Sawston Village History Society
Home Page
Home /
This is an account of the 1953 East Coast Floods from my perspective – I was 5 years old, living in the coastal village of Saltfleet, in Lincolnshire, on that fateful night.
The North Sea flood of 1953 was the worst flood of the 20th century in England and Scotland. Over 1,600 km (990 miles) of coastline was damaged. Sea walls were breached in 1,200 places, inundating 160,000 acres (250 square miles). Flooding forced over 30,000 people from their homes, and 24,000 properties were damaged.
It was a major flood caused by a heavy storm surge that struck England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium. The storm and flooding occurred during the night of Saturday, 31 January to the morning of 1 February, 1953. A combination of a high spring tide and a severe windstorm caused a storm tide of the North Sea. The combination of wind, high tide, and low pressure caused the sea to flood land up to 5.6 metres (18 ft 4 in) above mean sea level. The surge raced down the east coast into the mid-to-southern North Sea, where it was amplified by shallower waters.
In England, 307 people were killed in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. Nineteen were killed in Eastern Scotland. More than 230 deaths occurred on ships along Northern European coast and on ships in deeper waters around the UK. The Stranraer-Larne car ferry MV Princess Victoria sank east of Larne with 134 fatalities. Many fishing trawlers sank.
Nine small vessels foundered in the seas around the British Isles with the loss of all hands.
Sea defences in the UK were of inadequate design for flooding and tidal surges in 1953. What little there was had been designed in WWII and was designed to keep invading armies out, not invading seas. The natural sea barriers such as sand dunes had also seen much erosion and had numerous gaps where people had walked over and worn away the natural height. In Saltfleet, the US Forces had made gaps in the sea bank to accommodate access to their bombing range.Tragically, these would later prove to be natural inlets and gateways for the sea surge to flow inland.
On the evening of 31st January, 1953, I was visiting my “Aunt” in the Coastguard Cottages in the south of Saltfleet. At 5pm, she was alerted to the nearby River Haven overflowing its banks. My father came to collect me. As we turned into Marsh Lane, where my father had a poultry farm, halfway along we were met with a wall of water which brought the car to a sudden halt. Unable to go any further, my father hoisted me onto his shoulders and walked into the adjacent sandhills to walk home. Unfortunately, my bobble hat got caught on hawthorn thorns and I made such a hullabaloo that my father had to go back and retrieve it. I remember it was raining and very windy. Once opposite our farmhouse, my father passed me through a ground floor window to safety. We then went upstairs to keep dry and we lived there for several weeks until the house was dried out by huge US Army driers and the damages repaired.
The flood was about 3 feet deep and the water had come inland from two breaches in the sea defences, made by US troops to get access to the offshore bombing range. Four elderly people died in our village and there is a memorial to them. Many locals and members of the UK and US forces and civilian groups helped to rescue people on that night and some nationally were awarded the George Cross. The next morning, the sea was still 50 feet from the Main Road in Saltfleet.
You can tell along the East Coast just how high buildings were flooded – go to the north wall and you will see that up to the level of the flood, no algae of lichens grow because of salt impregnation.
Lots of livestock were drowned in the flood. The chickens in the fields and those in the lower levels of cages were killed. I well remember the fish lying in the fields for weeks, many caught and suspended in the hedgerows on hawthorn thorns.
After the floods, the UK and The Netherlands carried out large studies on strengthening of coastal defences. The UK constructed storm surge barriers on the Thames Estuary and on the Hull where it meets the Humber Estuary. The Netherlands developed the Delta Works, an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers.
But is Saltfleet safe now? The sea defences have been reinstated, there is remote monitoring of tide levels, there is an alarm system in place, millions of pounds have been spent building pumping stations on the river Haven. But with global warming ... ?
Dr Tim Wreghitt