The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-02-10 00:00:00

YORKSHIRE

BURSTING OF

HOLMFIRTH

The most lamFneable effects of the flood were sustained
by ti mnanitants of Holmfirth, a small town situated in
the midst of high lands, hills, moors, and mosses, in one
of the wildest districts of Yorkshire, about six miles from
Huddersfield. The Bilberry Reservoir, which was con-
structed some years ago, about a mile from Holmfirth,
4nd which has been fed by the neighbouring mountain
streams, burst its embankments about one o'clock on
Thursday morning last, and sent down a torrent of water
which carried destruction and death in its course, through
the whole extent of the valley. This reservoir, which
supplied a number of extensive mills with water-power,
had been observed to rise greatly on Wednesday, and by
ten o'clock that night it was found to be full to the brim ;
a e:rcv,rnstance whichoccasioned considerable apprehension
for the stability of the banks. In consequence of the
alarm then felt, some forty or fifty persons gathered
together, resolved to watch during the night. One gen-
tleman, with prudent forethought, proceeded, shortly
after ten o'clock, to Digley, and called up a number of the
inhabitants from their beds, informing them of the danger
which he believed to be impending. Some sought and
found safety by speedy removal to the adjacent hills ;
while others, incredulous, remained to perish by the
catastrophe which had been too truly predicted.
Shortly after one o'clock, the dreaded result occurred.
The embankment, saturated with water, and overborne
by the immense weight pressing against its inner side,
was literally torn away from the front or lower end of the
reservoir, for a length of about 80 yards; and the immense
body of water rushed forth, a resistless and mighty tor-
rent, sweeping away all obstacles to its progress, and•
spreading everywhere in its courso devastation and death.
Rightly to appreciate the nature of this destructive tor-
rent, the reader must imagine an immense body of water,
rushing for miles through a deep, narrow ravine or valley,.
thickly studded with woollen and other mills, the cottages
Of the workpeople, populous towns, villages, and hamlets,
extending over a lineal space of many miles,—with a fall
in the surface of the valley sufficient to add immense im-

petus to the overwhelming torrent in its downward course,
, • ,

which was that of the river Holme. The town of Holm-
firth, which is built on both banks of the river, and con-

nected by bridges, has a population of 6,000, most of
whom were of course in bed at one o'clock in the morn-

ing ; and the only warning given was by a few of the
watchers, who started off when it was seen that the reser-
voir was really about to burst its bounds ; running down
the river side, shouting, casting stones through bedroom
windows, and startling people from their sleep as best
they could. But even this brief and imperfect warning
(alas! never beard by many)-only oxtveded to the en-

trance of Holmfirth nocueii the reservoir ; for there the
food overtook the warners themselves, and was its own
fearful herald of destruction and death. The scenes which
occurred along the valley never could be described, in all
their sickening and heart-rending fullness : the rain was
falling heavily, and the streets crowded with people ;
while along the banks hundreds were rushing madly about
in their night-dresses, seeking their friends or bewailing
losses. There were not, however, wanting many of
who, at the risk of their lives, did all that was pos-
to rescue the poor drowning creatures, who were
enerally seen tossing on the flood, but only to be washed

by in an instant

The prc

ty over which the torrent first rushed was

or), at the foc

reservoir, on the right bank of the stream ; a stone build-
ing, of three storeys, and about twenty yards in length,
with a neat cottage next its river gable. The greater p3r-
tion of the mill, with its heavy iron machinery, and the
entire cottage were swept away, and the property was
utterly wrecked in a few moments. The occupier of the
cottage had been so impressed_ with the conviction that a

fearful catastrophe was impending, that he had sent his
wife and family away from the house, and had even
removed his furniture. Pursuing its devastating course,
it next swept away the residence of Mr. John Furness,
with a barn, cowhouse, three cows, and a stack of hay,
worth £5O. Mr. Furness and his family having been
warned, had fled for safety with his family to the hill
side. The Digley woollen mills, with all the valuable
machinery therein, steam-engines, heavy boilers, and
mule frames, were there floated away like straws. This
property alone is estimated to be worth beiween £20,000
and £30,000. Some yards of one end of the Bank-end
woollen mill were also washed away ; the iron spinning
mules and weaving mules having been torn asunder, and
left projecting from the ruin. At Holme Bridge, a little
further down the river, the church was inundated, the
pews being lifted from their position and thrown trans.
versely, in rows, across the aisle; the walls inclosing the
yard were thrown down ; gravestones were torn up, and
coffins and corpses floated out of the new graves down the
river. The water reached across the bridge, carrying
away the stone battlements. The torrent dashed straight
through the windows of the second story of the Hinch-
cliffe woollen mills, which stand upon a firm rocky foun-
dation, about a mile and a half below the reservoir, and
escaped destruction, though they suffered damage to the
amount of about £5OO. A row of ten cottages, two sto-
ries high, inhabited by operatives, on the left bank of the
river, near this point, were swept entirely away. From
one of these houses alone 10 human beings, who com-
posed the family, were washed away, and perished. Alto-
gether it is supposed that nearly forty persons inhabiting
these houses were surprised by the flood while they were
asleep, and were unable to save their lives. Only one
man appears to have been saved, and his escape seems
almost miraculous ; he was floated down a quarter of a
mile further into a milldam.

Several other mills and works were seriously injured,
and property of great value was washed away and de-
stroyed, while the lives of a considerable number of work-
men, their wives and families, fell a prey to the irresisti-
ble fury of the torrent. Among the works damaged were
the Bottoms Mill ; the Victoria Woollen Mill ; the woollen
mill of Messrs. Dyson ; the dye-works of Messrs. George
Farrer and Co., and the spinning and weaving mill of Mr.

J. I-1 Farrar. In Holmfirth the loss of life and property
was fearful. Several whole families were drowned in
their beds; and a number of tradesmen and others had
their entire stock-in-trade, furniture, and effects swept
away and destroyed.
No words can picture the grief, distress, and misery
which have thrown their gloom over this unfortunate dis-
trict in consequence of this shocking calamity. To say
that 100 lives have been lost, fearful as the announcement
is, expresses but very inadequately the nature of this
awful occurrence. The living are in many instances
plunged into the deepest distress and suffering ; families
who had the blessings of wealth and happiness yesterday.
are to-day all but penniless. There is reason to believe
that one family, who had property worth nearly £30,000,
are to-day left only with the clothes they stand in—mills,
dwelling houses, stables, b irns, horses, cattle, everything
has been swept away. The working classes have distress
threatening them through the want of employment, for,
by the bursting of the reservoir, the course of the river is
choked up and diverted in several places, the mills hnve
been stopped for a considerable way down the valley, and
it is estimated that it will require a period of four months
to place the supply of water a footing to enable them
to resume work—is, indeed, it can he done at all, for no
one v-ntareß to gay wi,o can or who will be the parties to
remedy the diffienity. The damage to property alone, it
is staied, on credible testimony. will not amount to less
than £600.000

Tt aepeara that the reservoir was the property of certain
localemm~aissiuner~,by art of parliament.
It was constructed in 1840. hut, from tho first, it was
found to he defective in he fonr,dation, owing to a spring
of water under the embankment, which rendered the
puddling ineff rtusJ, and ',I-I.er] the hank to give, and to
settle down um quaqy A phane-ry suit agnitist the con-
tractors was the ..or‘geciti ,ire, which is not, suttlad ; and
there has been endl—a litigation with the occupiers of
water- pow, r, so Ow at- egrnmiAsinners so'm go into pecu-
niary difficulties, and, for the last two or thr., vPars, the
works have heroine dila. Hat d for want of proper repairs.
The means devised for reliving asodden pressure of water
were so out of erde-, that they were totally unavailable.
and the sluice gates ,t the I .war end of the reservoir had
got fast, and could n he moved when their use was
im-
peratively called for.

The total loss of life does not Appear to be accurately
ascertained as yet ; I,ot it is estimated that at least 100
persons have perished, B tvae, n 65 and 70 of the bodies
bad been recovered on Saturday morning, some of thous
at a distance of twenty miles below the reservoir ; and a
telegraphic despatch from Hull stated that three or four
bodies had been found near that town, having been car-
ried along the Coln"•, and thence into the Hn,her.
An inquest on the recovered bodies was commenced on.
Friday, to allow of the rites of interment on Sunday ;
but this wes adjourned till to. morrow (Wednesday) week,
to allow an official inanection by civil engineers, which, it
is understood, will be accompanied by a government in-
vesti,ration.

Account= received from Worcestershire. Herefordshire,
and Gloceetershire, of the date of Saturday kat, represent
that the rivers S,,vern and Wye have risen to an unusual
height, and in so sudden a manner as to lead to the sue-
position that a tremendous waterspout had burst on the
mountains of North Wales where these two riv,rs rise.
The coach traffic between Hereford and Cdocester was
stopped, and great fears were entertained (hat the bridges
over the Wve at Hereford and Rose would not he able to
resist the torrent much The lower part of the
city of Hereford near tho river has been flooded so that
the inhabitants were driven to their upper rooms, and ferry
boats were ,stahlished in the streets. So great a frood has
not been known since 1795, and the river is covered with
fragments of wreck On the Severn, at Glocester and
Tewkesbury, the flood rose in one hour 18 inches upon the
meadows.