by Rex Needle

FLOODING is one of the major natural disasters of the modern world and recent events in England have demonstrated how it can dramatically change our lives. We have escaped the worst of the crisis although the low lying areas of eastern England that we know as the fens have had their fair share of misfortune in past times.

Bourne is particularly hard hit in time of flooding because this has always been a farming community and in times of inundation, the land becomes unproductive and unworkable and so farm labourers were invariably sent home without wages until conditions improved. Flooding was a frequent occurrence before the fens were drained and the most serious recorded instance was in 1571. On November 5th that year, the entire county was struck by one of the worst storms in history.

The roads into the town were turned into rushing torrents and the market place soon became a vast lake. The 16th century English chronicler Raphael Holinshed recorded that the flood water in Bourne rose "to midway of the height of the church walls" during a tempest which affected the whole district, particularly houses and other buildings on the eastern side of the town, and thousands of sheep in nearby fields were drowned. The calamity was later described by the Lincolnshire poet Jean Ingelow (1820-97) in High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire:

Then bankes came down with ruin and rout,
Then beaten foam flew round about,
Then all the mighty floods were out.

The worst cases of flooding in the recent history of Bourne have all been caused by our fenland rivers bursting their banks during periods of heavy rain. There were four such occurrences during the late 19th century, in November 1852 when the north bank of the Bourne Eau broke between two and three miles from Bourne, in April 1872, December 1876 and October 1880, when the north bank of the River Glen gave way near Tongue End. The last incident was by far the worst with torrential rain falling for 24 hours, also flooding houses in North Street and around the Queen’s Bridge, while on the main Bourne to Stamford Road at Toft, a man driving a horse and cart was washed away and drowned.

The flooding became known as "The Bourne Fen Inundation" and on Friday 26th November 1880, it engulfed the entire South Fen, an area of about 3,000 acres of land, much of it containing newly cut corn which floated out of the fields while a variety of farm implements were washed away. The land was submerged to the depth of up to seven feet, corn stacks, buildings and houses surrounded by one vast expanse of water. Looting was rife and cash rewards were offered for the apprehension of the culprits. A gang of 50 to 60 men were employed and large quantities of timber, thousands of sacks filled with earth, and consignments of stone were used on repair work although three feet of water remained on the land for several weeks.

Flooding in the fens in various degrees continued into the 20th century and in the winter of 1910, the River Glen again burst its banks at Tongue End, inundating the South Fen near Bourne and covering the main Spalding road towards Twenty with flood water.

This disaster, occurring during the first week of December, subsequently became known as "The Great Flood of 1910" and for more than a month, the entire fen was one vast sea of floodwater. Emergency repairs mounted by the Black Sluice Commissioners continued day and night as attempts were made to repair the damage with workers filling the breached bank with sandbags but despite labouring for long hours, they had little success and farmers were forced to wait until the water subsided naturally although it was four weeks before it drained away and a complete picture of the damage emerged.

The Marquess of Exeter, one of the principal landowners, returned half a year's rent to each of his tenants while the Rev Alan Galton, Vicar of Edenham, offered to take a collection. Other churches and chapels in the district were urged to do the same and in the weeks that followed, events such as concerts and whist drives were arranged to add to the fund. The relief work continued for several months but it was to be more than a year before the land returned to its usual productivity and many of the smaller farmers never recovered from the financial loss they had suffered.

On 12th January 1911, farmers and landowners gathered at the Corn Exchange in Bourne to assess the damage and to set up a distress fund for those affected. Before the meeting were compensation claims from farmers tenanting 1,500 acres of land totalling £3,000 although the final figure was expected to be between £8,000 and £9,000 [over £4 million at today's values]. Subscriptions to the fund began immediately with £100 from the Earl of Ancaster and other amounts ranging from £50 to 2s. 6d. from wealthy landowners, businessmen and ordinary people in the locality and a committee was set up to handle the distribution of grants to the more deserving cases.

There has been serious flooding in recent years but nothing to equal the disaster of 1910, mainly because of improved sewerage and drainage services. In August 1912, a downpour flooded the road outside the police station, then in North Street, and in the summer of 1915, a heavy storm resulted in the evacuation of girls from the Council School. In October 1960, three inches of rain fell in ninety minutes and most streets in the town were soon under water, with cars stranded at the kerbside. Bourne Grammar School was holding its annual Speech Day at the Corn Exchange and as guests left to go home, they found floodwater swirling around the entrance. Senior pupils volunteered to wade through it and carry some of the elderly people to dry ground while hundreds more waited inside for the water to subside.

There was further flooding in 1968, 1980 and in 2002 when, after a month long dry spell, rain fell on Tuesday 15th October and the downpour lasted for more than 18 hours and was accompanied by high winds. The paved area behind the Town Hall where the weekly markets are held was flooded to a depth of several inches but fortunately, it had subsided by the time the Thursday stallholders had arrived. In 2004, torrential rain also caused widespread flooding, closing shops and streets which were several inches under water within an hour. The town centre was badly affected and firemen were called out to pump water from premises in North Street and West Street. A spokesman at the Meteorological Office suggested that the town had been hit by a tornado while Lincolnshire fire brigade reported 200 calls for help.

We have no control over the weather and heavy rain serves as a warning that the threat of flooding is always with us, especially in such low lying areas as the terrain around Bourne but we count ourselves lucky not to experience the meteorological extremes of many other countries.

The roads were engulfed in many places