The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-04 00:00:00

THE LATE HURRICANE.

GREAT DESTRUCTION OF LIFE AND
PROPERTY.

The dreadful hurricane, which commenced on Christmas
Eve, and which continued raging until yesterday week
with greater or less violence, has not been equalled in
point of severity, and for extent of havoc, since that
which occasioned so much destruction to life and property
in 1839. We last week recorded its destructive effects in
Liverpool, and the more immediate locality ; and from the
accounts since received the storm seems to have raged
with equal violence in all parts of the kingdom. As was
predicted, it has led to many most heartrending catas-
trophes on the coast. Several fine ships (some of them
emigrant vessels) perished amidst the fury of the gales,
and in one instance more than forty unfortunate creatures
met with a watery grave. It would seem that the effect
of the hurricane was first felt on Christmas Eve, and,
after sweeping round the coast of Ireland, burst over this
country. The velocity and power of the wind far ex-
ceeded anything which had been experienced on our
shores of late years.

Amongst the casualties in Liverpool two ladies (sisters)
were seriously injured in the Old Churchyard. They
passed into the yard at the telegraph tower-gate, and
went down to the front of the western side of the church
tower, to look at the picturesque' view which was to be
seen on the river. A-gentleman who accompanied them
there left them whilst he went to the Prince's Dock. As
the ladies were standing looking at the splendid scene
before them, they were lifted up by a sudden gust of
wind which carried them forty or fifty yards across the
churchyard towards the Mersey-chambers. Their clothes
were blown over and twisted round their heads ; and,
after being borne along in the way described, the ladies
were dashed down on the gravestones with considerable
force. They were both removed in a state of insensibility
to an office close bv, and, on their recovery, were driven
home to their residences.

At Birkenhead and the neighbourhood the hurricane
was severely felt. A portion of the south end of the roof
of the market was carried off, and some of the brickwork
shattered. Messrs. Crow and Williams, timber-dealers
had a great portion of their yard-wall, in Oliver-street,
thrown down. During the day, owing to the extraordi-
nary height to which the tide attained, considerable diffi-
culty was experienced at some of the opposite ferries in
landing. At Woodside the water flowed up against the
pay-gates and over the quay, and the passengers had to be
landed for some time by means of plonks.
There is perhaps not a town or village from one end of
the country to the other which has net felt the effects of
the gale.

In London and the metropolitan districts the destruc-
tion of property was immense. At the Eastern Counties
Railway the iron roof, 300 feet long and 47 wide, spanning
the Shoreditch terminus was completely destroyed. At
Gwydyr-house garden, opposite the Treasury, and adjoin-
ing the Duke of Buccleuch's, Whitehall, a fine old elm,
about 70 feet in height, was snapped off below the level of
the ground and thrown forward to the street.—On West-
minster-bridge, eight of the old-fashioned globular lamps.
with which it was lighted were wrenched from the sup-
porters and destroyed. The venerable elm, in front of
Mr. Cole's house at the head of Upper Norton-street,
Portland-place, two hundred years old, was blown down.
A house in Red-lion-yard, Long-lane, Smithfield, fell,
burring a family consisting of a man, his wife, and five
children ; fortunately the rafters fell so as to protect them
from serious injury, beyond severe bruises. A lofty stack
of chimneys near the Three Colts Tavern, Mile-end, was
blown down, and two persons were so injured as to be
obliged to he conveyed to the hospital. At Baker's-build-
ings, Liverpool-street, Bishopsgate-street, City, an aged
female, named Sarah Holliday, lost her life, and her hus-
band was very seriously injured by the falling of a stack of
chimneys into their bed-room. An immense number of
minor casualties also took place. At Lambeth, Vauxhall,
Kennington, and other districts the destruction of trees,
chimneys, roofs, &c., was very great.
At Windsor the large gasometer on the premises of the
Royal Gas Company, near the Great Western Railway
Station, was blown out of the tank. Several large trees
in the Great Park and Windsor Forest were torn up by
the roots or blown down.

Much damage was done to a portion of the works of
the new Crystal Palace at Sydenham. A large moveable
platform, erected for the purpose of raising the arch of
the nave, was blown down among the columns and mas-
sive iron girders, bearing a considerable number of them
to the ground along with it.
At Oxford it caused very great damage in and around
the city and University. A poor woman was killed at the
workhouse by the falling of a chimney. A stack of chim-
neys fell into the dining-room of the President of Mag-
dalen College, making a total wreck. Happily the venera-
ble president escaped without injury. One of the pinna-
cles of all Souls' College-hall was swept down, and falling
on the roof of the hall, broke quite through it in two
places.

From Bristol the accounts are very bad, scarcely a
house escaped without sustaining more or less of damage.
Roofs were partially dismantled, chimney pots blown
do VI, and trees torn up or broken down in all directions.
At Clifton the gale was most severely felt. The windows
of Clifton Church were forced in, and the Roman Catholic
Church of the Holy Apostles was denuded of a portion of
its roof.

At Nottingham the circular roof of the Arboretum
was blown off, and the factory of Messrs. Mallet and Bur-
ton blown down.

The steeple of Trinity Church, Stockton-on-Tees, was
blown down, and, falling on the roof, broke through it,
carrying away in its fall the gallery beneath, and smashing
the seats in the aisle. Several houses have been over-
turned at Hartlepool. Mr. Marshall Fowler, of Preston-
hall, near Stockton, had a narrow escape. A tall chimney
stack that had stood for 25 yealps was blown over, and fell
through the roof and floor into the room below, where
two children were sleeping. The rubbish fell all round
them and a heavy stone within three inches of one's head ;
fortunately, they were not hurt.
At Banbury it did considerable damage, blowing down
a building at the Oxford and Birmingham railway station.
At Preston, (as detailed in our last,) two cotton mills
and several other buildings were destroyed, and the
hurricane was succeeded by an inundation, which, for its
magnitude, is without parallel in living recollection.
On Monday afternoon , the Ribblebecame so much swollen
by the incessant rains and the continuous freshest, that it
overflowed its natural channel, and speedily laid all the low-
lying country round under water. The river was fully 30
feet deep in the channel, or 14 feet higher than the tide
height marked in Holden's tables, and quite one foot
higher than it was during the hurricane of 1839. It
reached the arches of the East Lancashire Railway Bridge
over the river, and spread over the adjoining fields to such
an extent that the tops of the hedges were barely visible.
On both sides of the Ribble. gardens and fields were
covered ; and the dwellings on the banks were inundated
to a great depth. At Ribble Place, a street at the bottom
of Fishergate, the water was five feet deep ; the cellars of
all the houses were filled, and the flood even reached to
the second story. A boy named Dickson was surrounded
by water, and would have perished had not a Mrs. Bailey
rushed to his rescue, and dragged him into her cottage,
which was near. Her house, however, was speedily in-
undated, and to such a height did the water rise that she
made signals of distress ; and a boat was brought, in
which all occupants were rowed to a place of safety. The
four cellars under the bonded warehouses were filled with
water, and about £2,000 worth of currants, belonging to
Messrs. Humber, merchants, were nearly all spoiled. About
£4,000 worth of wine, brandy, and rum, the property of
Mr. Breakell, spirit merchant, was floating about ; but
as the bongs were perfectly tight, it is expected that the
loss will be very small. On Monday and Tuesday, 100
men were employed in pumping out the water from the
vaults. The damage to the farms on the banks of the
river is immense, in the destruction of crops, garden pro-
duce, and farming stock. Several walls washed down on
both sides, and great injury done to the vessels in the
river and the cargoes with which they were laden.
At Fleetwood, which is so much exposed to the Irish
sea, Morecambe Bay, &e., the fury of the storm was
appalling, but no loss of life has been reported. The
greater part of Sr Hesketh Fleetwood's estate was
submerged.
At Blackpool (the well known fashionable bathing
place), near Fleetwood, the damage done was considerable,
several houses being blown down. The tide rose higher
than known for many years, the sea running mountains
high, and washing the whole front beach and road away;
the waves breaking against the houses and bow windows,
washing up many of the rail posts and palings at the front
of them ; and in many cases the water ran right through
the houses and out at the back doors.

At Clifton, Lea, and vicinity, situated near Preston, on
the banks of the river Ribble, great losses have been
sustained by the farmers. Many hundred tons of turnips
have been washed away ; and Mr. Dixon, of Lea Gate,
lost fifty sheep, drowned in the flood, which, notwith-
standing the confining and deepening of the channel by
the recent operations of the Ribble Navigation Company,
spread over the fields as far as the eye could discern,
causing most fearful devastation. The damage done
amounts to some thousands of pounds.
At Patricroft a large three-storey cotton-mill, which
was being erected by Messrs. Withington and Whitehead,
of Pendleton, was blown down. The loss is estimated at
£2,000.

At Stockport the high wind upset three of the caravans
belonging to the late Mr. Wombwell's menagerie of wild
beasts, and by the fall a fine full-grown Bengal tiger was
killed. This is a serious loss to the proprietor, the animal
being valued at X3OO.
At Wigan a Baptist Chapel, recently erected near
Chapel-street, was blown down, and altogether destroyed.

At Carlisle a spinning factory, belonging to Mr
APlCnight, was reduced to ruin.

In Manchester scarcely a street has escaped, and in one
row of new houses half-a-dozen are nearly levelled with
the ground. Two pinnacles of the tower of St. Paul's
Church, at Kersal-moor, now building for the Rev. H.
W. APGrath, late of St. Ann's, were blown down, one
crushing in half the roof, the other breaking the Caen
stone font, and doing damage that will cost £5OO to
repair.
At Tattersall railway station, near Lincoln, a man was
killed by the engine-shed being blown down.
In the neighbourhoods of Ruthin and Denbigh the
country is one mass of water, the high winds being
accompanied by heavy and almost incessant, rains. The
beautiful vale of Clwyd is so completely inundated as to
resemble a large lake ; and in the vicinity of Holywell the
depth of water is such that not only boats but large ves-
sels might sail upon its surface. A most terrible gale has
been experienced at Carnarvon. The force of the tide
was such that the massive wall which forms the quay was
forced down in five places, huge stones being scattered in
all directions, and tne spray dashing furiously up to the
walls of the ancient castle.

In Dublin immense damage was done to property, and
we regret that in one district (Milltown) three lives were
lost. It appears that, between eix and seven o'clock on
Sunday morning, a large tree was overthrown at the
:Milltown Factory, which, falling on the gate-house
attached thereto, carried down the roof, floor, and walls,
burying the inmates, six in number, underneath., Three
persons were suffocated under the ruins, namely,. Mrs
Ryan, the owner of the lodge, her dau
Ryan, and her son,
Phillip Ryan

filer, Mar:gare

Life eras lost in Limerick likewise. A young men
named Vaughan, a painter and glazier, while returning'
home, was -lifted from the ground in Mary-street, cast
against a wall, and his brains dashed out. A letter from
the same city mug:ions likewise that the country for miles