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

GREAT FLOODS IN YORKSHIRE
AND LANCASHIRE].

SEVENTY LIVES LOST
1 HOLMFIRTEI, THURSDAY.— lioluafirth,. a vpuh?ns
locality in the Virest Riding of Yo-hshire,
situated a few
miles from the town of fluddersfiAl, has this nay been
the scene of one of the most terrific catastrophes we
hays 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
Holmtirth, 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 rush of water was tremendous;
and 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
levelled with the ground. Aroused by such a terrible
by t
visitation,hew iatteirs; and mills and warehouses were also
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, &e. The
missing inmates of the destroyed 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. Body after body
was recovered, and within a few hours no less than
sixty were found dead. At the time of writing, how-
ever,it is impossible to give anything approximating to
a lull description of the calamity, or an estimate of the
number of dead.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT. HUDDERSFIELD, THURSDAy. This morning
dreadful occurrence, attended • witha most
•
a fearful loss of life
and destruction of property, happened in the Holmfirth
Valley, about six miles south of this t w
Holmfirth
is situated at the foot of a range of
hills .
which
a portion of what is termed the " Backboneof om
Eng-
land." The valley between that village and
Hudders-
field is studded with woollen mills,
advantagehaving
which
been taken of the many excellent sites the rapid
r
fall of water from the hills to the
lowland
Upon the many streamlets which flow from presents.
the hills
above Holmfirth the same characteristic is presented,
and the several valleys and hill-sides teem with a busy
and enterprising population, a Very considerable por-
tion of the woollen cloths for which the West Riding
is so celebrated being manufactured in this locality. As
iu summer time the mills often had to stand for
want of
water, there being but little from the hills in dry wea-
ther, but more than enough in wet, a
company was
formed some years fa g% and a namber of gentlemen
were incorporated by Act of Parliament, and em-
powered to construct large reservoirs for the storage
of water in winter, to be let down the rivulets
in summer, as it might be required for the use of the
mills, power being also given to rate the several mill
properties for the benefits thus conferred. Amongst
others the Holmfirth Reservoir Commissioners con-
structed a reservoir called the Bilberry Reservoir, si-
tuated about three miles and a half above Holmfirth, to
the south-west. During the last week there have been
very continuous falls of rain, and the water has over-
flowed the embankment of the reservoir for several days.
Indeed, fears were previously entertained of its safety
that in
by parties who resided near to it, and who were aware
t,
h ad
Wednesdayevbeen
erwas a day of incessant rain; and
accounted as a work of first-rate
the rivulets and streams in the neighbourhood were much
swollen, Aofbothuttsolnaregtehirsesmerovraniirngw(aTs (Thursday) a
ay) the em-
bankmentway,
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
Flolme 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
leashed away from the lands adjoining the course of the
main 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; bat 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
suffsr—tbe manufacturers from the loss of mills, me-
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 inqtest on the bodies already re-
covered.
MANCHESTER, THURSDAY.—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
aaret knownl
yasa the riversvvth
morning, and the addition madAleee
throughout the day from a very early •d in the
to
period in the
e to the rive
and its
xd
exceeding
ec
dkt
Dag
gn
rein
orr kp
sRn
in-
o'clock Rain
tributary rivulets seems to have
deed. The Irwell commenced been
avery great
o'clock in the morning, and its riseerifsin- about. a
was
regular and rapid until about seven !elm
hthadt tima
one
hour it is known to have gained an additionOno'clock;
'of during
one
yard to its level, and nearly as much periods.
at other _
By four o'clock the Irwell had overflowed its banks and
laid the whole of the fields in Lower (which,
Broughton (w
as the name implies, is low land) under water, and by
half-past four there were two rows of houses
re, the
s.
people, standing near to Broughtousl • 'midst of
of an immense sheet of water, u
wind that was blowing, and forcedi upheaved by a
.traual
into a rough
tempest-tossed lake. About the EaMedlock
same time the
broke over its banks and submerged all the quarter of
the town adjacent to Oxford-stre Little
Ireland (from the fact that a
col_ Tt, known gas
of Irish had isted there for a long time), and the
filledele with en
time was standing four feet deep i
inhabitants, many of whom had ton the houses of the
he utmost precipitancy to avoid rush up stairs
In
Broughton the inbabitanta of the ho a drenching.
the water in a
as.ho‘rt
any were
View were in the same Predicament e s
deptha t Broughton
of
obliged to leave carpets and othe arid maof
r costly articles
(urniture covered with water to five or

six feel

gehrta°'ll;olialttl, e
withlv wchailci,ehdhteo the
----Mr. Beswick, chief superintendent of police, of Man-
intheßur°seti
pro-
ceeded to the houses to remove those who desired it to
safer quarters, and to assure those who had more nerve
that they would not ba injured. pro, one row, which
was not considered a safe pile of buildings, thirty per-
.?
of
oe
ts,t earn,
dwphroo
cl iuvreesd
sons were removed. The
-. eatne care was extended to
Little Ireland by Mr. Taylor, superind of the D
1 division, who procured a boat, and retenndered ent
assistance
to those who desired it. Th® inhabitants themselves,
also obtained a coal-barge, and . used it for the removal
of fanailiee, furniture, and ltve stuck, such as pigs, of
which there is a large number kept in the vicinity. The
water got into the lower portions of many mills
situate on the banks of the Irwell, d
an genera he 11
ms bin er y suc-
biler 6
ceeded in putting out t tea) and so stopping the
y; but in none haso any greater i
damage than the
one case where a
g
loss of time been sustained, except
- n
sadden irruption of water into a patent
candle manu•
factory destroy
is
ed a sod deal of material in course of
preparation, and it thought that a loss of 1001. will
be incurred. Two poor men named Barie_
Y and Addey,
who let out boats for hire on the Irwell, have had their
sheds on the banks of that river washed awa—
y and seve-
ral of their boats destroyed. Barley calculates his loss
at 40Z., in boats, and
them. The water continued to rise until about half-
past seven o'clock, when it continued 'Or some
tine to
flow equally and with great velocity towards Liverpool,
and then commenced falling. There has flood of equal magnitude in Manchester foreat been a
t least a
dozen years. Tidings
reached Manchester yesterday
that a reservoir of great length and breadth, in the
Holmfirth valley, near Huddersfield, burst its anks on
b
Wednesday night, and washed away a large min
a
house, leaving scarcely a vestige of them standingan; adnd
that in the village of Holmflrth itself there was great
is computed at above 20,0001.
devastation, besides several lives lost. The d
-aruage done

NO
iltje rReEn lic
ells
_ASlTvEeßsNtatCedOilaNfTewlEdSayAsNsDinaGeßthEaAtTZ
between these companies had been amicably arranged,
learn that by the arrangement the Eastern Counties ter • We
RAI:La:AYES.
becomes intact. The Great Northern Company, as a
nicer
sary consequence, ceases to run trains between PetelZe.
rough and Wisbeach. The other traffic arrangements °.em-
brace details which we are not yet enabled to give to thpublic, but they tend to develop the resources of the twt!
lines and to prevent that competition which could result
only
in comparative ruin to both. The Eastern Counties cerh-..
-tany have now simply to construct the Harwich br,nch to
afford them the means of fully developing, without competi-
tion, the resources of their important district. It is
pre-
sumed that the arrangement secures the East Anglian lease
to the Eastern Counties Company.
A man named Masque, condemned to death in
October last by the Court of Assizes of the Landes, for mar_
der, was executed fur days ago at Arjuzaux, the place in
which the crime was committed. After his condemnation
he was confined in the prison of Mont-de-Marsan. On being
told that his last day had arrived, he complained that no
notice had been given him of the time of his execution, and
proceeded to dress himself with great care. He partook of
breakfast, and drank several glasses of wine. The commie.
sary of police solemnly asked him if he acknowledged his
guilt, but he answered "No." He was then conveyed to
A.rjuzaux, accompanied by a pries, who gave him every
consolation. He requested food, which was supplied. Be
then demanded to be allowed to live two hours longer, but
was told that could not be granted. He walked firmly to
the scaffold,
_engaged in prayer, kissed the crucifix, and ex.
hotted the crowd to take warning from his fate. He then
gave himself into the hands of the executioner, and a mo-
ment after his head fell.— Galignani.