Statement of Witnesses

STATEMENT OF PETER WEBSTER

Peter Webster said that, having heard that the reservoir was in an unsafe state, he went to look at it about half past ten on Wednesday.  He saw a large hole which had been washed in the inner embankment, about three yards from the top. 

The wind was blowing hard at the time; and fearing that the embankment would break, he gave a warning to that effect to the inhabitants at Digley Mill, and, owing to his foresight, not a single life was lost in this place. 

From what he saw at the reservoir, he could not rest until he had visited it again, and went up accordingly after midnight.  While thus proceeding on his journey he met a man, who, in breathless haste, exclaimed, “Peter, it’s coming ! Run Back !” 

Webster immediately returned, and soon after the whole valley was inundated.  He described the rolling of the tumbling waves down the valley as being awfully grand. 

His house was swept away, but his wife and children escaped with their clothes on their backs, being the only things they saved, excepting half a loaf of bread and an old crust of cheese. 

They formed a pitiable group when we saw them in the upper room of a small warehouse built higher up the hill side on the left hand side, and which, fortunately, escaped the wreckage.

STATEMENT OF JAMES ARMITAGE

James Armitage, the miller, said that having been warned by Webster, he took the precaution to move his family, but every vestige of his property had been swept away. 

He said he stood on an elevated position upon some steps, and saw the first approach of the waters.  According to his own vivid but homely description, the mill, weaving shed, and dyehouse went “Crash, Crash, Crash” and in ten minutes or less the whole of the extensive premises were gone. 

He relates a most wonderful escape of a young man named James Wood, who had been confined to his bed by an attack of rheumatism. 

Fearing that flood would come, Armitage, along with three other men, wrapped the sickly man in blankets, and conveyed him out of the house to a neighbours house high on the hill side; they had just got him out of the house when the torrent swept past.  One minute later, and the whole five men would have perished.

It is providential that this awful calamity occurred during the night: had it occurred a few hours later, the whole of the hands employed at these works would have been on the premises, and the probable loss of life under these circumstances makes the blood run chill to contemplate.  This remark also will apply to the other mills partially or wholly destroyed by the rapid descent of this terrible flood.