Mexborough and Swinton Times, May 27^th, 1932

Saturday Torrents – Sunday Floods

Thirty-Six Hours Downpour

Serious Damage to Property

One Life Lost

The devastating visitation of last September when the greater part of South Yorkshire was more or less inundated except in its higher levels, was repeated last week-end, with even more serious flooding in certain areas.  Heavy rain which commenced late on Friday night continued steadily throughout Saturday and till the middle of Sunday morning by which time drains, culverts, river and canal banks and other means of irrigation had long succumbed to the strain of pressure they were never designed to sustain; and homes, lands, roads and railways, were swamped by the deluge.

As usual the worst effects were felt in the Dearne and Don valleys between Barnsley and Rotherham on the one hand, ad Doncaster on the other. Works and collieries in the low-lying lands bordering the rivers and canals were flooded and isolated and at Wath and Denaby Main Collieries work had to be suspended.  The L.N.E.R. and L.M.S. railway lines were both under water in parts, as were station approaches and only hard and unremitting work by permanent way staffs prevented more than a temporary interference with services. Other branches of transport were also affected, though such companies as the Yorkshire Traction found means of diverting services: to the inconvenience of persons in the impassable parts of the route but to the maintenance of a near approach to the usual services.

In Desolate Isolation

The water got at the post office cables at several points and telephonic communication with neighbouring centres was cut off for more than twenty-four hours.  Gas and electric light services were maintained except at Stocksbridge, though not without considerable difficulty in certain instances.

Private losses included a vast number of fowls and other live-stock owned by cottage dwellers who were taken unawares by the suddenness of the visitation and heavy damage to land and crops on farms in the valleys. Householders in most of the mining townships of the area, from Kilnhurst to Cudworth and Warmsworth to Thorpe Hesley, roused too late to win the race with the rising waters in the chill hours of Sunday morning, lost heavily in goods and chattels, food-stuffs and clothing, ruined by the water.

In several centres the fire brigades found a new usefulness battling with the ally of their customary occupation. They helped to “bale out” many an inundated area and enable normal routine to ne resumed, the earlier for their assistance with pump and hydrant.

And in one tragic particular this May flood surpasses that of September, 1931 in seriousness. One life was lost: that of a Wath boy who went out on Sunday afternoon to see the floods, never to return alive.

An Urgent Problem

The disastrous week-end once more gives emphatic point to the repeatedly debated subject of Don and Dearne valley drainage, so often mentioned in these columns, ad recently the subject of a special illustrated article discussing the event of the land lost in these areas by inundation, and the need for some scientific plan of reclamation such as that which, a couple of centuries ago, saved the Isle of Axholme from a watery heritage such as is South Yorkshire’s to-day. As the British climate appears like many other things to be “changing with the times,” and each successive storm of any weight or duration intensifies the flood problem.  It seems that even a period of national crisis and economy cannot much longer excuse procrastination over this problem.

Local measures are already under discussion, with Barnsley Corporation taking the lead.  They are particularly concerned about one ot heir new housing estates, Burton Grange, which seems so subject to flooding under present conditions as to make abandonment of some 150 houses possible. One of the alternatives is the widening of the Dearne, which scheme requires the co-operation of the Dearne Valley urban authorities, such as Cudworth, Darfield and Wombwell, and the consent of the Government.

Questions in Parliament

Mr. Tom Williams (Don Valley) asked the Minister of Health to state, in the House of Commons on Monday how many persons had been rendered homeless at Fishlake and Bentley by the floods, and whether he was arranging for an inspector to visit the area.

Mr. Ernest Brown (Parliamentary Secretary) said the Minister’s attention had not been called to the matter, but the Ministry were sending an inspector to the affected area.

Mr. Molson (Doncaster): Will the Minister request the Minister of Agriculture also to send an official to investigate?  We have been pressing for something to be done about this drainage ever since the floods last September.

Mr Brown: I will call the Minister of Agriculture’s attention to the matter.

Mr. Williams: Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that over 1,500 people have been rendered homeless for the second time in twelve months, and that the present Minister of Agriculture has set on one side a drainage scheme which, in all probability, would have obviated a repetition of the floods from which these people are suffering?

Mr. Brown: I have not yet had the time to complete preliminary enquiries about this matter.

Bentley, which suffered most heavily of all the South Yorkshire mining townships in September, was again in so serious a state that it was visited on Tuesday by Capt. J. C. A. Roseveare, chief drainage engineer of the Ministry of Health, whose mission it was understood was to investigate the South Yorkshire drainage problem generally.  Mr, Hugh Molson, M.P. for Doncaster, accompanied him on an inspection of the area around Doncaster.

More immediate needs caused by the flooding were met by the Councils by the provision of accommodation in hospitals and other public buildings of persons whose houses were temporarily uninhabitable, by the replacing of food ruined by the water as at Cudworth and by instituting schemes of relief for families to whom the ruin of their homes and effects meant, practically destitution.

Figures of Rainfall

The rainfall in the Dearne valley area for three days ended 10 a.m. Sunday was 3.63 inches, the bulk of which descended during Saturday-Sunday night.  The measurement recorded on Sunday morning at the Dearne Valley Water Works was 2.54 inches. The fall on the three days was equivalent to 363 tons per acre.

Saturday morning’s measurement showed .67 of an inch and Monday morning’s .42 of an inch.  The total fall for May 1932 up to Monday morning was 4.86 inches.

These figures contrast strikingly with the figures for the latter part of last year and the early months of this year.  The rainfall measurements for that period are:

It will be seen from these that the fall was greater last week-end than in all the four winter months.  The downpour which caused the sudden serious flooding occurred chiefly between mid-night on Saturday and 8 a.m. on Sunday when the fall was continuous and torrential.  An official of the Dearne Valley Water Board said that a fall of more than two inches in one day was rare.  The rainfall recorded on Sunday morning had been exceeded on only one occasion since the Board kept figures; on the memorable August Bank Holiday of 1922 when 2.85 inches fell.  The other two occasions when two inches was exceeded were September 17^th 1913 (3.39) and July 22^nd, 1930 (2.01).

One of the wettest periods ever recorded by the Board was the three days July 20^th – 22^nd, 1930, when the fall was 4.72 inches.  The extent of the flooding suggests there must have been something in the nature of a cloudburst on the hills above Barnsley.

Transport

The Yorkshire Traction Company’s buses were able to find “diversion routes”.  Owing to the flooding of Aldham Bridge, the Doncaster-Barnsley service through Mexboro’ was diverted through Darfield.  For several hours on Monday the service to Goldthorpe, Thurnscoe and Great Houghton were held up on the inundated road over Bolton meadows.  The High Green – Doncaster ‘buses were sent through Denaby and Conisboro’ as the road between Adwick and Barnburgh was impassable.

The Mexboro’ and Swinton Traction Company’s services were maintained except over the section between Parkgate and Rotherham. The Dearne District Light railway were again the chief sufferers. Their Barnsley service was stopped at Aldham Bridge and thus lost one of their best-paying sections.  It was impossible to pass through the L.M.S. bridge at Wath, and the service to Bolton, Goldthorpe and Thurnscoe stopped for several days.

Railway traffic in the Wombwell district was entirely disorganised on Sunday morning by consequence of about one hundred tons of clay and soil falling down an embankment near Smithley. The wires controlled by the signals were covered and part of the permanent way was blocked. All Doncaster-Manchester traffic had to be stopped for a long time.

The flooding on the line near Meadow Hall also caused the Penistone and Sheffield trains to be diverted through Doncaster and Retford.  At Darfield Main sidings sleepers were swept away from beneath the track, causing a good deal of damage.