Blyth Flood 1900 - Information Sought!

[DavidJP]

Hi all,

Yesterday, whilst rooting around the Northumberland Board, I decided to look at a post about Blyth Railway. Within this thread was a link to some photos of Blyth on flicker, put on there by a fellow Rootschatter. In amongst these were three photos of a flood in Blyth, which happened on 27th October 1900. One of these photos was of Folly Road (now Park road) with a gentleman in a wooden rowing boat in the street! The road & pavement could not be seen!

This particular photo is of great interest to me as my gt gt grandparents George & Alice Hill, with their family including my five & a half year old gt grandmother Isabella Hill were living in Folly Road at the time of this flood.

What caused the flood?

Were they (floods) regular occurrences?

Was there any newspaper reports of this flood?

Any & all information would be fantastic & gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards

David

[RJ_Paton]

Just had a quick look at the newspapers ... not a lot about Blyth itself - one report (from Blyth) described the floods as "unparalleled in local history"  with a man reported as swimming in the main thorougfare and a young lady suffering from Typhoid finding her bed floating away. The cause of the flooding is given as heavy storms in the area.

Most of the newspaper articles appear to copy one another and the same small snippets of information are given in each.

[DavidJP]

Hi Falkyrn,

Many thanks for your reply, very much appreciated.

Thanks for that, which newspaper & date was the report in, that you mention?

Kind regards

David

[RJ_Paton]

Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper (London, England), Sunday, October 28, 1900
The Huddersfield Daily Chronicle (West Yorkshire, England), Monday, October 29, 1900

[DavidJP]

Hi Falkyrn,

Many thanks for that, very much appreciated.

Kind regards

David

[TriciaK]

I think there were some photographs on an earlier thread about Old Blyth of flooding on Bridge Street. It seemed that the River Blyth was more open in those days and sometime rose to road level with very high tides.
I think it was the area where the library and Post Office are, even up to the Police Station.

[Michael Dixon]

 1900 fotos of flooding.

 http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/005353FS.htm
 http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/006268FS.htm

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 1860 Maps showing centre area of what is modern-day Blyth.

  http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/004891FS.htm
  http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/004890FS.htm

  Maps show the tidal area where an underground stream/burn
  from the south surfaced near Plessey Waggonway, and was
  joined by another coming along what is now Princess Louise Road.
  then flowed through the central area, to finally flow into River Blyth
 north of today's bus station.

 This stream made such a muddy mess of this central area that a bridge
was built in 1815, then replaced by a higher one in 1841, which gave it's
 name to Bridge St. Stream got a variety of names, such as Cowpen Slake,
 Cowpen Brook, Cowpen Gut, the Flanker.

 Much efforts through the years to fill in the void with ballast, eventually
 allowed streets to be erected in late 1800s, Union Street, Beaconsfield St etc.

It is alleged that Folly Road got it's name from an entrepreneur's failed attempts
 to make a success of installing salt pans on the muddy flats !

 The Gut formed a part of the boundary that separated the parishes of Horton  (to the left)
  and Earsdon ( to the right)


 Michael

[TriciaK]

Well found Michael!
Perhaps this can be compared to the current floods on the Somerset flats? But obviously the problem was overcome at Blyth. We lived near PL Road and there was no problem with damp.

[DavidJP]

Hi TriciaK & Michael,

Many thanks indeed for your replies, very much appreciated indeed.

TriciaK, many thanks for your info, much appreciated & yes the flooding did take in Bridge Street & the library & Post Office area as shown in the photos.

Michael, many thanks indeed for the links, much appreciated. Have had a quick look but will have a more thorough look tomorrow.

The photos in question, that I mentioned in my OP were put on Flicker by fellow Rootschatter Phodgetts. Here is a link to them, the 3 flood photos are on page 1.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51893012@N05/page1/

I hope that its okay to link to another Rootschatters photos here, if not then I apologise to Phodgetts now in advance.

My thanks again for all the kind help and assistance so far. It is very much appreciated indeed.

Kind regards

David