History
Sheffield Flood
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Nathaniel Beardmore
Nathaniel Beardmore (1816–1872), civil engineer, was born at Nottingham on 19 March 1816. He began his professional education as pupil to a Plymouth architect, and subsequently to the well-known engineer Mr. J. M. Rendel, whose partner he ultimately became. Much of the experience he obtained respecting water supplies and so forth was gained in works undertaken at this time. His partnership with Mr. Rendel ceased in 1848. In 1850 Beardmore became sole engineer to the works for the drainage and navigation of the river Lee. In the same year appeared, with the title of ‘Hydraulic Tables,’ the first edition of a book which, under the fuller description of ‘Manual of Hydrology; containing I. Hydraulic and other Tables; II. Rivers, Flow of Water, Springs, Wells, and Percolation; III. Tides, Estuaries, and Tidal Rivers; IV. Rain-fall and Evaporation,’ afterwards became the text-book of the profession for hydraulic engineering. The above title is that of the third and enlarged edition, which appeared in 1862.
On the night of 11 March 1864 the Dale Dyke Dam was washed out and the flood wave killed nearly 250 in Sheffield; Beardmore was called in to assist Robert Rawlinson, the government inspector.
During the remaining years of his life Beardmore's practice as an engineer was greatly extended by this work. He died on 24 Aug. 1872, at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. Source: Oxford DNB
