The day that the rains came down

August 03, 2004

More than seven inches of rain fell in a day to bring terror, chaos and death to the streets of Norfolk. But the floods of 1912 could have proved far more catastrophic, had it not been for the actions of several local heroes, as KEIRON PIM reports.

Midland Street in Norwich, one of many where houses were flooded with filthy water.

After a weekend of dark, foreboding skies, the first drops of rain began falling in the early hours of Monday, August 26, 1912. By the time the heavens closed again the next morning, more than a million gallons had fallen across Norfolk and turned Norwich into a disaster zone.

Water rose to 17ft above high-water level, causing the River Yare to break its banks and turning the Wensum into a torrent coursing through the city. People found themselves being chased along the streets and into their homes by a rising tide of rainwater.

Norwich was a more compact place in those days, with 100,000 people living within a mile of the Market Place. So many families inhabited courts and yards huddled around the Wensum, the source of much of the city’s livelihood in the early 20th century, that the effect was devastating.

Photographs show horse-drawn carriages splashing down Magdalen Street, men rowing down a road in boats, and a Carrow Road that looked more like a canal. Excited youngsters are shown looking on at the unusual spectacle but the consequences had been tragic.

Four people died and many more lives were shattered as water drenched the city, cutting out the electricity and leaving houses uninhabitable.

Magdalen Street, Norwich, where youngsters on the right watch horses splashing through the water.

About 15,000 people suffered damage to their properties and 2000 were left homeless, with many being temporarily housed in seven schools.

“Not within living memory has there been such an August as that now drawing to a close, nor, in view of this week’s terrible experiences one so disastrous,” read a contemporary report.

“Rain had fallen for several days, seriously interfering with harvest operations...In Norwich the rain began about three o’clock on Monday morning and fell in torrents all day and far into the night. The rainfall was phenomenal.

“Mr AW Preston, of Eaton, the leading meteorologist of the district, estimated the total 7.34 inches a record, which has no rival in this part of the country.

More than 7 inches of rain fell in a single day.

“It was in the Heigham and Coslany districts that the cruel floods wrought the greatest misery. For days great quantities of water had been pouring through the sluices at the New Mills and seemed to be getting away to the marshes, but it was not until the morning after the storm that the peril was realised.”

It was calculated that twice the amount of water in Lake Windermere had fallen on the county.

Those who died in the downpour ranged from a baby to a man whose heroic efforts to save other lives ended with him drowning.
George Brodie, a fish porter who lived in Sawmill Yard, Oak Street, repeatedly waded out to rescue women and children who were trapped in their homes.

He became exhausted in the cold and damp but told his wife he was setting out on one more rescue attempt, with the poignant parting words: “There are some more dear children to get out, and I shall not be long before I get home.”

By 11.30pm he had been toiling in miserable conditions for four hours. The current was an estimated 30mph and a weary Mr Brodie was last seen trudging through the water towards Oak Street.

Boats had to be used on many streets. Here, a pub is taking on supplies through an upstairs window.

His body was found floating at Bullard’s Wharf, and it was assumed he lost his footing and was swept away. His wife, Annie, was given a pension for life as a mark of thanks for his efforts.

A five-month-old baby was the first victim of the flood. Edward Poll was trapped by rising water with his mother and elder brother in their home in Canterbury Place. His father, Ernie, managed to get his family into a rowing boat and set off for higher ground.

But as they turned into Ely Street, the current swept the vessel on to a row of iron railings and it quickly sank.

Mr Poll clutched his wife, Florence, who in turn held both their children and tried to keep them afloat as he swam through the dark for the wall of a flooded house, grabbing at some boards that were nailed across a window. It was then that he noticed his wife had fallen unconscious and their infant son was nowhere to be seen.

There was a sad postscript to the event in the EDP of August 30: “Early yesterday the body of Edward Poll ... was found, his clothes having caught on a nail on the wall of a house in Heigham Street.”

A Mrs Kemp, of Goat Yard, in nearby Oak Street, was reported to have died of fright while being carried into a boat, while at Saxlingham, near Holt, a postman named Mr Starling drowned after trying to battle through the high water on his horse and cart.

Many more lives would surely have been lost had it not been for the actions of a gallant policeman named Horner and William Marrison, a labourer who lived in Fox and Goose Yard, Norwich.

The pair rescued around 100 people before their rowing boat capsized and they were washed away from each other.

Children enjoyed the novelty of it all, like this group in the St. Benedicts are of Norwich who hitched up their trousers for a paddle.

Both Horner and Marrison escaped and separately made it to the police station to report that the other had drowned.

The city had rapidly degenerated into chaos, with gales blowing down heavy trees, furniture floating in people’s gardens and grimy water infiltrating every nook and cranny.

“It was pitiable to see these poor people struggling with their adversity, and to think of the cheerless night they must spend amid their sodden surroundings,” the EDP wrote.

“Unthank Road, Portersfield Road, Park Lane, were all submerged, and many exciting scenes were witnessed.

“The pressure of the water in the sewers burst off the lids of manholes in some instances, and huge fountains of water rose up from them and added to the raging floods around.”

The EDP explained that despite the overflowing river, the flooding was actually “due not to the rise and overflow of the river, but to the fact that the street gullies became blocked with debris, so that the surface water could not escape, and perforce flowed first into the gardens, and then into the cellars or the living rooms of the houses”.

The newspapers of the time were full of headlines such as Collapse of Trowse Bridge, Alarming Subsidence at Sprowston, 20 Inches of Water in Norwich Street, and Destruction at Beccles.

Although Norwich suffered most notably, turning into an island isolated from the rest of the county, the surrounding countryside was flooded too – 52 bridges and culverts were broken, the harvest was destroyed and roads and railways blocked.

The water finally began to recede three days after the storm, and people were left to pick up the pieces of their lives. The cost of the damage totalled £100,000, equivalent to more than £6m today, but thanks to the generosity of people around the world, a relief fund raised an impressive £25,000.

“Still the contributions roll in from all parts of the country, and the gracious donations of the King and Queen and Prince of Wales have given the fund a splendid lift,” it was reported.

More than 90 years on, could it happen again? The tidal surge of 1953 showed that flooding remained a major problem. And with global warming leading to rising sea levels, the threat of Norfolk being submerged again is very real indeed.