The only thing I can think that'd come anywhere close to "chop your head off as soon as look at you" in Huddersfield was carried out by two local white lads. Their births were registered in Huddersfield in 2001 & 2004 respectively. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020...

As an aside, "Lot Wibberley" is a most excellent name 🙂

Ours went the other way and plumped for "Sitlington", with the three villages renamed as Netherton, Overton and Middlestown.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitling...

Richard's father James Shackleton had a narrow escape. He lived with daughter Mary in a house opposite the White Hart Inn in Holmfirth. Landlord William Dyson ran across the rapidly flooding street and encouraged James to come inside the inn for safety and he gave Mary a piggy back thru the water.

If you're a Baxter from Linthwaite, Ann might be your ancestor as she married clogger Alfred Baxter and had six children. If so, try not to ponder too much about the fact that you wouldn't exist if Ann had lived with her parents as no-one in that house survived 🤯

Richard's wife Tamar and three of the children also perished in the flood. Only their first daughter, Ann Shackleton Green, who was born before they married, survived. Perhaps because she was born out of wedlock, Ann was instead raised by Tamar's parents and lived with them.

For fans of the "Kevin Bacon Game", Mary Ann's brother Gamaliel Battye married Mary Morrey whose maternal uncle Richard Shackleton died in the 1852 Flood.

Also transcribed today is this report of the death of Mary Ann Whiteley (née Battye), daughter of Holmfirth carrier Joseph Battye. Their house flooded and young Mary Ann had to be held aloft to keep her out of the rising water.
huddersfield.exposed/s/78168
huddersfield.exposed/s/78169

The Bible was gifted to St. David's church, Holmbridge, where hopefully it remains(?)

Speaking of newspaper typos, for some reason the Huddersfield Examiner kept printing the surname of John Ashall (one of the 1852 flood victims) as "Ashole" 😳

All of which is a long-winded way of saying "thank you" to Thomas -- his reporting of the adjourned inquest held on 13 February appears to be the most accurate whereas other journalists seem to have misreported statements or made assumptions about what was actually said on the day.

Unfortunately for Thomas, the train was entering Springwood Tunnel and he collided with the tunnel entrance, bounced back onto the side of the carriage and fell down onto the track below. He was found with severe leg injuries and died four days later at Huddersfield Infirmary.

His mind must have been elsewhere though as he inadvertently boarded a train around 8pm that was going back to Holmfirth. He realised his error as it set off -- he leapt up, flung open the carriage door and jumped onto the platform. If he'd jumped a second or two earlier, he might have made it...

Up there near the top must be Thomas Newsome of the "Halifax Guardian" who authored very reliable articles. After spending the day at Holmfirth on 20 February, he got the train back to Huddersfield to await a connection to Halifax...

All of which would have been much easier if some of the newspaper accounts didn't contradict others 😀 After 7 or 8 years of researching the flood, I feel like I've come to know which newspaper journalists were more reliable.

Ta! Feel free to DM me your IP address and I'll do some digging. Are you using a VPN?