In modern times these can to some extent be guarded against, as the
news of any sudden extraordinary rise in the upper basin may be
communicated to those living lower down. Formerly this could not be
done; a flood would then travel faster than a letter, and coming down
upon the villagers suddenly, perhaps in the night time, people would
find the enemy had entered their households unawares. It was no
unusual thing to see haystacks, cattle, timber, furniture, and, in
one instance, we have heard old people tell of a child in a cradle,
floating down the stream. Many of these floods are matters of
tradition; others being associated with special events have been
recorded. Shakespeare has commemorated one called “Buckingham’s
Flood,” in his Richard III., thus:—
“The news I have to tell your majesty
Is,—that, by sudden floods and fall of waters
Buckingham’s army is dispersed and scatter’d
And he himself wandered away alone,
No man knows whither.”
Proclaimed a traitor, and forsaken by his army, he concealed himself
in the woods on the banks of the Severn and was betrayed and taken in
Banister’s Coppice, near Belswardine.
The newspapers of 1785 record a sudden rise in the Severn and its
disastrous results. It appears that on the 17th of December, 1794,
the season was so mild that fruit-trees were in blossom, whilst early
in January, 1795, so much ice filled the Severn after a rapid thaw as
to do great damage. The river rose at Coalbrookdale 25¼ inches
higher than it did in November, 1770. The rise in the night was so
rapid that a number of the inhabitants were obliged to fly from their
tenements, leaving their goods at the mercy of the floods. The
publicans were great sufferers, the barrels being floated and the
bungs giving way. In the Swan and White Hart, Ironbridge, the water
was several feet deep. Two houses were washed away below the bridge,
but the bridge itself stood the pressure, although Buildwas bridge
blew up, the river having risen above the keystone in the centre of
the main arch. Crowds visited the locality to see the flood and the
ruins it had made.
On the Coalbrookdale Warehouse, and on a house by the side of the
brook, the height of these floods are to be seen recorded. At
Worcester, a little above the bridge, a brass plate has the following
inscription:—“On the 12th February, 1795, the Flood rose to the lower
edge of this plate.” The lower edge measures just three feet from
the pavement level. Another plate at the archway opposite the
Cathedral bears the following:—“On the 18th November, 1770, the Flood
rose to the lower edge of this Brass Plate, being ten inches higher
than the Flood which happened on December 23rd, 1672.” This measures
seven feet from the ground immediately underneath.
There are three other marks which have been cut out the stonework on
the wall adjacent to the archway referred to, which are as follows:—
“Feb. 8th, 1852.
Nov. 15th, 1852.
Aug. 5th, 1839.”
The one in February measures from the ground six feet two inches;
November, 1852, eight feet two inches; and the one August 5th, 1839,
six feet two inches.