The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-08 00:00:00

THE 400bS;

similar detailS to those supplied by the subjoined ac-
counts,we regret to state, arc found in a great many papers
from various parts of the kingdom :
The unfavourable state of the weather, which we
noticed last week, continued down to Wednesday night.
The rain fell almost without intermission on Monday and
Tuesdayi, end effect?on tfid vitte vliry visible en
the morning of Wednesday. By nine a. m. the Severn at
Worcester was bank full ; the water continued to rise until,
in the course of the day, it had spread over a great part of
Pitchcroft, and all the low lands were flooded to a great
depth. The meadows on each side of the new road to St.
John's, for more than half way, were covered with the tur-
bid water, and its increasing depth could be calculated as
it rose. by its progress up the straight stems of the clumps
of poplars. Trees, quantities of hay, and some drowned
animals, were borne down by the Severn, which attained
its greatest height about five p.m. yesterday, and began to
decrease about seven in the evening. All the tributaries
of the Severn appear to have been equally swollen. At
Powick, the Teme entirely filled up the whole space of
the arches of the old bridge; its waters came out to a
great depth along the road, and completely isolated several
of the houses in the village. No summer flood approach-
ing to this one in violence is recollected to have happened
in the memory of man, and unhappily the damage done to
the hams and meadow lands along the water courses is
equally unprecedented.
We learn from Tewkesbury, that on the Severn and
Avon hams and meadow lands, and the pasture grounds
lying on the smaller streams, many thousand acres are
covered. The waters rose with such unprecedented rapi-
dity that in some cases the cattle and sheep were with
difficulty saved, and a great quantity of hay has been car-
ried off the land by the flood. We have the same melan-
choly intelligence from Ipsley and Beoley, where the old-
est inhabitant remembers nothing like it for upwards of
fifty years.
In this immediate neighbourhood the damage will be
great, a good deal of the hay crop having been uncut, or
left, on account of the weather, lying in the field ; and in
the brick-yard of IMr. John Hughes, near Camp, the flood
has done some hundred pounds worth of damage. We
fear we must add, that, in addition to the almost complete
destruction of the large portion of the hay crop, which was
unsecured, the continuous rain has seriously injured the
corn crops. We hear, indeed, of its being laid in some
places flat as if with a roller, but under Providence, if such
weather is vouchsafed as we have had yesterday and to-
day, it may yet recover.
The communication towards the city towards Tenbury,
and on the Leominster and Bromyard road, has been inter-
rupted. From the non-arrival of the Ludlow mail on
Wednesday afternoon, it was speedily conjectured that the
waters were out in that direction, and rumours of a fatal
accident to the mail and passengers became rife during the
evening. We are glad to say the latter were groundless,
and we have ascertained the following particulars of the
detention:—At Lindridge, Rands, the guard, was forced
to leave the coach and passengers. He and a horse-keeper
set off mounted on the leaders, with. the bags, and with
difficulty got to the canal towing-path at Newnham, where
a fly from Tenbury awaited him, and in which he proceeded
as tar as the turnpike gate, at which place the fly fairly
floated, and the horses could not keep their legs. The
guard Rands, the fly driver, and the cattle, were in the most
imminent danger of being drowned here, when luckily the
fly got entangled with some part of the gate; Rands then
mounted the roof of the vehicle, and was dragged into the
upper story of the gate-keeper's house. The flynian could
not extricate both horses, and with difficulty managed to
disengage one of them, on which he contrived to make hi;
way to a place of safety, and quite unexpectedly, the re-
maining horse also made its escape shortly afterwards,
dragging the fly through the water. Rands remained in
the toll-house till six o'clock on Thursday morning, when
he was able to resume his journey.
At Knightford Bridge the read was found yesterday
morning to be impassable. The Aberyatwith coach could
not proceed beyond this point, and her passengers having
been taken out, the coach was left in the water, lashed to
a tree. The guard of the mail returned in the course of the
forenoon to the post-office in this city, with the information
that he could not proceed beyond the bridge, and Mr.
Hill, the postmaster, having engaged the services of sonic
of our river boatmen, proceeded to the spot. Having pro-
cured the use of a boat in the neighbourhood, Mr. Hill
sucoeeded in conveying the down mail-bags onwards, and
bringing back in return those of the up one.
At Bewdley a great deal of damage was done on
Wednesday, and in Kidderminster the Stour rose from
two to three feet in the streets. In the house of T. Hel-
len, Esq., the floors on the ground story were inundated
twelve inches deep. At Cleobury Mortimer the Rea sud-
denly overflowed on Tuesday night, and did a great deal of
damage. The paper mill of Mr. Hall was considerably
injured. Mr. Pope lest 13 pigs, two carts, and a quantity
of implements, carried off by the water, and a vast deal of
hay was washed off the adjoining fields.
On Tuesday night part of a hill orchard, with its trees,
soil, and the rock they stood on, belonging to Mr. John
Knott, of Rock, was forced from its foundation by the
action of the accumulated rain which had settled in a cre-
vice of the hill, and was hurled 250 yards distance, cover-
ing with its ruins about a quarter of an acre of potatoes,
growing in a field belonging to Mr. Phillip Knott, of the
Cooper's Arms, Abberley.
We are as yet but very imperfectly informed of the ex-
tent of this calamity, and seriously dread 'the news which
the beginning of the week will bring us of its disastrous
effects. It is with gratitude, however, we have to record
the return of fine weather. Nothing could be more sea.
sonable, nor, after such a visitation, more acceptable to the
husbandman than the beautiful weather of the last two
days. May it be lasting, and may smiling Autumn speedily
appear in her yellow mantle on' all our hills, and long
withdrawing vales."—Worcester Herald.
In the night of Tuesday last, and during the whole of
Wednesday, Chesterfield and the neighbourhood were vi.
sited with the largest flood, with the exception of one, that
has been known in the memory of the oldest inhabitant.
For several days previous to Tuesday, a considerable quan-
tity of rain has fallen at intervals; but Tuesday evening
presented every indication of a heavy fall. The rain poured
in torrents all night, and continued almost without inter.
mission during the following day. At nine o'clock on
Wednesday morning, the waters, which overflowed the
banks of the Hipper and Rother, extended in various di.
rections along the streams, and covered an immense space
of ground. Most of the houses in the lower parts of the
town, approximating to the course of the river Hipper,
were flooded, and the water rose to a great height on the
Derby road, extending from the Horns to the Bath Houses.
In the lower rooms of the Horns, public-house, the water
was nearly two feet deep ; and for a considerable distance
along the turnpike road it was so deep as to render it
prudent for people, in vehicles and on horseback, to go
round by Baythorpe, instead of encountering the vast ex-
panse of water. At half-past nine o'clock, the Sheffield
and Birmingham " Pilot" coach arrived at the Horns.
Mr. Fielding, the coachman, put his horses to the water,
with every prospect of gaining terra firma with safety,
when, however, they had arrived in the midst of the flood,
one of the leaders became restive, and the greatest alarm
for the safety of the passengers was manifested by the im-
mense number of persons who had assembled on the em-
bankment of the railway to view the inundation. Just at
this moment, when the passengers and horses appeared to
be in the greatest danger, a man named England, who is
employed by Mr. Fielding to groom his horses, plunged
into the water, seized the bridle, and led the affrighted
animals safely through. The passengers rewarded the man
for his conduct. Being very much exhausted by the exer-
tions he had used, it was with the greatest difficulty that
he succeeded in reaching the spot whence he started.
The amount of damage done by this flood, it is at pre-
sent impossible to calculate. We have received accounts
from the surrounding districts, all of which concur in stating
that hundreds will be great sufferers by having their hay
completely washed away by the stream. Among others
residing in the immediate neighbourhood, whose names
,have reached us, we may mention Mr. Charles Grimes. of
Stonegravels, Mr. Turner, of Wingerworth, Mr. James
Margerrison, of Chesterfield (whose field had been mown
on the previous day), and Mr. Smith. Several wooden
bridges have been swept away, and the heavy rains have
done much injury to those parts of the railway where the
permanent rails had been laid.

We have received communications from Derby, Belper,
Milford, Little Eaton, Alfreton, Bestow, Bakewell, Stave-
ley, Eckington, Doncaster, Rotherham, East Retford,
Newark, and many other places, giving, in general terms,
accounts of the floods in each respective neighbourhood ;
but we are happy to say, that not any of them apprise us ul
the loss of human life.

Great damage has been sustained by occupiers on the
banks of the Dove ; and our Derby correspondent writes
that large quantities of hay, straw, timber, &c., were
brought dorm the Dcrwent.

The meadows in the neighbourhood of Belper were one
complete sheet of water. A large quantity of hay be-
longing to Jedediah Scruti, Esq., was flooded, but by
strenuous exertions a part of it was saved. Nearly the
whole of Mr. W. Winson's hay, at the Dally, was washed
away ; and the farmers along the line of the rivers have
been sufferers more or less. The deep cutting of the
railway through Belrer, has the appearance of a canal;
and we regret to add that the embankments in many places
have fallen in. In the " Cluster Buildings," the floors of
two houses have given way, and great fears are entertained
that the houses would ultimately fall to ruins. All the
lower parts of Little Eaton and Duffield were laid under
water ; in several instances the inmates of houses have
had to be rescued through the upper windows. For a
distance of at least two miles along the road leading from
Little Eaton to Derby, the water was knee deep. At
Duffield a quantity of wooden sleepers belonging to the
North Midland Railway, were entirely washed away.
The river Amber also overflowed its banks, causing
great damage to the farmers, as well as to the railway
embankments.
A: Brampton a calf got into the water. A dog (we
believe belonging to Mr. Oldfield) was sent after it, and
succeeded in driving it to land ; but the faithful dog got
iuvolved in the stream and was drowned. _ _

The bridge leading from Duckmanton to Bolsover was
considerably damaged. The wooden bridge leading from
Mr. Prince's house, at Chesterfield, into the meadows,
and the bridge leading to Spital, past the Law factory,
were washed away. The house of Mr. Ingleby, Wheat
Sheaf, Baslow, was very much flooded.
From Yorkshire we learn that Mr. Ward, of Selby, is a
sufferer to the amount of nearly 2001. Mr. Best, of
Thorpe, and Mr. Nathan Workman, of Almholme, had
each nearly 500 acres of land of various descriptions of
produce under weter. About 100 tons of timber, the
property of Messrs. Buxton, Railway contractors, was
washed away from Iccles,
near Rotherham.
We have neither time nor space to describe all the ca-
sualties. It is enough for us to say that the loss which
many farmers have endured will be of a serious nature. It
is to be feared that the growing crops of corn have sus-
tained injury to an extent so considerable as almost to
exclude the hope of recovery. On Thursday and Friday
however, the sun was very powerful, and it is to be
hoped that, .with a continuance of propitious weather,
the damage done to the corn crops may be partially over•
come.—Derbyshire Chronicle.

BIRMINGIIAM.—EarIy in the morning an embankment
of the Worcester Canal, near Bourn-brook, broke down,