warp up

1) Flood water is said to 'warp up' property when it deposits earth and stone on the river banks and the buildings located there.

In 1686, a great storm destroyed bridges, houses, and farm land in Wharfedale: an event recorded in the Quarter Sessions Order Book for the West Riding: On Thursday the eighth day of June ... betweene the hours of one and three in the afternoone … there happened an Earthquake with dreadful claps of thunder which was attended with great showers of haile and raine which descended so violently from the mountains and flowed out of the caverns of the rocks that in a very short moment it overflowed the bancks of the River and great streams ran through … Kettlewell and Starbotton driving along with them great quantities of great stones, land and sludge soe that it overturned, carried away, warpt up and made useless, uninhabitable … dwelling houses … Outhouses and Barns And carried, swept away and spoiled … household goods … and did likewise Tear up and drive away the Earth of one hundred acres and upwards of arable pasture and meadow ground … And did likewise cover with great stones, gravel and sand above 100 acres more of arable pasture or meadow ground .... The estimates for repairs by masons, carpenters and surveyors have survived in detail, and for these two communities alone the bill amounted to over Ł3,000. This early use of the verb ‘to warp up’ goes far beyond the meanings given in the OED and it paints a graphic picture of houses and land choked up with river debris. The effects were felt as far downstream as Addingham. Similarly: 1697-8 not having A free Passage to the said Mill, the Beck being warped up, West Riding

1712 in many places the River is Warpt up 2 foot, in some places 3 foot and in some 9 foot, so yt is impossible it should Contain the same quantity of Water as before, Knottingley.

dates 1686 1697-1698 1712

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