You will need to bring your own pen / pencil.

 
Buck wood and the neighbouring woods are beautiful woodlands on the side of the Leeds Liverpool canal.  I have decided to place a series of 6 caches along a lovely 3 mile walk taking in the sights and sounds of the woods.
There are a few other caches in the woods already so be sure to have a scout around for those too whilst you are out and about.  I would suggest that you allow a good 2 hours for this walk, that’s taking into consideration time spent looking for the caches and soaking up the surroundings.  After rain some of the wood can be very muddy so welly bobs or boots are advisable.
 
The first cache on this walk is near to the site of the Thackley Open Air School, and not far from the path.
 
The Open Air School in Buck Wood, Thackley, took its first pupils in the summer of 1908.  Forty ‘delicate’ children were brought by tram each weekday for lessons and meals at the school, which was situated in the healthy surroundings of the woods.  The pupils spent as much time as possible in the open-fronted south-facing classrooms and in the woodland itself.  By the time the school closed in 1939 thousands of Bradford’s sickly children had benefited from the special care and atmosphere offered by the school. 
At first the children who came to the school were from Bradford’s poorest slums, where overcrowding, pollution and bad sanitation made it difficult for sickly children to recover their health.  They included children with such diseases as tuberculosis, rickets, anaemia and chronic infections.  All needed a few months of fresh air, good food and exercise to build them up.  In later years the children came from better homes, but were still struggling to recuperate from childhood illnesses such as scarlet fever, diphtheria and from TB which was still a problem in Bradford.
The school was built facing the grassy slopes of the raised area formed from the waste material excavated from Thackley railway tunnel.  The children could play up there as well as in five acres of woodland allocated to the school.  A first there were just two classrooms, with baths, kitchens, etc, but within the first year many other chalet-style buildings were added, making space for 120 children.  They were arranged in a long line, stretching out from a central block which included the dining room with its open veranda.  Each of these wings – one for boys and one for girls – contained not only classrooms but also resting sheds where the children slept every afternoon.
 
The Open Air School grew until 275 pupils at a time could be taught there.  For a while there was residential accommodation for a small number of boys.  There were plans to extend the school into the field behind, and at one time to build a much bigger residential school in a different part of the wood, but these never took place.  There was always a great need for this type of schooling in Bradford – another open air school started in Odsal in 1927, and in the 1930’s a sanatorium school for children with TB was opened in Grassington.
 
Thackley Open Air School closed on the outbreak of war in 1939, and was never again used as a special school.  After the war it was used as a temporary school for children whose new school buildings elsewhere in Bradford weren’t ready in time.  After that it was a popular place for community groups such as Scouts and Guides, and other organisations held events there.  Local school classes continued gardening there, and used the playing field for sports, but the building gradually fell into disrepair.  It finally burnt down in 1966.
 
Information kindly supplied by the ‘Friends of Buck Wood’.