Toddbrook dam ONE YEAR ON

Andrew Griffiths speaks to Fr Jamie MacLeod and to the Environment Agency head engineer who worked tirelessly to save the dam

- Andrew Griffiths

It is one year since storms struck with such ferocity that the dam at Toddbrook Reservoir above Whaley Bridge cracked and threatened to break, an event which would have spilled over 300 million gallons of water into the valley and destroyed everything in its path.

It resulted in what was described by Rachel Swann, Deputy Chief Constable of Derbyshire Police, as ‘the largest peacetime evacuations of civilians in the UK’. The Cabinet Office’s COBRA met, SAGE were called to offer expert scientific advice (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) and the Civil Contingencies Act designed to give powers to cope with national emergencies swung into operation.

The response in dealing with the crisis and the logistical challenge of draining the reservoir down an already full River Goyt to take the pressure off the dam wall while further storms threatened is now written with gratitude into the annals of Whaley Bridge history.

So too is the response of the community itself, as 1,500 residents had to evacuate, leaving only with what they could carry, while the chinook helicopter flew low overhead, carrying in ballast to drop into the hole that had opened up in the dam wall.

I covered the aftermath for Derbyshire Life, after the world’s media circus had moved on.