The River Derwent has flooded many times in the town's history
and there have been several flood relief schemes. The most recent
has proved very effective and largely withstood the effects of the
very heavy rainfalls experienced in Great Britain during October
and November 2000 when the River Derwent broke its banks in many
places. Although central Matlock was affected, and some premises
were flooded because of water coming up through the drainage system,
the walls that have been built alongside the river and the enclosure
of the Hall Leys Park withstood the torrents and largely contained
the swollen river.
The footbridge over the River Derwent that
connects the Hall Leys Park with Dale Road, shown in the
photograph on the right, has plaques marking two severe floods
that occurred in the twentieth century and within living
memory of many residents. On Sunday 4th December, 1960 the
flood water reached the lower mark when the river burst its
banks and flooded into Crown Square at 9 a.m.,
engulfing an area five miles long by a mile wide[1].
Some five years later, on Thursday 11th December, 1965, the
flood waters reached even an higher point. Many of the shops
in the town centre were again flooded and water went up into
Firs Parade, where the writer's father had to try to rescue
and remove stock before the waters came in.
Susy Cytko remembers these floods.
"In Matlock Green a lorry decided to rush through the water
and made such waves that it broke the window at Aunty Dolly's
sweet shop and all the jars of sweets floated out, which
was exciting to us as we were children at the time; we
did try to catch them but my mum would not let us go down
stairs so we tried to catch them with a bucket on a rope
but it never worked.
Someone came with soup in a boat and we let the bucket
down to collect it, and bread. Of course we kids hated the
soup as it was onion, but our parents were grateful. ...
One person drowned across the road[2]".
Though flooding has occurred because of exceptionally heavy
rainfall, as in 2000, the town has also flooded because there
had been extremely heavy snowfalls which were followed by
very sudden rises in air temperature and rapid thaws, sometimes
accompanied by heavy rainfall. |
|

Where the floods reached
© Ann Andrews |
So snow falling in the hills of the Peak melted quickly and formed
torrents which drained into the Derwent, causing water levels to
rise dramatically and this was the reason why the town flooded
in 1965[3].
The same thing had happened over sixty years before, when
the water levels rose very quickly overnight between Sunday 29th
December and Monday 30th December 1901. An article in "The
Times" described the whole of the Derwent Valley as a "scene
of desolation". It was reported that water had entered hundreds
of business premises, hotels and private homes at 3 a.m. causing
residents to flee[4].
On that occasion the flood water covered Crown Square
by 7 a.m. and was standing four to five feet high in the Railway
Hotel[5].
"Matlock football ground was flooded to a depth of ten feet"
and the Derwent above Matlock was about a mile wide[4].
According to the Matlock historian Benjamin Bryan, there was by
then bright sunshine which reflected in the newly formed lake[5].
Fortunately, "an abatement took place by daylight"[4] but
the flooding had caused considerable damage in the town[5].
Bryan also described several nineteenth century floods. In the
first week of October 1880 there was a storm with very high winds
which caused the river to burst its banks. Several months later,
just before the 1881 census was taken, snow, high winds and a rapid
thaw caused further flooding in February. "So high did the
waters rise that the railway was flooded, and no train was permitted
to proceed northwards beyond Matlock Bridge. The consequence was
that numbers of passengers had their journey arrested, and upwards
of 150 persons had to be accommodated at the Queen's Head Hotel
and elsewhere[5]". "The
footbridge across the river to Matlock Town was washed down and
wrecked ; whilst lower down the bridge leading to the paint works
and the High Tor Grotto was also destroyed. There was a strong
current of water three to four feet deep running along the roadway,
as if it were part of the river, to and through Matlock Bath[5]".
Also
see Matlock: Dale Road, Boat House Hotel & Quarry
There was further flooding in March of the same year, and again
during October, so 1881 was not a good year for the town[6].
A few years afterwards the "Weekly Dispatch" reported,
on 16 May 1886, serious flooding and "Great Destruction of
Property" in
many parts of the country. "At Matlock vehicular and pedestrian
traffic was totally stopped along a large portion of the highway,
and the houses on The Green were submerged to the second storey".
November 1890 saw further flooding: "On the road to Matlock
Bath there was a depth of four to five feet of water[5]".
 |
The postcard above is dated 18th January, 1921 and the area under
water is just off Crown Square, at the bottom of Bank Road. One
of the entrances to the Crown Hotel is clearly visible on the
near left. A gale of unusual severity had affected the U.K. for
the previous two days, causing widespread flooding. The Matlock
correspondent to "The Times" described "the
view from the Peak as one huge lake" as much of the Matlock's
town centre was under water. The water rose so rapidly
that a temporary bridge had to be erected for traffic[7].
Ten years later, on the 4th September, 1931, the town flooded
again[8] and photographs
exist of the Hall Leys under water once more in 1941.
As for Matlock Bath, there was very localised flooding during
the summer of 1924 that was caused by a violent thunderstorm in
which "rain and hailstones fell as large
marbles for two hours. The Parade became a river and the shops
were flooded to a great depth". Visitors and day trippers
were marooned, or had to wade through deep water to escape[9].
One of the saddest tales resulting from the Derwent being in flood
occurred in the village in January 1852. There was a particularly
tragic accident involving two members of the Cumming family, who
drowned in the swollen river at Matlock Bath. The disastrous consequences
of this, as the head of the family was one of the two who perished,
were widely reported and a fund was set up to help the surviving
children.
Cumming
biographies | Newspaper
report | Subscription
for the relief of the Cumming children
Sadly, these weren't the only fatalities to occur in the Matlock
section of the River Derwent[10].
Whilst flooding can and did cause misery and damage, Matlock's
inhabitants were not without a sense of humour. Colin Goodwyn writes
of an escapade in 1866 during what proved to be the worst flood
for 25 years and which turned the Hall Leys into a sea of water
across to Matlock Green. "Some wags hung a five bar gate on
the lamp post at Matlock Bridge as a make believe that the flood
had been that height and left it there". A sign board was
seen floating down the Derwent; on it had been painted the words "No
road this way"[11].
Below is a photograph of the River Derwent in spate, taken from
from Matlock Bath's Jubilee Bridge in the 1950s using a 2 x 2 Agifold
camera. The landing stage was completely submerged! The Lovers'
Walks on the opposite bank would undoubtedly have been underwater
downstream.
There is an interesting, if somewhat obscure, cutting from the
High Peak News, dated Saturday, April 22, 1916, about flood prevention.
Read
the article
Whatever the various bodies may have either talked about or did, nothing
to deal effectively with the problem happened for many years.
During the 1970s the weir that served the Matlock Dale colour works and fed their
water turbine was removed. This fundamentally changed the nature of the river
between Matlock and Matlock Bath; it is better for the canoeists, though that
was not why the weir was removed, and Matlock has not been flooded since[12]. |
References:
[1] "The Times", Monday
5 Nov 1960. These were the worst floods to have
hit Matlock since those of late Dec 1931 - early Jan 1932. The
flood water covered low lying land between Matlock and Rowsley.
[2] Thanks to Susy Cytko, whose parents
then ran the Horse Shoe in Matlock Green. The drowned man Suzy
referred to was Mr. George Ellis, a 58 year old railway worker
from Starkholmes. He was swept away by the flood water during the
night of 9th December ("The
Times", Monday 13 Dec 1965).
[3] "The Times", 30 Nov 1965 reported
blizzards and heavy snowfalls in the U.K. and Matlock police reported
that over 400 vehicles were stranded in North Derbyshire.
[4] "The Times", Wednesday
1 Jan 1902.
[5] Bryan, Benjamin (1903) "History
of Matlock - Matlock, Manor and Parish" London by Bemrose & Sons,
Limited.
[6] "The Derby Mercury",
19 Oct 1881, reported a gale and strong winds, with many trees uprooted.
A Mr. Willliam Hadfield of Oker managed to save a hay rick which
was in danger of being caried away by the water that flooded the
fields. It referred to the damage in February when, according to
the same paper, the noise of the water rushing through the gorge
beneath High Tor was terrifying. Tree trunks, general debris
and some sheep and rabbits were swept downstream and on towards Derby
(issue of 16 Feb 1881).
[7] "The Times", Wednesday
19 Jan 1921.
[8] The date is from Arkle, M. J. (1983) "Tuppence
Up, Penny Down", printed by Geo. Hodgkinson (Printers) Ltd.
The flood damage was estimated to be over £30,000. "The Times" of
4 Sept 1931 reported heavy rain across the country and on the 5th
that Derbyshire's rivers were in flood, although did not mention
events in Matlock.
[9] "The Times", Wednesday 23
July 1924.
[10] Further tragedies are described in
Boating on the River Derwent
[11] "The Derby Mercury",
21 Nov 1866, with thanks to Colin
[12] From Peter Hare. Also see Photographs
of Matlock Bath Today (4) | Matlock
Bath, High Tor and the Colour Works
|