YEARS IN FOCUS
LOCAL NEWS AND EVENTS OF THE 1950s

"A fantastic sight - a four foot wall of mud and water swirling in all directions" was how Wakefield Road, Pontefract, was described by an observer, Mr Charlie Harwood. He told ‘The Express’ that "a huge wave hurtled down Wakefield Road and Mill Hill towards the War Memorial, and swept into surrounding buildings."

Three cars were halted by its force, and boards, hastily uprighted on the pavements by householders to stop the water, were knocked aside. The water swept through the bar and into other rooms at the Robin Hood Inn and filled a cellar to the height of 3ft with water and slime. Firemen were called to pump it out. A workman on a nearby building site, as he sat on a pile of bricks and wrung water from his socks said "The whole thing was amazing. I have never seen anything like it."

Torrential rain, after the loud crack of thunder, swirled in a brown stream at Castle Vale, Knottingley Road, Pontefract, and blocked the brick culverts, which straddle the beck. This watercourse is fed by a dyke, which drains water from higher land at Baghill and in such an emergency it is unable to cope with the volume. Quickly the water rose above the banks, across the main road and flooded over the main footpath at the opposite side. From the three-arch bridge to Bubworth Farm, the stream, road and footpath were one waterway, to a depth of 4ft at some points. Buses and lorries forged ahead through the water but three cars which attempted the crossing were stranded in ‘mid-stream’. The surplus water quickly subsided, however, and a passing lorry towed two of the cars, which had difficulty starting again, to dry land, and they were soon on their way. A policeman who arrived on the scene found everything under control.

It was at the home of Mrs D. Clayton that bricks were blown out of the chimneystack, some smashing roof tiles and others being hurled into the front garden. Mrs Clayton told ‘The Express’ that the crash was accompanied by a vivid flash, which lit the house and by a smell of sulphur, which was also noticed by other neighbours. Staying with her, and shaken by the experience, was her 88 year-old mother, Mrs H. Hey. Soot fell down the chimneys into the downstairs rooms.

A temporary market stall which was being erected in Horsefair, Pontefract, to house market stalls, was blown down by a sudden blast of wind during the storm. The structures were however undamaged and it was possible for the workmen to re-erect the building.

In Mayors Walk and at the Wakefield Road end of Banks Avenue, a section of the road was forced up, probably due to the heavy passage of water in the sewers underneath.

An instrument at the Municipal Offices, Pontefract, recorded that at the height of the storm on Wednesday, half-an-inch of rain fell in under five minutes (half the total that fell throughout the previous rainy weekend). The Borough Engineer, Mr. A.F. Richardson, said it was one of the most intense and heaviest rainfalls in the town.

[ 1956 Index ]