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The Great Flood
The Great Flood
The River Medlock rises in the hills above Oldham and empties into the River Irwell in central Manchester.
Throughout
its history, the Medlock has been famous for bursting its banks and
flooding parts of the city. During one event, 13th July 1872, it rose
suddenly after two days of torrential rain to disastrous ends, as this
contemporary account from a Manchester newspaper describes:
"It was about half past twelve when the floods came ... the banks of
the Medlock were overflowed to such an alarming extent and the first
intimation of the flood was the sweeping away of a footbridge near to
Philips Park ... It must have been very strongly fixed, for it not only
bore the rush of the flood for a considerable time, but it
resisted it to such an extent that the water backed up for a
considerable distance. The flood increased in depth and power, and at a
length swept in a fierce torrent over a large portion of ground
apportioned to the Roman Catholics at the Bradford Cemetery carrying
away not only tombstones but actually washing out of their graves, a
large number of dead bodies. Indeed from the first indication of
danger, so far as works on the banks of the Medlock were concerned,
dead bodies were observed floating down the river, and those watching
could easily see that the bodies had been disinterred out of the
Bradford cemetery. It is impossible to calculate how many had been swept
out of their final resting place but the number is not short of fifty."
(source:Manchester Courier, 15 July 1872)
Afterwards rumour had it that as many as five hundred bodies had
been swept away, with large numbers lost at sea. At a Government
Enquiry, Manchester's Town Clerk stated that the total number of bodies
disinterred by was seventy six, and that all had been recovered -
however the local Roman Catholic Ministers strongly refuted this claim.
In response to the flooding, work began on the red terracotta-brick
channel, which has since carried the river between the park and
adjoining cemetery.
A song written and published
at the time, entitled 'The Great Flood', describes the event as "one of
the most destructive floods ever known in this part out of the
country". You can download a copy of the song here in Adobe PDF format, suitable for desktop printing or viewing on-screen (308Kb).
Click here to obtain a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.