The River Medlock flood of 1872 culminating in coffins being washed from Philips Park Cemetery.
According to “Lancashire Pastimes,” Dennis Ball, 1987 and “The Story of Failsworth,” by the same author, 1975, the incident took place on 13th July 1886. I am sure that this should read 13th July 1872, unless two identical floods took place on identical dates but in different years. The Medlock did flood on Wakes Sunday 1886, washing away the footbridge at Daisy Nook, but the “coffin” incident happened in 1872, when it was recorded “The rainfall has not been equalled within the memory of the present generation. The gauges show (Sat) that 2.2ins of rain fell. The fall was almost as large as that of the previous 12 days which were often wet.”

From The Manchester Historical Recorder 1872

“The most disastrous flood which has ever visited Manchester and neighbourhood occurred July 13.
Far different was the state of affairs along the course of the (River) Medlock, and it was on the banks of this river that the effects of the rainstorm was felt most disastrously. The water began to rise about 11 o’clock, but it was past 12 before it attained the di­mensions of an irresistible flood, and then it bore all before it.

At Medlock Vale, some three miles beyond Bradford—cum—Beswick, the fields were covered on either side, and two bridges were washed away. At Messrs Taylor & Boyd’s calico printworks, Clayton Bridge, the river rose l2ft above its ordinary level, and one of the lodge embankments gave way. A weir at Lord’s Brook, at the end of Green Lane, was washed down, and persons going along the lane were obliged to get over into the fields, the ordinary road being quite impassable. Several tons of earth were washed on the line of the L & Y Railway near Clayton Bridge Station, and for some hours the traffic had to be carried on by means of one line of rails only.
Beyond the bridge, near Messrs Wood & Wright’s Clayton Vale Print— works, the river burst its banks, and the destruction it caused at the works was terrific. Two bridges were destroyed, a weir partially washed away, the walls of the whiteroom, in which 20,000 pieces of calico were stored, fell, and the goods and the machinery were carried into the water. Machinery was damaged, dyes destroyed, the boiler fires extinguished, and the whole place devastated.

By the time the flood had reached the Manchester City Cemetery near Philip’s Park, Bradford, it had grown in volume and power. About noon it broke through a wall of stone which bounds the side of the cemetery and rushed with tremendous force across the Roman Catholic portion of the graveyard.

The result was indescribably distressing and ghastly. Coffins were washed out of the earth and dashed to pieces against the weir and ad­joining printworks, and the corpses were then swept down the stream.

The number of bodies thus disturbed has not been accurately ascertained, but more than fifty in all had been recovered.”

SCENE ON THE MEDLOCK. Manchester Evening News 1872

Shortly before 12 o’clock noon on Saturday 15th July the waters of the Medlock began to rise, and reached its greatest height about 3pm, when it was found to be over 2lft, in many places, above its ordinary level. The saddest calamity was the result. The City Cemetery, established by the Corporation of Manchester, runs east and west from Bradford Road, where is the principal entrance, and has for its south boundary the River Medlock, which separates the cemetery from Philip’s Park. The two were united by several bridges.

The visitor arriving by Bradford Road enters the Protestant portion of the cemetery, at the furthest, or east or west end of which the Calico Printing Works of Messrs Wood & Wright, the Bank Bridge Works, hide the further, or Roman Catholic portion of the cemetery.

Crossing the road, it is seen that the Medlock, where it bounds the 1W burying place, inclines to the south, from the east boundary wall of the cemetery, until reaching the promontory where there is a weir, it makes a sudden bend to the north.
The flood water in the Medlock at 12.50 on Saturday refused to follow the channel inclining to the south, and overflowed its banks, running in almost a straight line to the weir. At this time the river was about l2ft above its usual level.
The weir backed the water upon a portion of the cemetery where there was grave space for 250 graves, some 60 of which had been used for an average of five interments each.

The descending water and the returned water from the weir eddied here in such a manner as to destroy these graves. The coffins were lifted, broken by being dashed against the weir, and the released bodies, in all stages of decay, were carried down the stream. Some of them floated down through Manchester into the Irwell, and thence into the Mersey — as many as 19 being counted by an observer at Knott Mill. Others floated to Ancoats Bridge, Pin Mill Brow, where they were stayed among other debris, and taken to Fairfield Street Police Station. Others were secured in the cemetery, and re—interred the same night.

Others, again, floated into Philips Park and into the adjoining cellars and gardens. In the garden of one beerhouse in Bradford, four naked bodies floated, and that of a child was found when pumping out a cellar.

Altogether, there could not have been less than 50 or 60 bodies which had been disturbed from their last resting place.
At Medlock Vale the fields and cottage gardens were inundated. Ash Bridge was washed down, and a great part deposited in the middle of a field opposite Medlock Vale House. Another bridge, almost entire, lay near the same place on the river bank, having being washed down near Daisy Nook.

A crude woodcut was printed at the time depicting animated skeletons stood in their canoe—like coffins crying for help as they were being washed downstream in the deluge.

The Roman Catholics removed their low—lying cemetery to what is now St Joseph’s cemetery in Moston (c1875), the nearby Gardener’s Arms being the highest point in the City.

Various “Letters to the Editor” from the Manchester Evening News in 1987 re a question from a Mrs B Hughes asking if the “coffin” incident did really happen were replied to by a “flood” of answers:— “.... the flood swept in torrents .... carrying with it coffins from newly—opened graves as far as Granby Row.” JC.

“.... not only coffins, but gravestones were swept down the stream as far as Ancoats and. Ardwick. My pals and I lived on the Ardwick side of the river, and on the days we went to the cinema, to save us going all the way round Beswick we forded the river (Medlock) by the means of these gravestones that were washed down by that mighty surge of water.” FC.

“In Ancoats and Ardwick, water level reached as high as bedroom windows and rafts were used to rescue people.” JEB.

“I can confirm this as true as my own mother’s coffin was one of those involved. My father told me about the disaster.” AD.