Just Before Midnight, a Reservoir Above Sheffield Gave Way - and the Water Swept Through Homes Below

Just Before Midnight, a Reservoir Above Sheffield Gave Way - and the Water Swept Through Homes Below

On the night of the 11th of March 1864, families across Sheffield and the surrounding valleys were settling down for the night. Several miles away, however, something was badly wrong with the enormous new reservoir at Dale Dyke. A crack had already been noticed in the dam.

The reservoir had been built by the Sheffield Waterworks Company as the rapidly growing town needed an increasing supply of water. By March 1864 it was filling, holding an immense quantity of water above the Loxley Valley.

Shortly before midnight, part of the embankment gave way. Around 114 million cubic feet of water escaped and surged down the valley towards Sheffield.

The flood struck communities including Low Bradfield, Loxley and Malin Bridge before continuing towards Hillsborough and Sheffield itself. People were caught in their homes as houses, workshops and bridges were overwhelmed.

The official death toll recorded by Sheffield’s Chief Constable was 240. Around 4,000 houses were flooded, about 100 buildings were destroyed and 15 bridges were lost. Surviving records suggest that the true number of people who died may have been slightly higher.

What I find particularly haunting is what survives in the compensation records. People claimed for clothes, furniture, tools and household belongings - ordinary belongings that tell us something about the people whose lives were turned upside down that night.

Around 7,000 claims were eventually made for damaged property, lost livelihoods, injuries and deaths.

An inquiry followed, but exactly why the dam failed has remained the subject of debate. The official investigation criticised aspects of its design and construction, but engineers and historians have continued to debate exactly what triggered the collapse.

The Great Sheffield Flood became one of the worst civilian disasters of the Victorian period, yet I do not think it is remembered nearly as widely as many other disasters from the era.

Had you heard of the Great Sheffield Flood before, or is this one of those pieces of Victorian history that was completely new to you?

Image: Remains of the Dale Dyke reservoir embankment following the Great Sheffield Flood, 1864. Photographer unknown. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.