A. D. 1852 THE CATASTROPHE AT HOLMFIRTH. It is here proposed to give a statement of some of the particulars connected with one of the most dire calamities upon record—a calamity which resulted in the loss of about eighty human lives, and the destruction of property to the amount of nearly a quarter of a million sterling. The cause of this melancholy disaster was the bursting of the "Biberry Reservoir," near Holmfirth, on the 5th of February, 1852-an accident attended with such fearful results that a premanent record of them cannot but be acceptable to the public generally, and especially to residents in Yorkshire. In reference to this lamentable occurrence it may be safely affirmed, that any thing more terrific and destructive has rarely happened in England; it has consequently attracted the attention of the whole nation, and aroused the benevolent sympathies of all classes. Shortly after the hour of midnight, when the inhabitants were locked in the embraces of sleep, unconscious of approaching danger, a mountain reservoir burst its restraining embankment, and the pent up waters, which for hours had been gathering rapidly from the streamlets, flowing into the capacious gorge, leaped at one bound from their place; with a force defying all control, pursuing their rapid and impetuous course for miles down the narrow valley, studded with factories, and clusters of houses, shops, and warehouses, and before the slumbering population were aware of their perilous position, their dwellings were razed to the foundation as completely as if a tornado had swept over them, and themselves, their families, their furniture, and other "household goods" precipitated into the destructive flood. Huge factories, with their machinery, engines, and varied contents-farm buildings, with their agricultural produce, were carried away by the torrent-horses, cattle, goats, poultry, and dogs, were hurried into one common but watery grave—and even the bodies of the sleeeping dead were torn from their resting places, in church and chapel grave-yards, and borne again to the doors of the living. The devastation in the valley of the Holme,—one of the most picturesque vallies in Yorkshire, or in England,-was perfectly appalling; and the desolation which everywhere presented itself, after the flood had swept over it, was such as to fill the beholder with dismay. No imagination can adequately portray the scenes which that ever-to-be-remembered Thursday morning exhibited. together they were of the most heart-rending description. Numbers who retired to rest the night before in comfortable, nay, in opulent circumstances, in the morning found themselves homeless, and, so far as their immediate families were concerned, friendless; Al and many never even saw the morning light, have perished in the overwhelming flood. Before proceeding with the details of this truly melancholy catas trophe, it may be convenient, and will materially facilitate the reader's comprehension of the narrative, if we give some preliminary particulars respecting the valley of the Holme, its population, its trade, and the construction of the three reservoirs, more especially of the one known as the "Bilberry Reservoir," the bursting of which has caused such destruction. The country lying south and south-west of Huddersfield presents to the eye of the spectator some of the finest mountain scenery to be found in England. This district is diversified by beautiful and extensive vallies, and slooping moor and woodlands, the latter stretching out to the borders of Derbyshire and Cheshire, and Lancashire, reaching their highest point in that immense range of hills known as "the back bone of England." These wild and precipitous hills, which are covered with heath, are broken by deep cloughs or glens, which drain the wide tracts of moorland, which extend from the summit of their ridges for miles, their beds being washed by small streamlets, which, augmented in their course by many a mountain waterfall, gradually widen at the termination of the cloughs, and become the source whence the larger streams of the vallies are supplied. The valley of the Holme is the most extensive in the district, and runs into the country from near Huddersfield for a distance of ten miles, terminating in the highlands known as Holme Moss on the west, and Black Moss and Ramsden Edge on the south-a distance of three miles above Holmfirth. A small river, called the Holme, formed by the confluence of the Holme and Digby streamlets, which empty themselves into it near Holme Bridge, and by the Ribbleden streamlets, which drain the hills lying westward, runs down the valley, affording every facility for steam and water power. This led to the erection of mills for the manufacture of fancy woollens, which has for many years been carried on here, and has gradually grown into a trade of great importance, affording employment to a large population. The concentration of this industrial spirit in that locality soon led to an increase in the population of the district, which is now covered with some six or seven villages, and a large town called Holmfirth. Holme, the first village, which is of considerable antiquity, lies on the slope of Holme Moss, in a wild secluded nook, away almost from all human ken. About a mile lower down, and at the confluence of the Holme and Digley streamlets, is situated the small village of Holmebridge, whose beautiful little church, recently erected, stands on the left bank of the Digley streamlet. A few hundred yards lower down, and within a mile of Holmfirth, stands the village of Hinchcliffe Mill, which extends along the left bank of the river until it unites with Upper-bridge and Holmfirth, at a distance of a mile and a A D. 1852 A. D. 1852 half from the confluence of the two streams. The right bank of the river to this point is dotted with factories and weaving shops The town of Holmfirth contains a population of 2,347, and is most picturesquely situated on the banks of the river which flows through its centre, and which is crossed by three single arch bridges, having a span of from eighteen to twenty feet each. On the west it is bounded by high and precipitous cliffs, along whose ridges are observable small habitations occupied by an industrious population, and on the east by high lands which slope gradually from the valley, and which are covered with all the evidences of industrial activity. The greater portion of the town lies in the valley, and abutting on the river are several extensive woollen manufactories and dyehouses, which give to it that appearance of activity which a manufacturing town generally presents. The next is the village of Thongs Bridge, which is built on the left bank of the river Holme, where there are several large woollen factories. The river, after leaving Thongs Bridge, continues its circuitous direction down the valley, and falls into the river Colne to the north of Huddersfield. The various villages scattered over the locality contain a population of 17,000. Holmfirth is rather more than six miles from Huddersfield, from which town it is approached by a branch railway, constructed by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. It will readily be conceived that the advantages which this valley presented to manufacturing skill and enterprise consisted in its water power; but as the mountain streamlets, in dry seasons, furnished a too scanty supply of water, the idea was formed of storing up the superabundant supply in wet seasons, and immense reservoirs were constructed for that purpose, under the authority of an act of parliament, passed in 1837, the royal assent being given to it on the 8th of June in that year. The preamble of the Act recites that there are many mills, &c., situate on or near the line or course of the flowing of the waters of the Holme and Colne, and of other streams in the West-riding of Yorkshire flowing into the same; that the supply of water to such mills, &c., was very irregular, and during the summer months frequently insufficient for effectually working the wheels, engines, &c., in connection with the same; and that the irregularity and deficiency might be greatly remedied by the construction of an embankment on the Digley Brook, at Bilberry Mill, and at seven other points named: powers being thus given by the Act to construct eight reservoirs. The commissioners to be appointed under the Act were ordered to be millowners, or owners or occupiers of falls of water in the district, of the annual value of one hundred pounds a year and upwards. Powers were given to raise, by subscription, forty thousand pounds; and the commissioners subsequently erected three reservoirs only, at a cost of seventy thousand pounds,-forty thou sand pounds having been raised by mortgage, being the maximum fixed by the borrowing clauses. As a pecuniary speculation the reservoir scheme has been a total failure, the commissioners, as such, being now, and for some years past insolvent, and unable to pay even the interest on their mortgage debts. Mr. George Leather, civil engineer, prepared the plans and specifications for the construction of the reservoirs; but the works had not been efficiently executed. The Bilberry reservoir, the bursting of the embankment of which has caused so much devastation, was situated at the head of a narrow gorge or glen, leading from the Holme valley, at Holme-bridge, to a high bluff of land called Good Bent, and was supplied by two streams flowing through the cloughs running to the north-east and south-east of Good Bent, and draining the moors of Molme Moss on the one side, and the hills running up to Saddleworth on the other, including some thousands of acres of moorland. The confluence of the streams takes place between two large hills, called Hoobrook Hill and Lum Bank, and which run parallel to each other for a distance of about one hundred and fifty yards, when they open out, and form an extensive oval basin, of not less than three hundred yards diameter. The reservior was formed by blocking up the valley below the basin, and enclosing some twelve acres of surface. The construction of this reservoir was let to Messrs. Sharp and Sons, of Dewsbury; but in consequence of some dispute arising during the making of the embankment, as to a defect in the works, the contract was broken, and the commissioners were involved in a Chancery suit and other legal proceedings, in which a large sum of money has been spent. It was afterwards re-let to David Porter and Brothers, and by the advice of the engineer to the commissioners, a coffer-dam was sunk in the centre of the embankment, and means adopted, which it was then hoped would remedy the defect. The embankment, sixty-seven feet high, was originally constructed to retain nearly sixty feet of water in the reservoir when full, but having sunk, it was found it would not contain this depth of water by many feet. The embankment had an extensive base, and was made out of the debris of the valley, with a puddle bank of about four yards in breadth running through its centre. The inner surface was covered with stone sets. The bye-wash, or waste pit, which was a circular chimney about four yards diameter, was on the south side of the reservoir, and was sunk through the embankment near to its junction with Hoobrook hill, and communicating with a tunnel emptying itself on the lower or outer side of the embankment. Its height from the bed of the reservoir is fifty-nine feet. The outlet of the water was by an open culvert along the bed of the reservoir, communicating with the tunnel, by two patent trap doors or shuttles, situated directly parallel to each A. D. 1852 A. D. 1852 other at the bottom of the chimney. These traps were placed the one inside and the other outside of the east wall of the chimney, and were worked by perpendicular rods raised by a common screw on a platform at the top of the chimney. In the event of the trap doors being insufficient to convey the surplus water away during extraordinary supplies, the water, on rising to the level of the chimney or bye-wash, would meet with a source of escape presumed to be adequate to all contingencies. At a subsequent period the embankment considerably settled in one or two places near the centre, and its surface was thus lowered below the level of the bye-wash, which was thereby rendered useless for taking away the surplus water. At the time of the accident the shuttles were found to be very ineffective, for when drawn up, scarcely any water came through, and subsequently it was found that the supply valve of one of them had been stopped up by a large stone, and further choked by an accumulation of smaller stones, peat earth, ling, and other articles, so that there was scarcely any aperture for the escape of the water. It is calculated, that at the time when the embankment gave way, the quantity of water in the reservoir would not be less than eightysix millions two hundred and forty-eight thousand gallons, or the enormous and fearful amount of three hundred thousand tons in weight. The bursting of the embankment took place a little before one o'clock on the morning of the 5th of February, 1852. The moon shone brightly over the varied and romantic landscape; the streamlets, swollen by recent heavy rains, filled the river to its banks; the industrious population were recruiting their wasted energies by sleep, when all at once, in a moment, the ponderous embankment was carried away by the force and weight of the pent up waters, and desolation, ruin, and death, overspread the rich and fertile valley for miles. Trees were torn up by the roots, and hurried onward by the rush of waters, roaring with renewed fury as they swept down each successive obstruction. The death-shrieks of scores were hushed as the flood passed forwards to new scenes of destruction and death, leaving in its track, ponderous pieces of rock weighing many tons; the dead carcases of horses, cows, goats, and other cattle; here and there broken machinery, bags of wool, carding machines, dye-pans, steam engine boilers, timber, spars, looms, furniture, and every variety of wreck. It would seem as if the whole body of accumulated waters had tumbled down the valley together, sweeping all before them, throwing a four story mill down like a thing of nought, tossing steamengine boilers about like feathers, and carrying death and destruction in their progress. In consepuence of the narrowness between the mountain bluffs on either side, a vast volume of water was kept together, which spent its force upon Holmfirth, where the mass of houses, shops, mills, warehouses, and other buildings were |