wrentham floods

Welcome to Wrentham

WRENTHAM FLOODS

In October 1993 Wrentham suffered devastating floods when the area had approximately 3 hours of very heavy rainfall on already saturated ground. The run was unable to cope with this as the water proved too much to get under the bridge under Chapel Road. This caused water to flow over Chapel Road and onto the junction with the A12. Fortunately an army lorry with several cadets on board stopped at the junction and assisted people to get across.

Several properties along the run both on the High Street and in the Chestnuts housing development were flooded. This was caused by the water backing up along the run.

Speaking from personal experience as a resident of 5 High Street, (then the Fish and Chip shop), the water took the door off our large walk in freezer and flooded much of the lower section of the property. Freezer space was found in helpful residents freezers as well as at our fish merchant’s in Lowestoft. My husband acted quickly to get ahead of the eventual height of the water by emptying fridges, putting our washing machine on the kitchen table and other items upstairs. Because the water took a couple of ours to rise to its eventual height we were able to minimise our losses. I remember watching the water rise through our lawn. It did this eventually passing over our garden wall. Water swept around into our yard from behind the town hall where there was no wall to protect the parking area. The lady in the town hall was rescued by our firemen.

Unfortunately the bungalows in the chestnuts were not so lucky as precious items including photographs were lost.

Sally Walker