Dale Dyke Dam Disaster 1864

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Dale Dyke Dam Disaster 1864
School History Resource History Key Stage 2 Unit
7 Local History Study How the locality was
affected by a significant local event
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Victorian Sheffield
General view of Sheffield from the station,
1800s(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield s11478)
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Dale Dyke Reservoir, Bradfield
Sheffield Waterworks plan showing the intended
Dale Dyke Reservoir, 1852(Sheffield Archives
YWA/10/1/2)
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View of Dale Dyke Reservoir, Bradfield,
1864(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield t01546)
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Bursting of the Dam!
Picture of the bursting of Dale Dyke Dam, 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield s00972)
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Eyewitness Account
Eyewitness account of the flood by Joseph
Ibbotson of Bradfield, from Harrisons History of
the Sheffield Flood, 1864(Sheffield Archives
HAR/LOCAL)

• My house stands fifty or sixty yards from the
  mill, on rocky ground, higher than the roof of
  the mill, facing across the valley. On hearing a
  noise and a shout "The flood is coming !" I
  instantly leaped out of bed, and looked out of
  the window I ran out of the house down to within
  fifteen or twenty yards of the flood.
• Language cannot convey any just description of
  the awful thundering, crashing roar of the
  torrent. It was as if the earth itself was being
  rent asunder... Irepeatedly exclaimed, "This
  must be a wild dream it cannot be reality." It
  seemed as if the bowels of the earth were being
  torn up, or as if some unheard of monster were
  rushing down the valley, lashing the hill sides
  with his scaly folds, crunching up buildings
  between his jaws, and filling all the air with
  his wrathful hiss. Trees snapped like pistols,
  mills and houses stood and staggered for a
  moment, and then disappeared in the boiling
  torrent.
• Within the short space of five minutes, the
  bridge, the triple storied mill, the school
  house, and the master's house, were standing
  unharmed, and before the minutes were out they
  had all vanished. The flood swept by in all its
  majesty - a mighty wall of water running on a
  level with the roofs of the three storied
  buildings it demolished, and sweeping away
  everything in its path

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Path of the Flood
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Damage and Destruction Loxley
Flood damage at Rowell Bridge Wheel, Loxley 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield w00404 )
Damage at Little Matlock Wheel (Messrs Thomas and
Daniel Chapman and John Denton), Loxley 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield t00154 )
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Malin Bridge
Picture of ruins of the Cleakum Inn, Malin
Bridge, 1864(Sheffield Local Studies Library
Picture Sheffield s00976)
Photograph showing remains of housing at Malin
Bridge, 1864(Sheffield Local Studies Library
Picture Sheffield t01739)
Searching for survivors and the dead at Malin
Bridge, 1864(Sheffield Archives MD8058)
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Hillsborough
Scene of damaged houses on Brick Row,
Hillsborough, 1864(Sheffield Local Studies
Library Picture Sheffield s00580 )
Scene of a garden at Hillsborough after the
flood, 1864(Sheffield Archives MD8058)
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Wicker
The flood water racing through the Wicker, 1864
reproduced in The Collapse of the Dale Dyke Dam
by G. Amey (Sheffield Archives AME/LOCAL)
The Wicker after the flood, 1864 (Sheffield Local
Studies Library Picture Sheffield s00585)
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We have to narrate this morning one of the
most terrific calamities that has ever visited
this part of the countryhouses have been washed
down, streets have been turned in to riverssome
have been swept down in the streets and drowned,
some have died in rooms that were for the moment
turned into miniature reservoirs, full from
ceiling to floor of water
Sheffield Telegraph Newspaper, 12th March
1864(Sheffield Local Studies Library Newspaper
Collection)
News
Sheffield Independent Newspaper, 14th March
1864(Sheffield Local Studies Library Newspaper
Collection)
Terrible news of a great flood in the Don
Valley. The New Reservoir at Bradfield has burst
the water tearing down to Sheffield has swept
off everything in its course. Lower Bradfield
entirely gone but one house. The Barrack wall
washed down. The Wicker 5 foot in water bodies
washed into the Midland Station. The water rose
above the Lady Bridge...
Juliana Gattys Diary, 12th March 1864 (Sheffield
Archives HAS41/9)
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Card in memory of those who died in the flood,
1864(Sheffield Archives X160)
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Survivors and Escape
Photograph of Mrs Kirk of Damflask, 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield s08752)
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Joseph Chapman, a tailor from Hillsborough(Sheffi
eld Local Studies Library Picture Sheffield
s08751)
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Picture of Rollo the dog and a child,
1864(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield u01735)
Souvenir mug showing the rescue of a child by
Rollo the dog(Sheffield Local Studies Library
Picture Sheffield u01737)
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POLICE RECORDS
Sheffield Police Book, 1864 (Sheffield Archives
SY295/1/2/4)
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Helping the victims

• After the flood a Relief Committee was set up in
  Sheffield and an appeal for funds to help the
  sufferers was made.
• People from all over the country donated money
  (Queen Victoria herself donated 200).
• The Relief Committee provided thousands of pairs
  of shoes and items of clothing to people who had
  lost their possessions.

Relief Fund Register showing items provided to
flood victims, 1864(Sheffield Local Studies
Library 361.52 SSTF)
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Inquest

• An inquest was held in Sheffield to try and
  work out what caused the flood and the deaths and
  destruction that followed.
• The inquest was led by Sheffield Coroner, John
  Webster (pictured right).
• At the inquest, the Sheffield Waterworks Company
  denied that the flood had been caused by any
  faults in their building of the dam

• John Leather (Engineer) There is the possibility
  of a landslip. A landslip under the side of the
  bank may have produced it
• Coroner Then you do not ascribe the bursting of
  the reservoir to unsound principles of
  engineering or to bad workmanship?
• John Leather Certainly not.

Inquest extracts reproduced in The Collapse of
the Dale Dyke Dam by G. Amey (Sheffield
Archives AME/LOCAL)
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• At the inquest, rather than the dam bursting
  because of bad workmanship, the Sheffield
  Waterworks Company argued that it may have burst
  because of a landslip, due to weaknesses in the
  ground on which it was built.

Sheffield Waterworks Company drawing showing
breach in the Dale Dyke Dam and the underlying
ground, 1864(Sheffield Archives YWA/10/1/3)
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Who or what was to blame?
Two Government inspectors, Robert Rawlinson and
Nathaniel Beardmore, reported that the dam burst
because of bad workmanship and design.
The Sheffield Waterworks Chief Engineers, John
Gunson and John Leather (and a Waterworks Company
Investigation) claimed the burst was an accident
which couldnt have been avoided, caused by an
unforseen landslip.
John Webster, Coroner According to the
description of Mr Leather and Mr Gunson, the work
was so perfect that it was impossible to improve
upon it. Now, in my opinion, there must have been
something fatal in either its design or its
construction or it certainly would not have
burst.
Inquest Jury In our opinion, there has not been
that engineering skill and that attention to the
construction of the works, which their magnitude
and importance demanded.
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Flood Claims for Compensation

• With the inquest judging that the Sheffield
  Waterworks Company was responsible for causing
  the flood, thousands of compensations claims for
  damages were made against the company by people
  who had suffered.
• People claimed for loss of property, possessions,
  livelihood and for injury and death of relatives.

Sheffield Flood Claims Register, 1864(Sheffield
Archives CA7/1, claim no. 414)
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Case Studies

• 7 Case Studies each case study is based on a
  family who were caught up in the Sheffield Flood.
• Working in groups - each group will be given a
  family to investigate.
• Use the documents in your investigation pack to
  answer the questions posed and try and work out
  what happened to your family in the flood.

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Case Report 1 Ibbotson Family, Damflask
Remains of Damflask Wire Mill (F. Shaw Co.,
Wire Drawers) by the River Loxley following the
flood, 1864 (Sheffield Local Studies Library
Picture Sheffield y00808)
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Case Report 2 Chapman Family, Little Matlock,
Loxley
Ruins of Daniel Chapmans house at Little
Matlock, Loxley, after the flood, 1864 (Sheffield
Local Studies Library Picture Sheffield t00152)
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Case Report 3 Watson Family, Malin Bridge
Ruins at Malin Bridge after the flood, 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield t00163)
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Case Report 4 Pickering Family, Hill Bridge,
Hillsborough
View of demolished Hill Bridge, Walkley Lane,
Hillsborough, showing the ruins of the Free
Masons Arms on the left 1864(Sheffield Local
Studies Library Picture Sheffield s00909)
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Case Report 5 Elston Family, Neepsend Gardens
Ruins at Neepsend Gardens, Neepsend Lane, after
the flood, 1864(Sheffield Local Studies Library
Picture Sheffield s00591)
Case Study 6 Medwood Family, Neepsend Gardens
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Case Study 7 Parkes Family, Harvest Lane/Orchard
Street, Neepsend
Ruins of a house at Neepsend after the flood,
1864(Sheffield Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield w00447)