School History Resource:

History Key Stage 2 Unit 7

Local History Study – How the locality was affected
by a significant local event

Dale Dyke Dam Disaster 1864

Victorian Sheffield

General view of Sheffield

from the station, 1800s
(Sheffield Local Studies
Library Picture Sheffield:
s11478)
Dale Dyke Reservoir, Bradfield

Sheffield Waterworks plan showing

the intended Dale Dyke Reservoir,
1852
(Sheffield Archives: YWA/10/1/2)
View of Dale Dyke Reservoir,
Bradfield, 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies Library
Picture Sheffield: t01546)
Bursting of the Dam!

Picture of the bursting of

Dale Dyke Dam, 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies
Library Picture Sheffield:
s00972)
Eyewitness Account Eyewitness account of the flood
by Joseph Ibbotson of Bradfield,
from Harrison’s 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... I…repeatedly 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…
Path of the Flood
 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 )
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)
 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)
 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)
 ‘We have to narrate this morning one of the most
terrific calamities that has ever visited this part of the
country…houses have been washed down, streets
have been turned in to rivers…some 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

Juliana Gatty’s Diary, 12th March 1864
(Sheffield Archives: HAS41/9)
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...”
Card in memory of those who
died in the flood, 1864
(Sheffield Archives: X160)
Survivors and Escape

Photograph of Mrs Kirk of

Damflask, 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies
Library Picture Sheffield:
s08752)
Joseph Chapman, a tailor from
Hillsborough
(Sheffield Local Studies Library
Picture Sheffield: s08751)
 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)
 POLICE RECORDS

Sheffield Police Book, 1864

(Sheffield Archives: SY295/1/2/4)
 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).
Relief Fund Register showing items
• The Relief Committee provided provided to flood victims, 1864
thousands of pairs of shoes and items (Sheffield Local Studies Library: 361.52
of clothing to people who had lost their SSTF)
possessions.
 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… Inquest extracts [reproduced in The
Coroner: Then you do not ascribe the Collapse of the Dale Dyke Dam by G.
bursting of the reservoir to unsound Amey]
principles of engineering or to bad (Sheffield Archives: AME/LOCAL)
workmanship?
John Leather: Certainly not.
• 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)
Who or what was to blame?
Two Government
inspectors, Robert
Rawlinson and
Nathaniel Beardmore,
reported that the dam The Sheffield Waterworks Chief
burst because of bad Engineers, John Gunson and
workmanship and John Leather (and a Waterworks
design. Company Investigation) claimed
the burst was an accident which
couldn’t have been avoided,
John Webster, Coroner: caused by an unforseen landslip.
“According to the
description of Mr
Leather and Mr Inquest Jury: “In our opinion, there has not
Gunson, the work was been that engineering skill and that
so perfect that it was attention to the construction of the
impossible to improve works, which their magnitude and
upon it. Now, in my importance demanded”.
opinion, there must
have been something
fatal in either its
design or its
construction or it
certainly would not
have burst”.
 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)
 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.
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)
Case Report 2: Chapman Family,
Little Matlock, Loxley

Ruins of Daniel Chapman’s

house at Little Matlock,
Loxley, after the flood, 1864
(Sheffield Local Studies
Library Picture Sheffield:
t00152)
Case Report 3: Watson Family,
Malin Bridge
Ruins at Malin Bridge after
the flood, 1864 (Sheffield
Local Studies Library Picture
Sheffield: t00163)
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)
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
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)