THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

The nine weeks’ storm of 1895 was of course the record storm.  Till the great thaw came, the moorlands were covered deep with snow, which, owing to continuous frost and slight mid-day thaws, became firmly frozen over on the surface, so that one could walk without difficulty straight across country over the buried stone walls.  Many houses were deep in drifts, and in one homestead the household were roused from their slumbers by hearing the sheep on the roof.  The roads were continually opened by an army of farmers, only to be blocked again by recurring blizzards.  The moorland sheep were brought to the lowlands, where also flocked the moorcock and all moorland birds.

Bishop/Patients, 1922

Storm clouds gathered; thunder crashed in the dale and torrential rain poured from the dense black clouds.  In minutes, the dale tracks were awash with thick brown floodwater which poured from the hills.  Cottages and farms were flooded, tracks were flowing like rivers and the carcasses of drowned livestock like poultry and lambs were washed into the newly-formed streams and carried away.

Bishop/Patients, 1922