An August deluge!

As I write this, our summer weather continues to be cool and wet and we can only hope that August will bring a warm, sunny month. However, for the residents of Forncett, the August of 1912 brought some of the worst flooding ever seen in Norfolk.

The week prior to the weekend of August 24th – 25th had already been wet, but on Monday 26th at 3.30 am it started to rain again and over 7 inches of rain fell in less than 12 hours. This represents 3 months' of normal rainfall for the region in one day! Across the county it was estimated that a staggering 150,000,000,000 gallons of water, or the equivalent of roughly twice the contents of Lake Windermere, fell in a continuous downpour. 

The impact across Norfolk was dramatic. The river Wensum rose 16.5 ft above its mean high level and Norwich was completely cut off by road, rail, telephone and telegraph. By Tuesday evening the city lost all light, power and water supplies! Four people lost their lives and some 15,000 had their homes severely damaged or completely destroyed. More details of the floods in Norwich can be found on the Broadlands Memories blog.

Like the Wensum, the rivers Tas and Tiffey were also totally overwhelmed. So, we can imagine that those Forncett residents living along the Tas valley would have fared particularly badly. In Low Road the cottage that is now called Riverside Farm was undermined by the flooded river and only saved by the prompt action of the local blacksmith, Billy Mickleburgh (for the full story see www.forncetthistory.net/riverside-farm/ ).

Far more dramatic was the impact of the deluge on the railway line. The central piers of the Tharston Mill viaduct, which carries the main London to Norwich line over the Tas, were scoured by the intense flow causing the whole bridge to collapse into the river.  

The remarkable photographer, Tom Nokes, who recorded much of South Norfolk life between around 1900 and 1925, was on hand to record the devastation, as shown in the photographs below. Work to rebuild the bridge started the following day and continued from 6 am to 7pm seven days a week. In the meantime, the Forncett to Wymondham branch line (known locally as the Swedes and Swimmers) proved invaluable because it allowed trains from London still to reach Norwich by diverting through Wymondham. 

A gang of Great Eastern Railways builders from Stratford was on the scene the next day together with a steam crane to rebuild the viaduct. New brick piers were built, and prefabricated timber trusses were used to support the permanent way.

Remarkably, on the 2nd October, just five weeks after the flood, the viaduct was reopened! Today concrete decking has replaced the timber trusses but the brick piers are still those built in September 1912.

Further information about the bridge disaster can be found on Jill Wright's excellent Flordon History website see the Transport page.