Now! Then! A great storm is bad for Leeds’s horticulturists and good for its glaziers

17 May 1833: A great storm is bad for Leeds’s horticulturists and good for its glaziers

Leeds Mercury. 1833/05/25. Thunder Storm. Leeds. Get it:

Excerpt

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 hailstones 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 hothouses 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.

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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.
Abbreviations:

ER: East Riding
GM: Greater Manchester
NR: North Riding
NY: North Yorkshire
SY: South Yorkshire
WR: West Riding
WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

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

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Original

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.

370 words.