Great Flood of 1771

About two o'clock on the morning of Sunday the 17th of November 1771, the inhabitants of Newcastle were alarmed by an unprecedented inundation. In consequence of an unremitted fall of heavy rain in the west, the water in the Tyne rose upwards of twelve feet above the common flow of a good spring tide.

All the cellars, warehouses, shops, and lower apartments of the dwelling houses, from the west end of the Close to near Ouseburn, were totally under water. The flood was so rapid and sudden, that it was with the greatest difficulty the inhabitants, who slept in the lower parts of the houses, escaped with their lives.

The middle arch of Tyne Bridge, and two other arches near to Gateshead, were carried away, and seven houses with shops standing thereon, together with some of the inhabitants, overwhelmed in immediate destruction.

The Sandhill was a capacious flood; and boats plied thereon some hours. In some parts it was six feet deep. All the timber, merchants' goods, etc lying upon the Quay, and on the several shores in the neighbourhood, were entirely swept away with the current, as were most of the ships lying at the Quay, and a number of keels, boats, and other small craft, both above and below bridge, carried down the rapid current, and scattered and stranded on each side of the river to Shields, or otherwise borne onwards to the sea, and there sunk or wrecked along the coast. Three sloops and a brig were driven upon the Quay, and left there when the flood abated; they furrowed up the pavement, and broke down a great part of the Quay.

But Newcastle did not alone suffer by the terrible violence of this flood; scarcely a village or cottage house, from Tynehead, in Alston-moor, to Shields, escaped its destructive fury. The bridges at Alston, Ridley-hall, Haydon, Chollerford, and Hexham, were all carried away by the torrent; many people were drowned; a prodigious quantity of horses, black cattle, sheep, and other animals perished.

The wooden bridge at Allendale was swept away entire, and was discovered the next day lying across a lane near Newbrough, as exactly as if fixed there by human means.

At Haydon Bridge it overflowed the whole town, which obliged the men, with women and children on their backs, to wade almost up to their necks to the church, where they found sanctuary.

The bridge at Hexham, consisting of seven arches, and which had only been finished the year before, with great rejoicing; was totally demolished during the night. An inscription on a stone, near Warden, informs the passenger that the water rose 13 feet above its level at that place.

The only bridge upon the river Tyne which was left standing was that at Corbridge, which was built in 1674, on the old Roman foundation. The water at this place was so tremendous, that some persons, late in the night, stood upon the bridge and washed their hands in the rolling river. The preservation of this bridge was attributed to its Roman foundation, and a vast quantity of water having passed it at its south end, which is low ground.