Holme Valley flood 1852

[daveyp]

Hi David

I'm currently transcribing contemporary newspaper articles about the flood as well as trying to compile an accurate list of those of died. The list of 91 names that appeared in the Manchester Guardian has lots of errors (e.g. Matthew Fearns was rescued from the floods alive by Joseph Barrowclough) and a couple of duplications.

The widely accepted figure of 81 is also probably wrong, and is possibly a misinterpretation from the early 1900s of the numbers recorded by the 1852 inquest. The bodies of 6 children seemingly remained unidentified at the start of the inquest and were then released for burial, but their names remained on the list of 14 people unaccounted for. The figure of 81 is that of those formally identified (61), plus those 6 children, plus the 14 unaccounted for. It seems more likely that the true figure is between 78 and 81.

I'd love to hear more about the story that's been passed down, but I suspect it's probably not true. The flood was incredibly destructive, as it was a wall of water thundering down the valley, rather than a rising river swollen by rain. Rows of houses and even entire mills were swept away in moments. Having said that, a young heifer was recovered alive and unscathed from the roof of a house, so I suppose a baby surviving in a chest of drawers isn't beyond the realms of possibility

I'm still trawling through the newspaper articles, so will shout if I find anything that might support the family story. So far, the only mention of a chest of drawers is this:

In another a child was saved in a manner which we cannot pass over unnoticed. The house is situate in the mill-yard, and the father, hearing the water, got up and opened the door, when the water pouted in, and seeing no hopes of safety but in flight, he immediately set about getting his family out, but, on returning for the last child, be could not get into the house ; of course he became greatly alarmed for its safety. He soon after heard the child call out “Father,” he then got where he could see into the house, and saw the child on the top of the drawers, and inquired how it got there? the poor little thing replied, “the water lifted me up!” The man became agonised with fear for his child, which soon after cried out, “Father, come fetch me.” The poor man then went to another part of the house where there was a higher window, and where he succeeded in snatching his child from the floating drawers.
― Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner, 7 February 1852

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[daveyp]

The Huddersfield Chronicle (21/Aug/1852) has a list of the flood orphans and the amount per week they were to receive from the central relief fund until they reached the age of 16:

• Mary A. Metterick (aged 6 years) 5s. per week
• Wilson Metterick (10 months) 5s.
• Ruth Crosland (6 months) 5s.
• Johnson Cartwright (12 years) 3s. 6d.
• Clement Cartwright (14 years) 3s. 6d.
• A Shackleton Green (girl 12 years) 5s.
• child of A. Earnshaw (22 months) 4s.
• unborn child of A. Earnshaw 4s.

From the wording, the above were being looked after by friends or relatives. The following three girls were to "be placed in that excellent institution", a local "orphan asylum", with part of their 5s. to be paid "to such orphan institution"...

• Emma Cartwright (6 years)
• Ann Maria Cartwright (2½ years)
• Hannah Hartley (10½ years)

The Ashton Weekly Reporter has a couple of articles in Oct/Nov 1871 detailing the "coming of age" of Ruth Crosland and Wilson Metterick. The articles are a tad melodramatic in that wonderfully Victorian way, claiming that one eye-witness saw a "mother clasping her offspring to her breast" being washed away in the "demon" flood. Anyway, both of their fathers had been members of the "Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds" which apparently had links to the Ashton area, and their members organised their own orphan fund, to be held in trust until Ruth and Wilson came of age. By 1871, that fund had reached just under £150 and a grand ceremony was held at the Miller's Arms, Hinchliffe Mill, Holmfirth, in which they were each presented with their half of the fund.

The newspaper, in a slightly creepy way, suggested that Ruth and Wilson should get married -- "what a happy termination to the course of events would it be to see them united in love and marriage" so that they could "unite their fortunes" and reminisce together about "the events of the Holmfirth calamity"

Despite one speaker telling Wilson that "by care and prudential habits he might raise himself to a high position in the world" and the newspaper predicting that "his prospects for the future are very cheering indeed", it looks like he died a few months later.

From the article, Ruth became the ward of her uncle, George Crosland, following the flood and she later married bricklayer George Mountain (son of cabinet maker Thomas Mountain) in Wakefield on 23 November 1872. It looks like she died in Wakefield in 1927, aged 76.

Wilson's mother appears to have died shortly after his birth and the attending doctor suggested that he should be nursed by a Mrs. Holmes, who (reading between the lines) had just lost her own child and was in a state of depression. For that reason, Wilson wasn't in his father's house on the night of the flood.

[daveyp]

Just stumbled across this article from the Huddersfield Examiner of 24 March 1914:

IN AND ABOUT

Holmfirth Flood Memories.

“Ariel,” in his weekly chat, made an interesting allusion the other week to the octogenarian novelist, the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. It is recorded that in the fifties and sixties he was curate-in-charge of Horbury Bridge. At the Holmfirth flood there was a tremendous flow of water at Horbury Bridge, and the “flotsam and jetsam” included a baby girl in the water. The foundling was rescued and adopted by a Horbury family. The village parson published the “Penny Comequicks,” in which a foundling baby in a flood was a conspicuous character. The real flood baby settled in Horbury for life, and it is only a year or two since she died, the romance of her babyhood having been attached to her throughout her life.

I've yet to find any contemporary articles to back this up and no reference was made to the "foundling" in reports by the fund relief subcommittee which investigated the circumstances of all the flood orphans. So, if the story is true, it implies no attempt was made to check if the baby's parents were alive or to apply for a portion of the relief fund 

The "Penny Comequicks" don't seem to have been published until nearly 4 decades after the flood: https://archive.org/details/pennycomequicksn01bari

[dobfarm]

Hi, All

If of interest !

There are some interesting sketches drawn at the time of the 1852 flood in Holmfirth (4 Sketches I think ? from memory) held in the local studies library: in the main Huddersfield library building.

[daveyp]

Not sure if they'll be the same as these, but I've scanned the etchings made for the Illustrated London News and they're available on Flickr.

Since my earlier posts, I've come to the conclusion the figure of 81 victims was most likely derived from the 78 named victims plus 3 children who were unclaimed at the time the coroner released the bodies for burial (all 3 appear in the burial registers as "unknown"). At least 1, if not 2, of those 3 children were very likely amongst the named 78, as not all had been identified by the inquest. The local newspapers never really settled on a precise figure, but the Huddersfield Chronicle claimed there were exactly 80 victims when one of the last missing bodies was eventually recovered in the summer of 1852.

Going back to the foundling story, there are a few instances of people using the event for own purposes. For example, one local newspaper reported that the dead body of a baby had been found near the banks of the river several days after the flood. However, the evidence pointed towards it having died shortly after birth (rather than drowned) and it was believed one of the parents had placed it there to make it appear to be a victim of the flood. So, I could well believe that an illegitimate child born around the time of the flood might be passed off by their mother as being a flood foundling to gain local sympathy.

Gillum's initial post mentions a chest of drawers and this might possibly be borrowing from something which did happen on the night of the flood. One family fled their house in a hurry, accidentally leaving their youngest child behind. When the father realised, he turned back but was unable to re-enter the house by the door. However, he was able to force a window open and saw the child sat atop a chest of drawers which was floating around the room in the swirling flood water. He was able to pull the child to safety when the drawers floated near enough to the window.

In the Rev. S. Baring-Gould's "Penny Comequicks" book, it has an episode in which a baby in a crib is washed away by a flood. The infant survives as the family's cat had jumped on top and, legs akimbo, it managed to keep the crib upright by shifting its weight around. There are also claims that Baring-Gould himself rescued a teenage girl from a later flood at Horbury and fell in love with her. They married and (I believe) had 15 children!