"3 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



A YORKSHIRE FLOOD. 



We have recently obtained an interesting coloured print, 

 measuring 14I ins. by o,£ ins., entitled ' Bursting of the Bilberry- 

 Dam Reservoir at Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, on the night 

 of Wednesday, February 4th, 1852, thereby causing an awful 

 loss of human life, and destruction of property to an immense 

 amount.' It shows the waters rushing from the reservoir on 

 the hill top, many of the houses being almost entirely submerged, 

 while floating about in the flood are quantities of chairs and 



Bursting of the Bilberry-Dam Reservoir at Holmnrth, 1852. 



tables, and in the foreground, three human bodies. The plate 

 is reproduced herewith on a smaller scale. 



OTHER YORKSHIRE FLOODS. 



The following notes on this and other floods are taken from 

 C. P. Hobkirk's ' Huddersfield : its History and Natural 

 History,' Second edition, 1868 : — ' As might be expected from 

 the situation of Huddersfield — being hemmed in on all sides 

 by high hills- — there have been several disastrous floods in 

 the valleys. In 1799, several mills and houses were swept 

 away between Holmnrth and Huddersfield by a flood. In 

 1815, a large water spout was seen at Marsden, after which 

 followed a most terrible and destructive tempest. The bursting 

 of the Standedge reservoir was another disastrous calamity, 

 as also the bursting of the Black Sike Mill reservoir, on the 

 21st September, 1820, which occasioned an immense loss of 



1917 April 1. 



