The following contemporary account relating to the construction of the Settle - Carlisle railway appeared on page 3 (column 5) of the August 26th, 1871 edition of the Lancaster Guardian.
BATTY GREEN
A TERRIBLE THUNDER STORM. – On Friday, the 18th instant, a terrible storm passed over Bleamoor and neighbourhood almost equal to the memorable storm of last summer. It began about two p.m. and lasted about an hour. The huts of the wooden villages were shaken by the rolling thunder, women and children screamed out in terror and trembled, stout-hearted men were struck with fear as if paralysed, some of the concluding the world was coming to an end. In the huts it was as dark as night excepting when the lightning flashed with a terrible vividness through the dwelling. Some of the dogs were so terrified with the darkness, the lightning’s glare, and the trembling huts, that they howled with a piteous moan. On one of the banks a man and a horse were struck with the electric fluid. The driver has recovered from the shock, and the horse, though not as well is going on favourably. At the distance of about a quarter of a mile ten sheep which in the storm had taken shelter under the shadow of a rock were struck dead by the lightning. The sheep which belonged to Mr. Sedgwick, of Lodge Hall, in Horton parish, were found together about five p.m. As they were found by one of the workmen on the line the news soon reached the huts, when scores of men, women and children flocked to the place to witness the desolation made by the life-destroying lightning.
THE SANITARY CONDITION AT BATTY GREEN. – It is pleasant to report that the smallpox has almost disappeared from the railway works. For the last two weeks no deaths from the disease have been reported. The number of patients in the hospital are reduced to three. Those patients have had the disease in a very slight form. The general health of the place is so much improved and the prospect of the speedy disappearance of the plague is so fair that the services of one of the attendants have been dispensed with.
Acknowledgements
The text quoted above was manually transcribed from a 35mm microfilm copy of the newspaper by Mark R. Harvey during a visit to Lancaster Library on July 10th, 2007.