Weekly national intelligencer., 1864-03-31
TERRIBLE CALAMITY AT SHEFFIELD, (ENG
From late English Papers.

From late Engiish Papers.
At little before midnight Friday last the l1th of
March) of those terrific disasters to which nearly all
the great towns in the north Of England are more or lees
exposed happened at Sheffield The great reservoir of
the Sheffield Water Company reservoir nearo one
hundred in extent and which hell more than mil
lion cubic feet of water-suddeny burst its embankment
and swept with the fury of another Delugs down the
narrow gorge formed by the Loxey and Stsunugton Hills
into Sheffield itself Almost before warning could be given
the volume Of waters began rushing headlong down the
valley, sweeping farms aud houses rsea and factories,
like chaff before it. II
The following is graphic description from Sheffield
paper of the when the food reached that town.
six miles below the embankment.
"Persons who out in the streets when the food
broke out say there long loud terrible roar upon
the stiffness OF the night which nc eased n it's intensity
and they stood listening perpeIed and wonder
there sounding above the sudden
Of waters dashng rock and this was quickly followed
BY piercing shreks first distant then Increasing until up
the streets IN every direction away from the flow of the
river there hundreds and hundreds persons n their
nghtdresses some dragging little children by the hand
Others hslfdressed tripping and falling; and from many
the terrible exclamhtoDs came and nothinp mors
oh God the food the ,od Many of the poor naked
and destitute creatures taken into the police
where, round agres fire. they lay stood talking their
losses or mourning for their dead until rnns broke
they sailed forth in the hope of saving
Their goods OF hoping against hope to meet the they
had mourbed as dead"
Never probably, before has an accident Of the same
kind occurred runous in its wholesale destruction of
property so lanentaby Gt4l in tho loss Of human life
Whatever the sudden and tremendous food could reach it
seems to have destroyed, and calculating only by the
number Of houses swept away and tho persons missing
who were known to have been them on that fatal
there is every to fear that the lives sacrced by
this awful calamity will not be less than two hundred If
they do not unfortunately exceed that number OF
the damage done to property it is mpos be at this early
date to form even conjecture The devastation in this
respect Is unparalleled large, popuous, and thriving
district has been almost Ohteated from the earth scare
more than traces OF the houses and factories thas once
stood there now remaining. The Don owing to late
heavy rains, unusually high and tho additional water
thrown into has laid hundreds of acres under wafer
and inflicted inca:uabe injury the growing crops OF
the destructive character of The food
evidences on every hand Timber in large au.ntites
bedposts feather beds tables clocks various kinds Of
household furniture passed down and several carcsses Of
cattle also The water very thcky npreqna I'd with
mud-a proof ihat must have swept with terrific vo
itnce over the land adjoining the Fish, pike par
tcular have been lett In large quantities on land from
which the water has subsidized .g
LATER Every additional inquiry made into the cir
cumstances OF this appalling calamity shows that At has
beeu much more disastrous than OF rst
1t now estimated that the loss of life will exceed two
hundred and fifty and that the value Of the property de-
stroyed exceeds half million From Bradfeld where
the reservoir burst down the course of the rivers for
twelve or fourteen miles the country is lid waste The
reservoir covered area of seveDysx acres aad woul
hold 900 600 cubic feet Of water The embauk,nent
which crossed the end Of the valley, enormous
erection with an average height Of eighty FIVE feet and
forty feet in thickness II three hondred ward, LONG
between Matock aud Hlsborough, a distance Of four
miles the greatest loss Of life has been caused Within
this tract whole OF houses have been s e entirely
away 10 three OF which alone there twenty yfve lives
lost in the opposite row the whole Of the inhabitants
we're drown d. and scarcely any their bodies have been
discovered. The food seems to have swept off every
thing before IT, from the confluence Of the Loxley and the
heViln 10 the Don Between Wardsend and Sheffield
the Don the bodies lying in the mills aud the
mad and ruins There fourteen in one place ten in
another ani thirteen in third At Neepsend nine hun.
dred acres OF gardens were devastated and whole families
we're swept away An official report just received states
that one hundred and fysix dead bodies have been al
ready recovered; seventy have been identified Large
numbers are not yet found Bodies have been discovered
far down the river Doncsster The inhabitants cf
the submerged districts have lost every thing APP
peal for instant help will be made hundreds nothing
left OF their property but their night dresses The uquess
we're opened on Saturday night and then adjourned for
ten days There then ninety bodies in the work.
house, and the said he had been informed there
had been nearly two hundred found.