Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

THUNDER STORM.-The thunder-storm which was experienced in this town yesterday se’nnight seems to have extended over a considerable part of the West Riding, and to have been attended with some fatal results. At Little Horton, near Bradford, the electric fluid struck the cabin of a coal-mine, and killed a boy, and dreadfully wounded two men, one of whom was scorched down the whole of his left side, and his life is considered to be in danger; the other man is likely to recover. During the same storm Mr. Joseph Armitage, of Golcar, near Huddersfield, was struck dead by the lightning, and four others dreadfully burnt. At Moor Side, near Holmfirth, a woman, named Mary Blackshaw, was killed in her house. At Leeds, the tent belonging to the Leeds Cricket Club, pitched on Woodhouse Moor, was struck by the lightning, and rent asunder, and one of the poles which supported the tent was split, but fortunately without any other injury except that which fear produced on the men who erected the tent. The hail which accompanied the thunder was more violent, and did greater damage to windows, than any within our recollection, at least in this neighbourhood, for such storms are always partial, and in some places the hail of the preceding Wednesday was more violent and destructive. The hail-stones were of extraordinary size, and most of them were lumps of transparent ice, enclosing within them hailstones of the ordinary kind, resembling congealed snow. A vast number of panes of glass were demolished in the skylights of factories, especially at or near Kirkstall, at which place the hail fell like a shower of marbles, and broke windows in most of the houses. The hot-houses all round Leeds sustained very serious damage: in some, almost every square of glass was smashed. We fear the fruit trees, which had a most promising display of blossom, have suffered considerable injury: beans, cabbages, and other produce have also been much damaged. At York, Dent, and other places the thunder was accompanied by a hurricane, sufficiently violent to tear up trees and unroof buildings. As it is an ill wind which blows nobody good, the glaziers are in high spirits and activity.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Would any of the agricultural damage have been insured? Someone please tell me more about horticulture along the Aire.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Accident (27) W/G ·
• Bean (2) W/G ·
• Cabbage (1) W/G ·
• Cricket (10) W/G ·
• Fruit tree (1) W/G ·
• Fruit (1) W/G ·
• Glass (2) W/G ·
• Glazing (window) (3) W/G ·
• Golcar (1) W/G ·
• Greenhouse (1) W/G ·
• Hail (4) W/G ·
• Holmfirth (6) W/G ·
• Horticulture (2) W/G ·
• 📌Huddersfield (30) W/G ·
• Ice (3) W/G ·
• 📌Kirkstall (9) W/G ·
• 📌Leeds (248) W/G ·
• Lightning strike (3) W/G ·
• Lightning (6) W/G ·
• 📌Little Horton (9) W/G ·
• River Aire (27) W/G ·
• Skylight (1) W/G ·
• Thunderstorm (6) W/G ·
• Vegetable (1) W/G ·
• 📌Woodhouse Moor (13) W/G ·
• Work accident (22) W/G ·
• 📌York (165) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Would any of the agricultural damage have been insured? Someone please tell me more about horticulture along the Aire.

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Similar

23 January 1643: Thomas Fairfax, the Rider of the White Horse, captures Leeds from the Beast with the help of Psalm 68

4 July 1838: 26 girls and boys drown trying to escape via a tunnel from flash flooding in Huskar Colliery, Silkstone, Barnsley, after the steam lifts fail during a rainstorm

23 April 1832: “Pilgrims” arrive at Leeds on Easter Monday on their way to York to hear Richard Oastler call for a 10-hour working day for mill children

19 October 1816: Serenaded by the military, decorated barges leave Leeds for Liverpool to celebrate the completion, after almost 50 years, of the canal uniting east and west

14 February 1818: 17 girls aged 9-18 die in a fire at Thomas Atkinson’s cotton mill at Colne Bridge (Huddersfield), but the counting house and warehouse are saved

17 November 1812: A doggerel inscription at St. George’s, Doncaster, commemorates two sons of ringing master Robert Smith, one of whom died by his father’s bells

20 March 1848: Showman Pablo Fanque tells an inquest how he overfilled a poorly propped Leeds circus, which collapsed, killing his wife

2 March 1830: Leeds Corporation prosecutes its own waste contractors, Messrs Kelly, and a Woodhouse Moor landowner, who have been fly-tipping fæces

9 April 1938: Huge crowds witness air-raid demonstrations on Holbeck and Woodhouse Moors, Leeds

12 January 1825: Safety failings kill 24 in an explosion at Gosforth Pit, Middleton (Leeds), owner Charles Brandling MP, manager John Blenkinsop

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

More press reports. The Mercury’s report on January 22nd on the inquest blames “mostly frivolous causes” for misuse of the lamps, but I read somewhere else that they were also frequently opened because they overheated and had to be extinguished and relit – so a design/management failing, but there seems to have been no question of Blenkinsop being liable for manslaughter.

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