August 1952 The Lynmouth disaster
This was one of the worst flooding disasters to hit the UK in the 20th
Century. On the 14th and 15th August, a low pressure was in the Channel and
this brought heavy thunderstorms to the SW peninsula. 225mm of rain was
recorded on Exmoor and water poured off the moor down the northern
escarpment into streams and rivers. The rivers West and East Lyn brought the
brunt from this and a flood surge developed in the deep valleys carrying
with it boulders. The surge poured through Lynmouth washing away 130 cars
into the sea, destroying over 100 buildings, shops, houses and hotels and 29
bridges were severely damaged.
The human toll was horrific, 34 lives were lost and 420 were homeless.
3 scouts drowned when their camp was hit by the flood and a postman died
when he was doing his round. Harold MacMillian, the housing minister,
visiting Lynmouth after the disaster said it looked like "the road to
Ypres."


Source: TWO.

My Comment:

Thank goodness Boscastle was not like this.
However, these flooding events in the West Country are a bit more common
than many people think.





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Thank goodness Boscastle was not like this.
However, these flooding events in the West Country are a bit more common
than many people think.


Actually, I think most weatherwise people have known this for a long
time.
In Lynmouth in 1952 there was time to get out but people living there
had seen torrential rain and the rivers in spate before and thought this was
nothing more than a rather big one. But the flood kept on rising and it got
too late. The 130 cars washed out to sea sounds like *every* car, this being
1952, remember. The entire town was evacuated for months while it was
rebuilt.
I distinctly remember, as a 9-yr-old, a headline in the News Chronicle
"Did Lake Burst Cause It?". This referred to to the collapse of a dam holding
back a small pond on the West Lyn. The "lake" is not visible on a 1" OS Map,
6th Edition, 1946. My parents' reaction was that this was obviously the cause
and it was a silly question. But they, and the paper were wrong. The dam
collapse may have added a small blip to the colossal flow for a minute or two
but no more than that.
Lynmouth was also wiped out (not too strong a term) in 1604 and 1770
(some say 1769), the latter occasion probably being worse than the 1952 flood.

Tudor Hughes, flood-proof Warlingham, Surrey.

"TudorHgh" wrote in message
...
Thank goodness Boscastle was not like this.
However, these flooding events in the West Country are a bit more common
than many people think.


Actually, I think most weatherwise people have known this for a
long
time.
In Lynmouth in 1952 there was time to get out but people living
there
had seen torrential rain and the rivers in spate before and thought this
was
nothing more than a rather big one. But the flood kept on rising and it
got
too late. The 130 cars washed out to sea sounds like *every* car, this
being
1952, remember. The entire town was evacuated for months while it was
rebuilt.
I distinctly remember, as a 9-yr-old, a headline in the News
Chronicle
"Did Lake Burst Cause It?". This referred to to the collapse of a dam
holding
back a small pond on the West Lyn. The "lake" is not visible on a 1" OS
Map,
6th Edition, 1946. My parents' reaction was that this was obviously the
cause
and it was a silly question. But they, and the paper were wrong. The dam
collapse may have added a small blip to the colossal flow for a minute or
two
but no more than that.
Lynmouth was also wiped out (not too strong a term) in 1604 and 1770
(some say 1769), the latter occasion probably being worse than the 1952
flood.

Tudor Hughes, flood-proof Warlingham, Surrey.



What an excellent reply.
You make a great point here and I nearly went into more detail myself on
this one.
" The 130 cars washed out to sea sounds like *every* car, this being
1952, remember".

Car ownership in 1952 was less than a quarter of what it is today. I
shudder to think what would have happened if this was repeated today.

Yn erthygl , sgrifennodd
Gavin Staples :
Car ownership in 1952 was less than a quarter of what it is today. I
shudder to think what would have happened if this was repeated today.

Is there any reason why it might not? Has anything been put in place there
to prevent a recurrence, or at least do they have a decent early warning
system?

Adrian
--
Adrian Shaw ais@
Adran Cyfrifiadureg, Prifysgol Cymru, aber.
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Cymru ac.
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ais uk

I
shudder to think what would have happened if this was repeated today.

Is there any reason why it might not? Has anything been put in place there
to prevent a recurrence, or at least do they have a decent early warning
system?


In 1952 the West Lyn was culverted to the west of its original course
under a part of the town but the river just laughed at that and went back to
its original course. The way the town and river courses were reconstructed
make it a lot less vulnerable to this kind of flooding, but there will
certainly be another one and I doubt if the town will be unscathed.
They had "early warning" in 1952 from simple observation but chose to
ignore it. 9 times out of 10 they would have been right, but not this time.
It would be very difficult for any warning system to distinguish between a
destructive flood and merely swollen rivers and people would ignore it partly
because the decision to abandon one's home must be psychologically very
difficult if one is dubious about the real threat. Also, these events develop
very quickly.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.