On This Night ... The 1953 Floods

[chenrezig]

The 1953 Floods.

Sixty years ago, the North Sea battered the east coast of England, surging over coastal defences two miles inland. It was caused by a high spring tide, low pressure and exceptionally strong northerly gales. The surge cost 307 lives in English coastal towns and villages. Many more died on the continent and at sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1953

Archive film of the floods in Essex
http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/228

Audio of the flood in Gt Yarmouth with pictures of damage in Cromer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk8E-PGskz0

Felixstowe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogi7i_Vogck

Canvey Island
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idQB6_8MvTo

DVD clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr8a4UTo4bM

…and if we had it bad in the UK, the poor Netherlands was hit even harder …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUEfU0P92Ws

Pics From Norfolk Library Service … via their “picture Norfolk” website..

Snettisham

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2


Heacham

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

Hunstanton

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

New Hunstanton

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2


Wells-Next-The Sea

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2


http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

Blakeney

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2


Cromer

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

Walcott

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

Sea Palling Flood damage

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalo ... playType=2

[wendy]

ca99

Do you have any memories of this terrible time.
I remember we drove to Ingoldmills near Skegness, and saw such terrible things.  Terrible and a dead parrot. awful time.
We only was allowed into the area because my step father said he was visiting a relative, but when we got through the police barricades, he told us she had been dead for about ten years.

they were wooden chalets that people lived in. it was awful to see.

[maureenho]

I was to young to remember the floods, but we had relatives who lived along the North Norfolk coast at the time.

ca99

[chenrezig]

Bumping this up ... We have had so many post today, and I posted this so early this am it slipped down ...

[chenrezig]

I was too young too, but my Great-Aunt at Wisbech had many friends in the area, how i wish I had asked her about it when she was alive...

[maureenho]

go90

Only A toilet remained in The New Hunstanton pic.

[Misspears]

than999

[Misspears]

I don't remember them
   
          ca99

[daisy]

Anyone here who remembers the storm still refers to it as "the January Gale"  - combined with the exceptionally high tides in the North Sea, the damage was horrendous. 

[annie]

I don't remember them, I was only 6

[Myrna]

Local radio norfolk have been interviewing people all week on their tea time show,
it has been heartbreaking to listen to and should always be remembered.

ca99

[wendy]

than999 for this information

[chenrezig]

I have been listening to Radio Norfolk as well ... I wonder if they will bring a CD out like they did with "Treasure Hunt" ?

I have been thinking back a bit and I have been to a lot of the places they mention Kings Lynn, Heacham, Hunstanton, Wells, Cromer, Sea Palling, Great Yarmouth... I thought at the time I was at these places how lovely they are, but listening to the people who were in these places in the 1953 floods ... Just how remote some of these places are and how hard it would be to get help to them even these days... How much tougher people were in those days than they are now, and how much we take for granted in the 21st century.