Ellen Wood was a housemaid who perished in the Holmfirth Flood of 1852.
She was born around 1830 in Shepley, the daughter of weaver Matthew Wood and his wife Bathsheba.
The 1841 Census lists her living with her parents and siblings at Highmoor House, Kirkburton.
By 1851, she was working as the housekeeper for Jonathan Sandford at Dyson's Mill, Holmfirth.
Along with Jonathan Sandford and his two daughters, Ellen Wood was killed by the devastating flood which swept down the valley in the early hours of 5 February 1852.
Her naked body was found in Mr. Dyson's gig-house, near the mill dam, at around 7am on the day of the flood by John Maite[1] and taken to the White Hart Inn in Holmfirth, where it was formally identified by her widowed mother, Bethsheba Wood.