Swanage Flood 1990

Swanage was one of many places in England to suffer flooding in 1990. In early February of that year a combination of severe rain, saturated ground, a poorly maintained culvert through the middle of the town, and a high tide in the bay impeding the passage of water from the land, caused the flooding shown here.

The film begins looking at the railway from the bridge in Victoria Avenue, then at the adjacent business park, Prospect Farm and the putting greens opposite, then travelling along Victoria Avenue into town (towards the sea).

We then move to Kings Road West, near the Post Office and Conservative Club, moving away from the centre of town along Kings Road West to the church, going up and down Court Road by the railway yard, before rejoining Kings Road West.

Then a number of pans and views of Kings Road East, Eldon Terrace and individual houses there, many of which suffered floodwater 5-7' in height.

I'm sorry the soundtrack is so faint, it comes from an old video-tape, but please be aware of a couple of louder sections at beginning and end. Annoyingly some of the captions appear several seconds after they should in the second half of the film. There are also a couple of unwanted snippets I could not remove.

My thanks to the brave person who perched on the rear of a tractor to take this unique footage of a local disaster. It is also interesting as a visitor to Swanage to note a number of changes now, and to re-visit how relatives suffered in this flood.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• 1990
• Swanage
• Purbeck
• flood
• disaster
• railway
• water

[mrdbk]

was there flood in 88-89 as well

[nancysloper]

@mrdbk Hi, I'don't know about 1988-89, try using Google to find it out.

[mrdbk]

there was only the flood in 1990 i rember the flood watching the water first filling the playing fields then going over the railway line we had to move as much stock on the railway so that water would not get in to the axleboxes the station looked like a canal

i have a photo from the bournemoth echo showing me and 2 others playing about in a rowing boat what a day seeing the vid realy brings it back

[nancysloper]

@briandorey  Thanks for that! I'm amazed that within 24 hours nearly 100 views on it! I visit Swanage every year, and the lady in the cottage featured in the footage either end was someone our family used to visit, we well remember hearing the news of what had happened.