Lightning Strikes!

In the News: Stormy Weather in Dore

Over the years it appears that Dore could be a dangerous place in a thunderstorm - particularly in July and August.

Lightning strikes brought down chimney stacks and set fire to haystacks. The storm of 1900 occurred after intense heat of 77° Fahrenheit (25°C) and caused widespread disruption in Sheffield.

Here are extracts from the newspapers of four reports concerning Dore, some of which ended in tragedy.

Derby Mercury: 23rd August 1871

On Friday evening, about 5 o’clock, a terrific thunderstorm burst over the village of Dore causing great damage to property, and in one instance at least, the loss of life. When the storm commenced a young man named George William Shepherdson, was assisting his master, Mr Edward Reeves, Farmer, Dore, to thatch a stack. In order to escape the threatened storm the two took shelter under the lee side of the stack, but had hardly done so when a flash of lightning of unusual brilliance lighted up the neighbourhood, and apparently enveloped the stack in a sheet of flame. Mr Reeves exclaimed to his companion ’George, that stack is on fire’. Receiving no reply he turned to Shepherdson, but found him quite dead. Mr Reeves himself, who was seriously injured, will, it is hoped, recover.

Derbyshire Times: 10th August 1878

The tower of Abbeydale House, formerly the residence of Joseph Rodgers Esq. was struck and the weather-cock bent. The Vicarage at Dore was struck by lightning. The electric fluid made a hole in the roof of the servants’ wing and after following the course of the bell-wires finally buried itself in the ground. A servant in the kitchen was slightly injured and all the bells were rendered useless.

Derby Mercury: 5th July 1893

Sheffield and the neighbourhood was on Monday visited by another thunderstorm, accompanied by rain, and although it was not of a very violent character, one death was reported. Mr Joseph Mossley, farmer of Ryecroft Farm, Dore, while at work in the Hayfield was struck by lightning and instantly killed. It is stated that the deceased was trying to protect himself from the rain by holding over his head a bunch of hay with the hayfork. A terrific flash of lightning occurred, and he fell.

Sheffield Daily Telegraph: Saturday 21 July 1900

In the Sheffield district the storm was of the utmost severity, and numerous accidents - fortunately most of them of a minor character - are reported. The telephone arrangements were seriously interfered with, and nearly all over the city the call bells were kept continuously ringing. The telegraph also suffered as a result of the storm, and the electric tramways were affected to such an extent that on some of the routes there was considerable delay.

The article includes an account of the damage caused to three houses on Cricket Inn Road by one lightning strike when the telephone wire attached to the house of police-sergeant Shearman was struck.

The wire was cut in two, and the electric current dividing itself, one part proceeded along the wire towards Darnall, and the other went through the roof into Shearman's house, tearing away part of the roofs of both a bedroom and the floor below.

The report continues:

It is somewhat singular that the electric fluid which passed along the wire in the opposite direction entered the house P.C. James Dye. First the chimney stack was demolished, and then two fireplaces, one in the bedroom and one in the sitting room, were torn out, the bricks being hurled across the floor. The current also entered the adjoining house of Robert Langwell.

Despite three houses being damaged nobody was injured. It was a different story in Dore however.

A farm labourer named Thomas Hallan, aged 16, employed at Whitelow Farm, Dore, was last evening struck by lightning whilst writing a letter near a window in a hayloft. He was killed on the spot, and the lightning, going through the floor to a stable beneath, killed a horse. Dr. Thorne, of Dore, was called to see Hallan, and he pronounced life to be extinct. Two men were in the stable when the horse was killed, but they escaped uninjured.

An inquest into the death of Thomas Hallam was held the following week. The coroner returned a verdict of Accidental Death.