THE SHEFFIELD FLOOD.*
THE flood caused at Sheffield in March last by the bursting of the Bradfield Reservoir was too disastrously important in its re- sults and too obscure the exact nature of its origin, for the interest felt in the subject to be exhausted after the first out- burst of excitement and of sympathy for the sufferers had died away. A calamity which caused the violent deaths of 240 people, and totally destroyed nearly 150 buildings of different descriptions, is more than a nine days' wonder, even putting aside the consideration that more than one of our northern manufac- turing towns are too probably exposed to danger of a similar kind. The volume before us is a very complete and painstaking compilation by Mr. Harrison, of the Sheffield Times, of all the facts and statistics of the occurrence, together with the evidence adduced at the inquest, Mr. Rawlinson's report, and full accounts of all the most striking incidents in the progress of the flood of which living witnesses remained. Mr. Harrison has of course had opportunities for the collection of materials for his work which few others can have had, and on the whole has fulfilled his task vary fairly. It was not to be expected that there should not be ,occasional traces in his treat- ment of his subject of a disposition to regard it much in the same way that ordinary country editors would regard a summer in which every gooseberry bush within the circulating area of their paper had produced a gigantic gooseberry. It is equally natural that units et alter purpureus pannus should be interwoven with the patchwork of his narrative, even though the subject be scarcely as suggestive as the rainbow, or the Rhine, or the grove and altar of Diana, and certainly not
" Properantis aqna3 per amcenos ambit-us agros" in the sense intended by Horace. For example, Mr. Harrison's most eloquent flight throughout the volume is his description of a journey from Sheffield to the reservoir on the first alarm of danger. The "young moon" is like " the thin edge of a bur- nished scimitar," the river flows like a " silver thread," the travellers " ever and anon glance Upwards to the sky," they discern flickering lights where " industrious workmen are en- gaged in their nocturnal labours, heedless of the tempest and singing snatches of song to cheer the dreariness of the scene," and the " clouds drift sullenly along." Bat—fatal disillusion- ment I—the travellers were contractors, and their vehicle—a gig. Putting aside the mere cesthetical bathos of all this being ob- served by the occupants of that emblem of unpoetical respecta- bility a gig, we beg leave to doubt whether two contractors roused by an alarm of danger to " works" in which they had an interest would be in the mind to "discern" anything but the nearest road to the reservoir, or to notice whether the moon was like a scimitar or a green cheese,—and if they did not, what is Mr. Harrison's evidence that the moon did resemble the former ? But if Mr. Harrison's purpureus pannus won't adhere occasionally, it in no way detracts from the value of his plain and clearly written account of all the more remarkable events of the fatal night. It is true that he is given to separate and sensational headings for every " incident," after the fashion, of American newspapers, such as " Thrilling Incidents at Owterton," " An Old Bachelor in a Box—a Comic Incident," " Shocking Deaths, Perilous Escapes, and Gallant Rescues at Neepsend," " Shocking Death of a Widow," and so on ; but the stories themselves are generally told with moderation, and combine to present vividly the calamity in all its manifold aspects of horror, excitement, or even ludicrousness. We doubt, on the whole, whether any way of treating the subject would have been more effective than Mr. Harrison's careful collection of detached anecdotes.
The main physical features of the locale are pretty well known.
• A Complete History of the Greit Flood at Shelt:ld. By Samuel Harrison. Loudon and Sheffield S. Harrison. 1804.
The Bradfield Reservoir was an enormous sheet of water formed by an embankment stretched across the valley of the Lesley, a rocky stream which joins the Don near Sheffield, from which town it was distant about eight miles. It was one of a series constructed by the Sheffield Waterworks Company, and was commenced in 1859. According to evidence given after the catastrophe, and embodied in Mr. Rawlinson's report to Government, the construc- tion was defective both in theory and execution. The puddle wall had been let into a puddle trench 60 feet deep in the rock in the centre of the valley; but it seems that there were copious springs rising even at the bottom of that trench, and the embankment itself was formed in the worst possible way with loose stony material from the side of the valley tipped from railway waggons. The provision for overflow was far from sufficient, and the water was drawn off in cast-iron pipes passing through the centre of the embankment, puddle wall inclusive, instead of by brick culverts carried through the undisturbed soil at the sides of the valley altogether clear of the artificial embankment. Under these circumstances, the least subsidence of the puddle wall caused by the action of the low-level springs at its base would give occasion for the water naturally finding its way along the outside of the pipes to effect a breach, and this once done, the porous material of the outer embankment was utterly valueless for resistance. The natural result of tipping in six-feet thick- nesses is to roll the largest stones together at the bottom of each tip, and a portion of the embankment was consequently mere rubble. In the light of the engineering evidence given at the inquest and elsewhere, it seems marvellous that Sheffield and the villages in the valley should have been so thoroughly unconscious of the fearful danger in which they were placed by this vast body of water liable at any moment to be transformed into a destruc- tive deluge. It seems doubtful, however, if any one of the thousands whose life and property were at stake ever seriously apprehended danger until the very eve of the disaster. On the evening of Friday, March 11, a•tremendous gale — foretold by the way by Admiral Fitzroy—was blowing straight down the valley, and the waves dashing with violence full against the embankment. Towards night a workman'in the employ of the company noticed a crack—scarcely wide enough to be perceptible —stretching for about fifty yards along the embankment, on the inner side of the puddle wall. The neighbours assembled and the company's officers were summoned. By ten o'clock the crack was wide enough to admit a man's hand. It was decided to relieve the pressure by blowing up a portion of the weir with gunpowder. The attempt failed, and before it could be repeated a white sheet of foam was seen rolling over part of the embank- ment, a cry of " It's all up I" was raised, and the very moment that those on time embankment bad made their escape a chasm opened in the centre, and the entire contents of the reservoir were poured in one irresistible deluge along the valley. The nearest house was about three-quarters of a mile distant, and the inhabitants had warning in time to escape with their bare lives. The flood rushed on with momentarily increasing momentum, carrying away rocks, uprooting trees, and washing away the sides of the valley till it reached the village of Bradfield, where the first human victim was sacrificed—an infant one day old. One man who bad a narrow escape had some hours before removed five children to a place of safety in consequence, as he alleges, of a dream of his wife's on the previous night. That people living within a mile of a reservoir like that at Bradfield should occasionally dream of its bursting is far from improbable ; but we suspect there must have been some more practical warning in this case. At Damflask, the next village, there were some curious escapes, though the inhabitants seem to have more gene- rally been aware of the crack discovered in the evening. A labourer employed by the company was drowned through simple Yorkshire obstinacy, refusing to believe in the danger until the flood was close upon him. An old woman risked her life and only escaped by a miracle, in order to save her cat and dog, which she triumphantly carried away one tinder each arm. Lower down, owing to the configuration of the valley, the flood seems to have acquired in- creased velocity, and to have rushed down almost in one unbroken wave, so that the escapes became less frequent and the loss of life more general. At one point huge fragments of machinery were torn and twisted up, and a rock twenty tons in weight was borne down for some distance. One man was swept through a bedroom window and carried together with a balk of timber on to the roof of a house; at the side of the valley. At Malin Bridge a whole row of iouses was washed away, and in one casa not one survivor ,left of a family of twelve. A woman and five children werif, saved by floating about
on a bed after the wall of the cottage had been forced in. After the junction of the Losley and the Don the valley is considerably more thickly populated, and buildings used for manufacturing purposes more frequent until Shef- field itself is reached. At Kelham a man lost his own life in attempting to save that of his pig, whether out of humanity or from less disinterested motives does not appear. But, on the other hand, it ought to be stated that in another case the pig of the family not only recognized the danger at the first alarm, but actually seems to have led the way to a place of safety ; where- upon Mr. Harrison terms it a " sagacious brute." The low-lying districts of Sheffield were the last to suffer seriously from the flood, as it had become far less destructive on reaching Rother- ham, and at Doncaster the effects were but trifling.
The morning after the flood was clear and bright, and the scene visible in its full horrors. The entire length of the valley was converted into a ravine strewn with rocks, uprooted trees, fragments of brickwork, and strange-looking masses of distorted machinery. Everywhere the eye met with signs of destruction. At first Sheffield refused to believe that the loss of life had been anything considerable, but as soon as the thousands who started to explore the constantly recurring spectacle of dead bodies half buried in the thick mud which covered everything showed the real nature of the calamity. Some had been drowned instan- taneously, and floated down without disfigurement, while others had been dashed against rocks and buildings until cut and mangled past recognition. In two days upwards of a hundred and fifty corpses had been recovered, and for weeks afterwards scarcely a day passed before the remains of others were found, two or three at a time. At one time the workhouse contained 118 of the dead laid out for identification, many of whom were never identified. Altogether it is supposed that two hundred and fifty persons perished. What the actual loss of property was can never be accurately computed ; but it must have been enormous. More than 5,000 buildings of different kinds were more or less injured, fifteen bridges totally destroyed, and five more damaged. So wide-sprdad was the wreck of property and withdrawal of means of livelihood that no less than 20,537 persons had been relieved by the General Committee in less than two months from the date of the flood. With regard to relief the district did its duty well. The great country landowners and the borough manu- facturers vied with each other in liberality, the largest sub- scription being 1,0001. from Lord Fitzwilliam and the next 5001. from Mr. Hadfield. Several of the inhabitants of Sheffield gave 2001. each, and with aid from the rest of the kingdom 50,0001. and upwards was soon raised. One gentleman placed a box for penny contributions outside his premises in the town, and in four days 2,894 pennies were dropped into it. Almost the first step entailed upon the authorities was the clearing away of the enor- mous deposits of mud, which it was feared might produce wide- spread fever, and no doubt would have done so if more than 2,0001. had not been spent in sanitary precautions. On the whole the operations both of the authorities of the borough and the Relief Committea seem to have been conducted both with energy, liberality, and judgment.
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