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Your
experiences of the 1953 floods |
Anthony
Harvey from Saltfleet
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Anthony
visited the Â鶹Éç Bus to tell us his experiences from 1953.
He took us to the memorial site in Saltfleet where there is
a plaque to remember those who perished in the floods.
Anthony was 6 years old in 1953 and lived in Pump Lane. On
the night of the floods his father went to collect his copy
of the Grimsby Evening Telegraph sports edition. He left home
around 7pm and did not return until the early hours of the
morning. While out collecting his paper, the local men were
called in to help with the flood situation. A gentleman named
Tom Tuxworth used his tractor to good effect moving people
and their property to safety. Four people lost their lives
to the floods in Saltfleet, their bodies were held in the
lifeboat house until the authorities could deal with them.
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There was no power on the night of the flood and Anthony remembers
his home being lit with candles. Anthony's father took him
out the day after the flood to see the resulting damage, the
sea was within 50 yards of the main coast road down Mill Lane.
Saltfleet was fairly fortunate compared to some areas but
still experienced a stormy, frightening night where people
lost their lives. It is no wonder with hindsight that when
wind and tides conspire that the sea came over it's normal
boundary. It was possible to see even at low tide looking
down Sea Lane from the main road. When people used to walk
over to the beach there was barely any height to the sea wall.
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Sylvia
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| In
Saltfleet we met Sylvia who has recently set up a website
for the villages around Saltfleet. On the website there is
a section about Lincolnshire storms - why not here >> |
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Roy
Malt
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 This
picture was taken in Feb 1953 at Sutton on Sea. It shows
P.C. Roy Malt and P.C Arthur Tidswell of the Lincolnshire
Constabulary. Roy told us "The upstairs of the Bachus
Hotel was where we were accommodated and we reached this
by a ladder from the street to the upstairs window. When
the tide started to come in we had to go upstairs and the
last one pulled the ladder up.
"We
lived on boilled potates and cold luncheon meat. Luckily
one of the bedrooms had a fireplace and so one of the first
jobs when the tide went out was to borrow a van and go to
the Railway Station to get some coal and this was the total
of our warmth!!!"
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Ken
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"When
the floods started in Skegness I was in the Tower cinema,
I can't remember what the film was showing. We were told
to leave and were given a ticket to come back again another
time. I was with a crowd of lads and we went to the Sun
Castle to play cards, the first we knew of the water inside
the building was when someone threw an orange over the balcony
and we heard it splash in the water. I was a photographer
with Walfred's so went home, grabbed my camera and went
out to take photographs. The water was up to the railings
in the Compass gardens near the Clock Tower and in the bowling
greens.
 "Later
I learned my school teacher was flooded out in the bungalow
estate north of Ingoldmells. He had just managed to throw
his photographic equipment into the false roof. I had a
cycle master (a bicycle with a small engine in the back
wheel to power it), I went down and he had only his bicycle,
his car was swamped in mud), he loaded his handle bars with
bags and boxes, held onto my shoulder and I pulled him out
and back to Skegness."
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Â鶹Éç Lincolnshire
Radion Buildings
PO Box 219
Newport
Lincoln
LN1 3XY
Telephone: 01522 511411
E-mail: lincolnshire@bbc.co.uk
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