Water water everywhere when the Slea flooded
This scene of the River Slea overflowing its banks off Watergate can still be recognised as the section of river alongside Riverside Precinct.
FORMER Sleaford resident Nigel Stennett-Cox contacted us with some old photos he has kept of the Sleaford floods.
On one of his recent visits back to Sleaford to see old friends, Mr Stennett-Cox, of North Walsham, Norfolk, he was kindly lent these pictures and he thought it would be good to share them with a wider audience.
He says: “They are clearly of pumping operations taking place when the Slea flooded over into Southgate, probably after the big 1946-47 freeze had turned into a thaw in the spring of the later year.
“One picture was taken looking west from the back of the then Maidens’ garage, with the river to the right, and in the background the bridge connecting West Banks and Watergate.
“In that image, for those vehicle buffs amongst us are shown a wartime Austin K2 Auxiliary Towing Vehicle facing the camera, and with the other vehicle incorporating its own pump and being either another Austin or most probably a Fordson V8 Model 7V. The former was of a type used to tow the trailer pumps as shown working in both pictures.”
He went on: “These would of course have been pumping water from the flooded areas to goodness knows where else. The pumping trailers would have been made by Coventry Climax or Beresford Stork, with the former using their own engine and the latter an Austin 8 horsepower unit.”
Mr Stennett-Cox noted that both vehicles bore London registrations and would have been first taxed in the capital as were all Auxiliary Fire Service units. They were also always painted grey and many stayed in service in the towns to which they were allocated in wartime until the sixties.
Maybe someone could even name the fireman facing the camera in the West Banks shot?
He says: “In the Southgate picture we can clearly see the showroom of W.P. “Billy” Maidens who held agencies for Rover, Jaguar and Austin in the fifties and early part of the sixties, prior to taking on FIAT when he lost the former franchises at the end of that decade. The former showroom is now a betting shop.
“On the right is a local baker, Messrs Turner, who again were still going in my time in the town in the fifties-sixties period.”
He hoped readers would enjoy the pictures, he has a few more in his possession and he thanked his friend Rodney Parker of Robertson Drive for the loan of the images of Sleaford beneath the waves.
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Weather for Sleaford
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
