Village of the Week: Yorkshire villagers who fled the floods and flocked to farming

High Bradfield and Low Bradfield, are half a mile apart and sit just within the boundary of the Peak District National Park.

In fact, around a third of the city of Sheffield lies within the Peak District and a generous 61 per cent of Sheffield's entire area is green space.

There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, which it has been quoted has around 4.5m trees.

Of course, trees in Sheffield are another story, but what else links Sheffield and these two villages is water.

The River Don flows through Sheffield and has four off-shoots - the Loxley, the Porter Brook, the Rivelin and the Sheaf.

To this day, the history and legacy of what the force of water would be capable of is still talked about today.

As Sheffield became more industrial in the 1800s, the population expanded rapidly, as did the need for water.

So, it was decided to construct the Dale Dyke Dam for the purpose of providing a more efficient source of clean water and Sheffield Water Works Company were at the head of the project.

However, on March 11, 1896 as the dam was being filled for the first time, the walls collapsed and sent what was the equivalent to 700 million gallons of water gushing at speed down the Loxley Valley, into the city centre and towards Rotherham.

Pretty much everything in its initial path was destroyed and 240 people were killed.

The villages of High and Low Bradfield did not come out unscathed either.

Given the geographical location and make-up of the villages, they are popular with walkers and people escaping the city for some countryside air, so the Bradfield Walkers group and the local parish council have story boards dotted around the routes which recount the history - and some of it makes for harrowing reading.

There was one fatality in the water’s path in Low Bradfield and the story of Joseph Dawson, a local tailor whose baby was the first to die, is told on the boards.

At the time, Mr Dawson said: “The flood caught us and washed the blankets and my child away and left my wife naked in my arms. I was obliged to leave the child to its fate or I could not have saved my wife, for the flood was in the house.”

He tried to put the mattress out of the window to reach and embankment but it fell down and they had to be rescued by ladder. The body of the child was found in the coal cellar a few days later.

Elsewhere, Damflask became a lost village. It started to flourish some 15 years earlier with a corn mill, paper mill, wire mill, pub and a small number of houses.

On the fateful night, many of the villagers were saved thanks to a man who had been sent to alert engineers about the crack in the dam wall.

En-route he warned the people of Damflask and they had time to flee and save some of their belongings.

However, Henry Burkinshaw, known as ‘Sheffield Harry’ laughed it off. His house was swept away in the torrent and his body was found the next morning some half a mile away.

Before though, the history of Bradfield goes back way further than this to possibly the fifth to eleventh centuries.

Near to the Church of St. Nicholas - itself of historical significance because it is one of only five Grade One Listed buildings in Sheffield - is Bailey Hill, a 34 feet high, man made mound that is deemed a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

How, when and why it was made are not certain but there are suggestions it was a Saxon fort, a Norman motte-and-bailey castle or a place of public village assembly.

Excavations from 1720 revealed squared stones that had been produced by using tools, while nearby is a site marked on old maps as a ‘supposed’ Saxon encampment.

Later history saw many people from Bradfield move to Sheffield to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution while The Bradfield Parish workhouse was based in High Bradfield between 1759 and 1847.

It is still there and was converted into private houses in the 1870s.

The church was built in the 12th century, and had connections to Ecclesfield church it is said.

Visiting priests walked across the moors to take services, and sometimes stayed overnight in the vestry, a cold, inhospitable stone room. In 1745 a watch house was built at the church gates to combat the body snatchers, who were very active.

The South & West Yorkshire Federation of Women's Institutes say there is a “curious” story about the church papers.

It was discovered that a large number had been stored in a room of an adjoining cottage, the doorway of which had been covered over. The two elderly sisters whose home it was, did not wish to be disturbed, but upon the death of the last sister the house was entered and the hidden room found.

It was filled with documents of all types, which, after being sorted, were stored and put on display at the council offices in Low Bradfield, where they are stored for safe keeping.

Farming was also prevalent, particularly sheep farming, and while the reservoirs were being constructed, the landowners above them hosted grouse shoots.

There are two farms that are still important to the village today. Church Farm supplies milk from its dairy herd and Watt House Farm is also a dairy farm but is also home of the Bradfield Brewery, which is based in a converted barn.

Cross Farm, Nether Farm and Fair House Farm are situated close to the centre of the village at Low Bradfield.

Just a short distance away from both villages is Bradfield Dale which contains the three reservoirs of Agden and Strines, as well as Dale Dyke, which were constructed in the 1860s.