todayinhistory:

March 11th 1864: The Great Sheffield Flood

On this day in 1864 the Dale Dyke Dam in Sheffield broke, causing one of the largest floods in English history. 650 million gallons of water swept down Loxley Valley and through areas of Sheffield. The flood destroyed 800 houses and killed around 293 people, thus making it the largest man-made disaster to befall England, and one of the deadliest floods in history. Individual stories from the disaster are particularly tragic, including Joseph Dawson, who tried to carry both his ill wife and their two day old baby boy to safety; however the currents were too strong and he knew he could only save one. Dawson saved his wife, and thus their still-unnamed baby became the first victim of the floods. One famous story of the disaster was of Mary Ann and Joseph North whose baby daughter Mary was pulled from the water in her cradle. The destruction afterwards led one observer to remark that Sheffield was “looking like a battlefield”