanished victorian world.
film footage from 1912, Yorkshire Film Archive
Shipley Glen Tramway is a cable hauled funicular railway running up the wooded hillside of Saltaire to Shipley Glen and opened in 1895.
Shipley Glen was a Victorian era playground. In the 1800s it was an extremely popular destination thanks to easy rail links from Bradford and Leeds. At the top of the hill was an amusement park, a fairground, rides, a Japanese garden and a camera obscura. The Tramway was built to get people to the top without walking up a steep hill.
The massive fairground gradually vanished, and the Glen became a recreational ground. Today the Tramway itself is the last survivor of a completely vanished victorian world.
film footage from 1912, Yorkshire Film Archive
