With A Bang

The twentieth century arrived at Middleton Hall with a bang.  The dam forming Middleton Pool burst.  A widespread storm over England, started towards the end of December 1899, and continued to the start of the new century.  On December 31st the deluge rushing down Langley Brook and Collets Brook was too much for the dam to withstand. The tenant of the Hall at the time was Egbert de Hamel.  He wrote “During the great gale that signalised the last day of the nineteenth century the rush of water into the lake at Middleton was so strong that it made a clean breach 34 feet expanding to 42 feet wide and six feet deep, through the dam that carries the carriage drive, the escaping torrent of water being so powerful as to excavate a hole 12 feet deep below the surface of the field at the foot of the embankment and to carry large ashlar stones and masses of the displaced masonry for considerable distances.  The storm resulted in the most disastrous floods all over the country that have occurred for five and twenty years.” 
 
Little was reported in the press about the effects of the sorm, although they were evidently widespread.  The Birmingham Weekly Post noted that the weir at Windsor was washed away on December 30th and that the Queen en-route to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight had a rough crossing on December 28th.  In its issue of the sixth of January the Post reported that 'On Saturday morning(December 31st) the wind blew a gale in the neighbourhood of Birmingham and the gable end of two houses, 10 and 11 Cambridge Terrace, Cromwell Street was blown down.   No one was injured.  While the wind was at its height the plate glass window at Grenville's in Bull Street, Birmingham, was blown out, and a man who was passing narrowly escaped injury.  He saw what had happened, and jumped aside in time to avoid the falling glass, though his hat was knocked off'.  On the same day the 126 ton sailing ship, "Emily Lloyd" of Maldon was lost with all hands.