The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-06 00:00:00

FRIDAY

EVENING,

GREAT FLOODS IN YORKSHIRE
AND LANCASHIRE.

SEVENTY LIVES LOST.
Tli I.IIIS DA Y.- flolmfirth, a pripulous
loFAlity in the %Vest Riding of Yorkshire, situated a few
miles from the town of Huddersfield, has this day been
the scene of one of the most terrific catastrophes we
have ever had to record, caused by the bursting of what
is called the Bilberry Reservoir. This reservoir is
situated in a part of the locality above the village of
Holmfirth, to answer as a feeder to the mills, &c., of the
district.

By the recent heavy rains (which caused an unusual
pressure of water upon it) it burst this morning so early
as two o'clock. The ru3h of water was tremendous;
cod the current, which flowed resistlessly upon the
village below,
caused appalling devastation and destruc-
tion of human life. Whole rows of houses (one row
alone having fifty-four persons in it) were carried away
by the water; and mills and warehouses were also
levelled with the ground. Aroused by such a terrible
visitation, it is impossible to describe the horror and
consternation of the inhabitants who had escaped the
wreck around them. The streets were literally block-
aded with the ruins of houses,
warehouses, &c. The
miszing inmates of the destroved houses (most of whom
had been no doubt sent into eternity while asleep, un-
conscious of the instrument of their destruction) were
the first objects of solitude and search. Bcdy after body
was recovered,sixty were found dead. A
...t the time of writing, s
Lull descriptinano:
how-
ever, it is impossible to give anything approximating to
t hii withincalamity,
wor hoursan no less than
estimate of the
number of dead.

o,Trauftptl/11,:eciii.CwiC:1:1, ACCOUNT.
HUDDERSFIEALDN,
dreadful occurrence SDAY.—This morning a most
is situated at the foot tof
and destruction of property,
miles
south of this town. Holmfirth
happened
in .rstuhlelHoseshnoffivlitfhe
a portion of what is
Eng-
land." The valley
Hudders-
field is studded witha range of hills which form
between
the " Backbone of
been taken of the manyhi
tesesnwhic thath village
fi ow
fromand tthe
hil l s
woollen mills, advantage having
fall of water from the to the lowlands presents.
excellent sites which the rapid
Upon the many streamlew
above Holmfirth the same characteristic
and the several valleys it is presented,
11-sides teem with a busy
required of the woollen emloatnhusffott•anw
and enterprising population, •
gbiev erne veryh. considerable por-
tiondich the West Riding
is so celebrated being
hadre in this locality. As
in summer time the mills often
water, there being but little from to - •
stand for want of
the hills in dry
formed some years. (ago, wea-
ther, but more than enougabodil
were incorporated by Act wet, a company was
of
parliament,
of gentlemen
and em-
powered to construct large reservoirs
let for the storage
of water in winter, to be
d down the rivulets
for the use of the
rate the several mill
properties for the benefits thus conferred.
mills,in sumpmnewre,
vahseiitn
g also might
CoAmongst
others the Holmfirth Reservoir
Reservoir,ssioners con-
structed a reservoir called the Bilbemrrmi
si-
tuated about three miles and a half abovey
kHolmfirth, to
the south-west. During the last week there have been
very continuous falls of rain, and the s water h
over-
flowed the embankment of the reservoir for aa .
eve several days.
Indeed, fears were previously entertained of its safety
by parties who resided near to it, and
who were aware
that it had never been accounted as a work of first-rate
quality. Wednesday was a day of incessant rain • and
were mach
the rivulets and streams in the neighbourhood ' h
swollen. About one this morning (Thursday) the em-
bankment of this large reservoir was swept away, and
an immense volume of water thereby suddenly liberated.
The torrent rushed onwards with devastating force -
:
some mills were swept down—others were - gutted—ma-
chinery and materials, both wrought and
unwrought
being either rendered worthless or carried away by the
flood. Dwellings shared the same fate. With a sudden-
ness that rendered all alarm impossible, the buildings
with their sleeping inmates were swept along the engulph-
ing torrent. At Holmfirth a whole street of houses
was thus carried away, with their inhabitants, to the
number of sixty souls. Hundreds of other dwellings
were flooded, and the escape of many of the inmates
from death has been most miraculous. The destruction
of property has been enormous. The stocks of the
shopkeepers who lined the streets on each side of the
Holm° are wholly destroyed, or damaged so as to be all
but worthless. The furniture and clothing of private
dwelling-houses are also destroyed. One of the most
beautiful valleys in the world has been rendered a scene
of awful devastation! Bridges have been carried away,
and large steam-engine boilers lifted from their seats,
and borne along by the overwhelming torrent for miles,
and then left in the fields. Trees torn up, and the soil
washed away from the lands adjoining the course of the
nsain stream. But more awful still, more than seventy
lives have been lost! At the time we write it is impos-
sible to tell the exact number, or even to approximate
to it correctly. Whole families are swept away, and there
are none left to tell the number. Upwards of fifty
bodies have been recovered. They are deposited at the
several public-houses along the line of devastation; and
the mangled appearance of many testify to the force of
the torrent which had swept them before it. It is im-
possible in this hasty account to particularise; but it
may be stated that millowners, shopkeepers, and work-
people have met with a common fate. The calamity is a
most frightful one, likely to be the ruin of one of the most
spirited of our manufacturing districts. All classes will
suffer—the manufacturers from the loss of mills, ma-
chinery, and materials—the shopkeepers from the loss
of stock, and the operatives from the loss of employment.
Some of the bodies recovered were found fourteen miles
from the place where the reservoir (the cause of this
awful havoc) was situate.
Preparations are being
made for holding an inqzsst on the bodies already re-
covered.

MANCHESTER, THIIRSDAY.—A flood, happily unat-
tended with any very serious consequences, occurred at
Manchester, on Wednesday through the over-
flowing of the river Irwell; and the two brooks,.
which are
.known as the rivers Medlock and Irk.. Rain
throughout the day from
fell continuously and with exceeding copi.usness
morning, and the addition made to the river and
.its
tributary rivulets seems to have been very great in-
deed. The Irwell commenced rising about. eleven
o'clock in the morning, and its rise from that time was
regular and rapid until about seven o'clock; during one
hour it is known to have gained an addition of fully. one
a very early period in the.
yard to its level, and nearl as much at other periods.
By four o'clock the Irwell had overflowed its banks and
laid the whole of the fields in Lower Broughton (which,
as the name implies, is low land) under water, and by
half-past four there were two rows of houses, filled with
people,
standing near to Broughton-lane, in the midst of
of
nd thati an mmenso sheet of vvater, upheaved by a strong
wi was
blowing, and forced' into a rough and
tempest-tossed. lake. About the same time the Medlock
dhere for. a long time broke over its banks and submerged all the quarter of
the town adjacent to Oxford-street, known as Little
(from the fact that a colony of Irish had ex-
time was standing four feet deep in the houses of the
inhabitants, many of whom had to rush up stairs with
the utmost precipitancy to avoid a drenching. In
Broughton the inhabitants of the houses at Broughton
View were in the seine predicament, and many were
ilsrteelda ut
obliged to leave carpets and other costly articles of
and the water in a short
six feet furniture covered with water to the depth of five or
.

Mr. Beswiek, chief superintendent of police, of Man-
chester, who lives in Broughton-lane, was called to the
spot, and procured the use of a boat, with which he pro-
ceeded to the houses to remove those who desired it to
safer quarters, and to assure those who had more nerveieh
was not considered a safe pile of buildings, thirty per-
sons were removed. The same care was extended to
that they would not be
Little Ireland by Mr. Taylor, superintee dent of the D
division, who procured a boat, and rendered assistance
to those who desired it, The inhabitants themselves,
also obtained a coal-barge. and used it for the removal
of families, furnitur©, injured. From one row, which
and liv
which there is a lar e stock, such as pigs, of
water got into the low
number kept in the vicinity. The
• s ortions of many mill
seeded
eed in putting on the banks of the Irpwell, and generally suc-
ceedut the beoiler fires; and sostopping the machinery; but in none ha
; anY greater damage than the
loss of time been susta,neu, except in one case where a
sudden irruption of water into a patent candle ma"'
wchoenntinituceodnttitiouerdisefour
factory destroyed a good deal of material in course of
preparation, and it is thought that a loss of 1001. will
whe let out boats for hire on the Irwell, have had their
sheds on the banks of that river washed away and seve-
ral of their boats destroyed. Barley calculates his loss
be incurred. Two poor
men 'lamed Barley and Addey,
at 40L, in boats, and apparatus for building and storing
and with great velocity flow equally,
. LICE— falling. The
re has not been a
flood of equal magnitude in Manchester for at least a
ustiolmabeoutitmhealtfo-
dozen years. Tidings reached Manchester yesterday
peat s'eveTnheo'cwleactker,
that a reservoir of great length and breadth, in the
Holmfirth valley, near Huddersfield, burst its banks on
Wednesday niht, and washed away a large mill and a
ly a vestige of
house, leaving scare , them standing; and
that in the village of Balmbrth itself the damage great
devastation, besides several lives lost. The done
is computed at above 20,000/

arranged.
yr •
te
ht : nr ae.dba
oil
sea d:
:tato. 0 f
the
two
EASTERNstatted" allTiEsdays since i NORTHERN
-ORodTHEIRv differencesNo
THEwA
ys.
\ve
poaunnyt,iearfs taer.nreitcoeray_
few •
RAILWAYS.—We
these companies bad been arnibciabhc-
learn that by the arrangement
sary consequence, ceases to run trains between Peterbo-
the
Eat ter
Counties Com-
pany se un l
brancht
ts eenmtl
yo-
becomes intact. The Great Northern. Corn
rough and Wisbeach. The other traffic arreiatunhigdoeurmt
gilyteistoptrhee.
bp
ur abcl ei
od, ebtuati l
ts
hwe
yh i
in
i oe
os
ma np da
rtaot
ipvree
ruin en t tt he ato Lilt
oec
ft arhmi
.1
ypi i
ne
d.rt_ieno.
lireoetnal
ei:wnpt
asterni n
pany have now simply to construct, the Harwich
to death in
competi-
sumed that the arrangement secures the East Anglian lease
teehndweto adreevneolotp
to the Eastern Counties Company.
taiffoonr,dththeemreatohnernmeseaonfs
A man
October last by the Court of Assizes a the. Landes, for mur-
der, was executed four days ago atArjuzaux, the place in
which the crime was committed, After his condemnation
he was confined in the prison of.D.lodnt-de-Marsan. On being
named Macque, condemned.
told that his last day had arrne. , he
complained that no
notice had been given him of the time of his execution, and
proceeded to dress himself wit Feat care. He partook of
breakfast, and drank several glasses.of wine.
The commis-
sary of police solemnly asked, him if he acknowledged his
guilt, but he answered "No. He was then conveyed to
Arjuzaux, accompanied by a priest,. who gave him every
consolation. He requested food, which was supplied. He
then demanded to be allowed to live two hours longer, but
was told that could not be granted. tx
-4e walked firmly to
the scaffold, engaged in prayer, kissed the crucifix and ex-
horted the crowd to take warning from his fate. He then
gave himself into the hands, of the executioner, and a mo-
znent after his head fa- .-=Calagnanz.