Stories Of Flood

The fenland floods of 1937 and 1947

The High spring tides coincide with heavy rain. The great sluice at Denver cannot be opened to allow the rivers to empty into the sea and more and more water drains into the fenland river system. The high riverbanks are full to the brim and are crumbling and dissolving in the water just as sugar dissolves in tea. Slips occur, the bank slides a bit, but as it threatens to break men rush to bolster it up with clay and sandbags. The banks themselves are already two feet higher because of these lines of sacks but still the water seeps through and strong winds blow sheets of water out from the river and down into the adjoining fen - fen that is itself a sea of mud -comparable with the mud of Flanders. "The way feet sink in with a dull sucking noise reminds me of the time when we moved into Passchendale during the war".

The sodden fen means that lorries cannot get near to bring bags - potato bags, sandbags - any sort of bag and the sodden land itself is unsuitable for filling them. 10,000 bags have been laid since yesterday morning and the water is seeping through at the places they placed the bags yesterday afternoon The men are willing but almost at the end of their tether. Most are now so tired that if some really terrible disaster came along they would hardly be any use at all. Throughout the fen, along the top of river and drain every available man - hundreds of men, wet and weary, watch the water in the river while even more rain penetrates their clothing and the incessant cold wind chills them even more.

There is talk of calling in the army and at Ely a bugler is standing by to sound a "fall-in" for volunteers in the event of a major burst. The town criers at Haddenham and Swavesey are appealing for extra men to go to the aid of Willingham, just one of the danger points. Barway and Lt Thetford have breached and flooding near Stretham cuts the main Al0 - the carloads of undergraduates flocking to help must find another way on to the Isle of Ely. The BBC broadcasts flood warnings urging people to alert their neighbours without wireless sets to listen for the church bells that will announce the time has come for evacuation.

For many families it is already too later. Their land is under water, their homes are flooded. "We fenland folk can stand a lot. The water has got to be coming over the doorstep before we begin to flit. A horseman tells me that the water has reached his front door... his wife is sweeping it away with a broom". It is the worst flood for many years - worse than 1928, worse than last year. It is March 1937. "We've got out of scrapes before, and we'll get out of this one" says a fen farmer. He is right. The floods of March 1937 are now largely forgotten. They were only a minor dampness compared to the devastation that was to follow ten years later.

1947: The High spring tides coincide with a sudden thaw of the heavy snow. The great sluice at Denver cannot be opened to allow the rivers to empty into the sea and more and more water drains into the fenland river system.

The high riverbanks are full to the brim and are crumbling and dissolving in the water just as sugar dissolves in tea. Slips occur, the bank slides a bit, but as it threatens to break men rush to bolster it up with clay and sandbags ... its the same old story, March 1937 over again - but this time worse.

On March 16th 1947 hurricane force winds swept sheets of water over the bank tops and sent the patrolling men scurrying for shelter. Fallen trees blocked roads, telephones lines blown down and 190 people evacuated from the Prickwillow area as flooding threatened.

But it was March 17th when the main breaches occurred. One was at Lt Thetford that swamped the main railway line and spread south to close the Wicken road and threaten the main Al0 at Stretham Ferry. The other was way out in the fen near Earith where a 50 yard gap had been torn in the river bank and properties at Over and Willingham were flooded, the water flowing east until it was checked by the main Old West river bank alongside which runs the Earith to Willingham road

For a while this held back the flood but as the water level increased so the very bank itself was overtopped and water began to trickle into Hill Row fen. A wholesale evacuation started, first the tools of their trade - farm implements and livestock, then furniture and effects. Behind them came a steady stream of water driving rabbits and rats ahead of it. By nightfall on the 18th much of what in the morning had been fertile fen was a mass of grey water. Houses, farm buildings and stacks stood deserted- and marooned whilst families found shelter where they could. Elsewhere the battle continued.

For five days water poured unchecked through the broken bank and raised higher and higher, brick by brick, up the flooded houses. Then on the 24th "Operation Neptune" finally sealed the breach by constructing a steel wall of amphibious vehicles around it and allowing more orthodox repair work to start. Hundreds of pumps were brought in to suck the water off the land and throw it back into the rivers.

As the floods went down and families returned to their shattered homes they were horrified by the sights that confronted them. Ruined shells of houses, stinking mud-impregnated walls, scratches on the windowsills were rats had scrabbled to keep above the water. Undeterred they replanted their fields, rebuilt their houses and eventually - when the walls had finally dried out - made them homes again.

Since then new rivers have been cut, the banks have been strengthened but should nature once more combine wind, waves and water then danger will once more threaten. The fenman can never be complacent; the threat is never ending.

Mike Petty