I did wonder if I could be bothered, but everyone kept telling me about Lizzy Gardens (Queen Elizabeth Gardens to non locals) so I thought I ought to go and see, in which case I might as well take my camera. I went when I was half way into town anyway and it was true that the benches were well under water.
There were quite a few other people taking photos and naturally we got talking. I was told various things, but I don’t know how many are true…… Some of the things I was told are:
* Some of the houses in the Close are flooded – imagine paying over a million pounds for a river-view house and then having it flooded.
* Even when the houses are not flooded the drains are not functional so they have had to bring in “port-a-loos” to the Close.
* The ground water under the Cathedral is normally 4 ft down, but is now about 18 inches. It is only the water under the Cathedral that keeps it up – the spire is much too tall for the depth of the foundations but the Cathedral “floats” on a bed of reeds.
* The Bishop’s house is supposed to be one of those flooded.
* Alternatively, the Bishop was marooned in his house.
I have since heard that the Bishop’s house is certainly the centre of a lake – as viewed from the Cathedral spire! I do feel sorry for those with flooded houses though – think of all the mess, the drying out, the cleaning, sometimes re-wiring and/or re-plastering, re-painting…….. I understand it can all take months. It must be very depressing.
There are 5 rivers locally – the Avon, Bourne, Ebble, Nadder and Wylye – so the flooding after all the rain is not surprising. As they all flow into the Avon I imagine it must be bad downstream, although the sluices do control how much water is released and where – to a certain extent. Lizzy Gardens is where various bits of the Avon and the Nadder combine, so it is not that surprising that it flooded.
I guess that the gardens will need considerable work, too, once they dry out.
I also went up the Avon a bit to see how much it had flooded up stream – all within half an hour’s walking distance from my house.
I have seen this path flooded before but maybe not quite this much.
And I think this is worse than I have seen it, too. The river can just be seen on the right.
Going further up it is certainly worse…….
The river is usually the far bit and there is a field (often with horses) before the hedge and the close bit is another field. The allotments are usually quite a long way from the river…..
I hope they had not put too many crops in. It will take a while to dry out and could be good if more river silt had been added or bad if soil has been washed away.
This shows that the river flooded the other side too.
Even further up……
……..the flooding covered more fields…….
Some of the fields are mostly scrub land, but farmers will have lost quite a lot of crops.
I gather it is bad downstream, too with flooding over the main road and controlled traffic in one place. It would be really nice if it stopped raining for a while so things could dry out. I met a woman who has water coming up through the floorboards as the water table has risen so high – and there is nothing she can do about that. It seems to rain one day but not the next – but it hasn’t stopped long enough to dry the puddles, let alone the ground.
So, I am really sorry for all the people who have to cope with flood damage in one way or another. Some of the pictures have got good reflections, though – but no comfort to those who have to sort out the mess……