The picture above shows the Bulls Head pub flooded during one of Bacup's many floods. The River Irwell was made the receptacle for all solid matters that were  found to be inconvenient or unprofitable. All old building materials, ashes and cinders from the houses, and from all the steam engines in the town were poured into he river.  The results were inevitable in that this raised the bed of the river and so whenever there was a great storm the lower lying areas of Bacup flooded.

 

 

Flood of 1871

Extracts from Bacup & Rossendale News July 16th 1870

 

July 1870  saw Bacup flooded  when water reached a height of 5ft-9ins in St James Street. The afternoon of the flood  began as a fine and sultry day and as the day advanced so the heat did increase and clouds began to gather from the North. By 2 o'clock the sun was so entirely hidden by clouds that the mills and shops had to light the gas lamps. The storm when it burst over the town  hit with the force of that of a tropical storm. Vivid flashes of lightening were accompanied by cracks of thunder that felt to shook the very earth. Then came the rain, not in drops or even streams but in great sheets.  The two branches of the river that join near the Mechanics Institute soon broke their banks and overflowed. The waters poured down Burnley Road, on one side and the Rochdale and Todmorden road sides on the other. Bursting through cellars and  the main sewers they quickly laced all the low lying places of the town under water. In the Todmorden Road area the  mill of Mr Maxwell, known as Vale Mill was rendered useless. At Albion Mill which is built over the river, the waters burst through piling loom upon loom breaking iron supports as if they were matchwood. On the Burnley road the houses bordering the river were flooded, and the parapet walls of the bridges washed away along with a machine shop belonging to Mr Aitken.

 

Many of the counters in the shops of St James street, were wrenched from their moorings and in all the shops the flood reached but inches from the ceilings. In the midst of all this the gas was extinguished, due to pipes in the road being broken in all directions. Horses were swimming about in the streets and carts floated about randomly. A gentleman's carriage and timbers smashed through windows of  the surrounding houses. At the Waterloo Hotel  which is built over the river the water broke through with such force the boards of the bar were pulled up and the landlady Mrs Blakely and some of her regulars had to be hauled up to the higher floors by ropes. With exception of one mother and child who where in the sitting room and could not get out. The poor woman appeared at the window and stood on the ledge with the child in her arms screaming for help. The Spotland police at this scene came floating down on a hastily built raft made up of planks and clothes props and succeeded in rescuing the woman and child along with Mrs Ashworth Taylor and her children.

In Irwell street, Yorkshire, street St James street, and Back Irwell street not one piece of pavement was left but all had been swept away leaving massive holes in their wake. At the other end of St James street a large bottle of cream of tartar floated out of Mr Maces shop and floated onto the shelf in Mr Entwistles drapers shop. A few doors away a widow woman by the name of Taylor lost her life and two children washed away to the gas yard were saved from drowning.

 

Opposite the George and Dragon stood a long stone watering trough which was said to be as old as the Inn itself this was washed away  in the flood and never recovered. At Mr Utleys shop  at the corner of Union and Irwell Streets the water stood at 4ft 5ins amongst which Mr Utley was plunging about trying to save his valuable woollen and ready made goods. Constantly round him swam his brown retriever dog which showed the utmost anxiety for its master safety, which it expressed by gently laying hold of him by the arm, and trying to force him upstairs by pushing its nose against his back. Whilst Mr Utley kept going upstairs with certain goods it seized any article that floated past him and followed him upstairs with it. Mr T Ashworth of the  Green Man Inn had two pigs one was drowned and the other swam down the road into St  James street through Mr Sugden's drapers shop and out into the kitchen whereupon it swallowed a half pound of butter that had been swept of a shelf. It then swam in hot pursuit of a cabbage  which it caught and munched up happily.

 

Flood of 1881

The flood of Tuesday 5th July 1881, was accompanied not only by great destruction but the loss of three lives. During the day the weather had been hot and oppressive and about six o'clock in the evening there were signs of a approaching storm. The sky turned to a inky blackness and a shower fell but soon cleared.  Between nine and eleven the rain began to fall again and by about 11.20 and  11.45 Burnley Road the streets around the George and Dragon pub, St James Street, Newchurch-Road, and all the low lying streets and alleys were caught in the surging flood waters. Atlas Works, Bakers Foundry, Irwell Mill all suffered massive flood damage. Burnley Road had the river wall washed away and stones ,doors, grids, in fact anything that could move was washed away by the flood water. One of the first people to die during the 1881 floods was a young girl aged six years called Deborah Sheen the step-daughter of Emmanuel Cunliffe, a weaver at Broadclough mill and who lived at Underbank.

The child was sleeping at her grandfathers, Mr Edward Mathews of Stanley Street Burnley Road.  She had virtually lived with him since her father was killed in a quarry accident shortly after her birth. Hearing the storm Mr Mathews got up and seeing the cellar was flooded and the house was beginning to fill he ran with the child in his arms out of doors and tried to cross the road. He had not gone a yard before he was taken off his feet and swept down the road as far as Cropper Street, the water then wrenching the child out of his arms the body of Deborah being found afterwards besides Barkers Foundry on Henrietta Street. The child's body was then taken to the Waterworks to be identified and then returned home to her mothers house at Underbank.

 

 

 The second person to die was that of Mrs Maria Jackson aged about 50 years of age wife of William Jackson of Waterside. The Jacksons lived in  a cellar dwelling  known as Dawson cottages situated across the road from Waterside Chapel.  At the height of the flood when the water had almost filled their tiny dwelling William went out to attach a rope to the railings of the above landing intending to pull his  wife up to safety with the aid of a young man named Hartley. When half way to the steps however her clothes became tangled in her legs and she fell into the raging waters, she was washed away by the current of water right down Burnley Road into Back King Street were she was found early the following morning. The third death by drowning was that of Mrs  Hannah  Renshaw wife of Joseph Renshaw better known as " Joe Waterworks". Mrs Renshaw was caught by the surging water as she stepped out of the back door of the Waterloo Hotel, where she was engaged as a out door servant. She was carried away and her body was later found by Irwell Mill.

 

The damage in Bacup was confined to the areas of Burnley Road, Yorkshire street, Bridge Street, and St James street with the surrounding streets  such as Union and Back Irwell street being affected. From Weir down to Bacup the road was awash with strands of red yarn swept down from the corner dye works. The carriage road for Broadclough Hall was literally swept away. In the middle of the storm the gas pipes got flooded and  and about 12-30 midnight the gas was extinguished and the town was plunged into darkness.

 

December 1936

History will record that December 14th 1936 was the day on which King George the sixth was proclaimed King in provincial centres. However in Bacup the day was remembered for a very different reason that of floods known as the worse for fifty years. Flooded houses, cellars and shop premises were the order of the day in Bacup with one mill having to close due to the depth of water.  As usual the River Irwell was the source of the trouble. It became so swollen, following continuous heavy rain throughout the night and morning, that it overflowed about 12-30 p. m and rushed like a torrent down Burnley Road, the trouble being accentuated by some of the gullies were unable to take the storm water. The passage of cars in any direction sending up waves of muddy water was a spectacle of great interest. At the entrance to St James Square the water divided into two streams which swept round the square and into St James Street, and thence Union Street. Several houses in the latter street were flooded. The extent to which they were inundated can be judged from the experience of one resident, who said that the water had been "up to her knees ".

 

 

When the emergency signal sounded at 12-55p.m members of the fire brigade with the Smith engine and trailer pump, visited Underbank district in Burnley Road. Water overflowing from the River Irwell, rose from grates at the back of the houses, many of which are at least a foot below the road surface and added to the inconvenience caused by water from the hillside at Holmes Barn. This water rushed across the main road and entered several houses opposite Holmes Mill before the occupants had time to check it. The water rose to a height of two feet and extinguished the fires in the houses of Mr and Mrs F Meadowcroft, 49 Burnley Road, and Mr and Mrs J. E. Sunderland, 53 Burnley Road. One of the first concerns of Mrs Meadowcroft was the safety of her 10 year old crippled child and when the flood first threatened she carried her into a neighbours house. Water penetrated the front and back rooms and damaged carpets and oilcloth. A new pair of children's shoes was washed out of the house and swept down the grate near the front door. Disappearing into the river which runs almost below the houses there.  The house of no 45 Burnley Road, occupied by Mrs Martha Doogan, was threatened with flooding while the occupant was away. A neighbour forced open the front door, and with the assistance of neighbours and work people at a nearby garage furniture was removed from the house to the garage until the flood subsided. Members of the Bacup Fir Brigade, were engaged for over an hour in pumping water from the premises of Messrs Taylor and Hargreaves, Irwell Mill, the doubling room of which was flooded. In places the water was seven inches deep. The high wind and torrential rain caused  damage to hen pens and garden fences. Part of a large advertisement hoarding near Glenn Street in Newchurch Road, Lee Mill was blown down.