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Flood of '53
Terry Phillips emailed a few days ago and kindly enclosed a
set of photographic gems from the past. They were taken by his
father Gordon Phillips and show scenes of the 1953 flood. Many
readers will recall that Gordon ran the well known chemists in
Tankerton road during the 1950s and 1960s.
The pictures will be added to our flood section but first we
need to discuss them and see just how much extra information we
can generate.
Tower Parade
Terry's first shot takes us to the extreme eastern edge of
the flooding. It was snapped at the junction of Tower Parade and
Beach Walk....
The foreground features the lawn in front of the raised Tower
Parade pathway. On the left is Jimmy's amusement arcade
(complete with penny slot weighing machine). To the right is the
somewhat larger Jacques arcade. Between the two buildings, we
can see an open expanse of sea water covering a cinder expanse
that once served as the home circuit for the Whitstable
Wasps Dirt Track cycle team. The background shows a collection of
decimated beach huts.
The boat is a substantial craft with boom and propeller. Can
anyone tell us its name and type. Can we discover where it came
from?
All this starts to tie in with our existing articles. Some
time ago, Graham Ruck and family kindly forwarded a flood
account penned by his father Bert Ruck who was a special
constable. Bert mentions his journey along that stretch of
roadway and mentions that he was forced to cycle along the
raised path in order to reach the police station in Bexley
Street. A boat was blocking the road. (Click here to see Bert's
story)
Cromwell Road
Now we can move along the road to Harbour Street and look
south down Cromwell Road.....
The open 'backwater' (now the covered Gorrell Tank with car
park above) is
located to the left pf the metal fence and Westgate Terrace
features behind it. Yeatman's corner shop is just out of shot on the
right.
Once again we have a link to our existing flood articles. A
short distance along Cromwell Road is the junction with Fountain
Street. That was where Margarett Emery's mum was cooking dinner
in wellies. (Click here to view Margarett's account).
Perhaps some of our readers can fill in more information
about the scene. For example, do we have any information on that
boat... or the lady on the right?
Westgate Terrace
Terry's third photo shows another angle on that Cromwell Road
them. It looks as if it was taken from the raised bank of the
Whitstable and Canterbury Railway Line - looking west along
Westgate Terrace.....
The metal fence on the right marks the boundary of the
harbour waste lands that surrounded the old railway station. I
am not sure what instruction that little signpost contains....
but if it was 'No Parking', I think the owner of that car might
have little reason to complain!
High Street..
Although slightly raised above the general level of land in
central Whitstable, the High Street did suffer flooding -
particularly at its northern end....
The sight of shoppers wading through the water in boots
nicely illustrates a point made by Phil Page in our existing
flood pages....
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"On the Monday following the
flood, many local shops in the High Street opened for
business as usual albeit limited and sometimes
from an upstairs room whilst the ground
floor was being drained and repaired."
- Phil Page, Ramsgate
(23/4/05)
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I believe the bank pictured on the right may have been the
Westminster in which case the photo appears to have been taken
after the water had subsided a little. The following account
from Michael Dyde is taken from our collection of flood
anecdotes and it adds a touch of humour to the desperate scenes
in Terry's photo.....
| "I was the junior at the then Westminster Bank. As I had keys to the branch, I thought I would put
the ledgers and books on high shelves. On opening the
bank door, the water flooded in carrying several
oyster barrels and debris that had floated down the
high street.
Several days later the staff were all peeling apart
valuable papers, stocks, bonds etc.... then trying to
dry them with electric fires. The Bank was flooded to
a depth of approximately three feet and the mud and
debris (due to my diligence) was horrific."
- Michael Dyde,
Mollina, Malaga, Spain (21/10/04)
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We can also use an extract from Terry's photo to
illustrate the story of Anita Dailey....
| "I was 5 years old in 1953 and have some
memories of the flooding. We lived above Greensteds
(the Fishmongers) at 47 High St. My bedroom was at the
back of house but I woke up in the night because I
could hear crashing and banging.
I went into mum and
dad's bedroom (which overlooked the High St) and told
them I couldn't sleep because of the noise and was
promptly told to go back to bed! However, a few
minutes later I was still very much awake and returned
to their room and this time, my dad got out of bed to
look out of the window. My dad never swore as a rule,
but he did when he saw objects floating up the High
Street. The beer barrels from the public houses on
the sea front were crashing into one another as they
floated by and it was, this that had woken me up.
Dad flew down the stairs to unplug the power to the
enormous fridges he had in the shop. He then waded out
into the garden and collected dry coal from the bunker
which, fortunately for us had been replenished the
previous day.
Looking back on it we were very lucky because we still
had fire places in the bedrooms and we able to keep
warm and cook simple things on the open fires.
Dad brought upstairs things that we could use that
weren't already soaked. Bless him he tried to bring my
toy box upstairs but as he picked it up the bottom
fell out and everything floated away. My brother and I
were able to sit in the window above the shop and
watch everything happening including, Mr Butcher the
milkman from Bartlett and Bissons delivering milk from
a rowing boat.
To me the biggest "adventure" was
watching the Manager of Vyes, the Grocers opposite,
come by boat to see what damage there was to the shop.
He opened the double doors whilst swaying about in his
boat, only to find all manner of things poured out
through the doors including packets of soap powder and
toilet rolls etc. I must admit the whole family
couldn't stop laughing - it really was very funny!
I remember being taken up to the boating lake area
a day or two afterwards and there being the most awful
smell in the air, I later discovered this was from the
rotting dead fish. I also seem to recall being taken
to a building to choose some furniture to replace what
had been wrecked by the flood water. I believe this
might have been donated by well-wishers but this is
only a guess - maybe someone could put me right on
this."
Anita Dailey,
Harlow
Essex
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In fact, I believe Terry's High Street photo
shows the canopy (minus the canvas) of Vyes shop on the right.
Nelson Road
Of course, the most severe flooding took place in the low lying areas
west of the High Street. The picture below shows the scene in
Nelson Road as captured from the raised Island Wall roadway. The
advertising hoarding of Petts West End Dairy can be seen on the side wall of
the dairy shop.
This illustrates a story contained in our
existing collection of flood anecdotes. Those of you have read
the collection may recall this gem from Jackie Evans who lived
in Clare Road....
| "I remember my mum moaning because the milk hadn't
arrived! In fact, this was due to Pett's Dairy being under
water in Nelson Road and the only means of access was by
rowing boat
It just goes to show how long it took information to
travel in those days - with few telephones and even fewer
TVs. Anyway, that was the first that many of us living in
the higher part of town knew about the flood!
Jackie Evans (née Ferrell),
Digswell,
Hertfordshire
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I have a funny feeling that we may be able to
allocate names to the occupants of that rowing boat....BUT can
someone nail the big question..... Does that boat
contain Jackie's mum's gold top?
Island Wall...
The shot below shows the eastern end of Island
Wall where the road dips into a hollow below the raised and railed
footpath.
Clearly, it would be some time before the corner
shop opened... or that car was functional. There is also
something of more general historical interest in the background.
Take a look at this extract....
I believe the buildings to the right may be the
old mortuary at the corner of Island Wall and Waterloo Road. This
ties in with another existing item on Simply Whitstable.
In her article on Collar's Yard (click
here to view), Jean Martin mentions that the boatyard
spilled over on to this area of land at one time. It was
eventually purchased by the Whitstable Urban District Council and used
for the mortuary and, later, a depot. It is now the site of The
Saltings old people's flatlets.
Reeves Beach
Terry describes the final scene as a bit of a
mystery photo. However, he believes that it shows Reeves Beach
from the harbour's East Quay jetty....
I would certainly go along with that theory. The
giveaway is that post and chain in the foreground. This was
certainly a feature of the east quay in the 1950s.
The Photo
Locations...
I am interested in the locations that Terry's dad
chose for the photos. Quite understandably, all but one were taken
from elevated paths that would have provided 'dry areas' after the
water had stopped pouring over the sea defences. For example..
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The Nelson Road photo was taken from the
raised section of Island Wall
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The Island Wall photo was taken from the
raised walkway between the road and beach
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The Comwell Road photo was taken from the
raised section of Harbour Street adjacent to the harbour
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The Tower Parade photo was taken from the
raised pathway adjacent to the shops
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The Westgate Terrace photo is probably taken
from the raised track of the Canterbury and Whitstable railway
line. (The line had closed just a few months earlier - in
1952)
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The Reeves Beach photo is taken from the east
quay jetty
These narrow raised throughfares were a
"double edged sword. They were used by the emergency services
as arteries for aid and rescue. (NB The edges became beaches for a
multitude of small boats and the C&W rail line was re-opened
briefly to compensate for the fact that the main London-Thanet
rail link had been temprarily severed at Seasalter). They also
provided viewing platforms for both the media and curious locals.
However, after the flood had settled, the raised
paths and roads actually surrounded the water on all sides and
created a basin effect that prevented the water from draining back
to the sea.
Our Thanks...
I would like to thank Terry for taking the time to
scan these historic photos and allowing us to use them on the web
site. I think they are going to generate a fair bit of comment.
If you want to play the game of relating the shots
to our existing flood stories, you can view our full Flood of '53
section by clicking
here.
Reaction on Flood Photos....
Comments on the flood article are given
below....
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Comment
on Tower Parade Photo
Dave,
The Tower Parade picture is interesting. I believe the
boat in the picture to be one of the two 'pleasure boats'
owned by the Waters Brothers.
They had the 'oar boxes' on the beach in front of The
Continental Hotel. As well as the two open motor boats
that gave trips to the Oyster Beds, they also had rowing
boats for hire. The boat in the picture could be the Monarch
or the larger Moss Rose 2nd. The Moss Rose
had undergone extensive repairs at the end of the war as
she was severely damaged when attending the evacuaton of
Dunkirk.
'Sorry Dave', that may not be the boom (they did not
sail)!
I think it is a ridge pole for putting the canvas cover
over whilst it was in winter storage at the top of the
beach. The small masts that those two boats had were
for carrying festive flags.
The pair of cart wheels on an axle, were a common sight at
one time, particularly along Sea Wall and the Lower
Island. They were for carrying long lengths of timber and
large spars. Some had a deep dip in the axle, these were
for transporting a medium sized boat.
Did you notice the scaffolding, Dave?
John Harman
Sidney
British Columbia
Canada |
| Our
Reply: Thanks, John. As you know, I get a bit
lost when it comes to boats and your message has just got
me out of a hole! It has also caused me to consult page 52
of Cliff Court's book 'Around Whitstable in Old
Photographs'.
Cliff features photos of a Moss Rose in
1922.... and the Monarch and Moss Rose II in
1955. Looking at the markings and build, it certainly
looks as if Terry's photo shows the Moss Rose II.
I wonder if we can piece together how it arrived on
Tower Parade. It may have been deposited there by the sea.
However, it is very neatly 'parked' and there doesn't seem
to be any obvious evidence of damage. If the sea pushed it
over the sea wall, I am not sure that it would have
survived in such condition.
So, was it moved there under control? I doubt that
it was used for rescues as the Tower Parade area had some
of the shallowest flooding and there was very little that
needed rescuing in that locality.
I remember the pleasure boats carrying passengers from the
shingle at Beach Walk in the mid 1950s. They were served
by a large boarding ramp. This was a sloping structure on
wheels. By then, the only evidence of the
swingboats was a few wooden stumps. I understand that the
flood actually caused their demise.
I noticed the scaffolding at the rear of Jacques
Arcade but I am not sure what it was all about.
I had wondered about those wheels. Until your
message arrived, I was beginning to wonder if it was the
delayed 7.20 from Canterbury after a bit of vandalism!
Another point for discussion concerns that substantial
building at the rear of Jimmy's Arcade. I certainly
remember it as a kid.... but what function did it serve?
The photo extract below shows both the wheels and
the building...
The sign on the front wall of the building appears to
contain the letters....
...NCE
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| I can remember my mum telling us that she
lived in Westgate Terrace and she was 3 years old. They
were all evacuated and her grandfather, Mr John Charles
Shingleston helped a lot of people by rescuing them from
there homes in a boat.
All she remembers is that the flood water rose halfway
up the stairs and that her doll that she got for her
birthday went floating out the door.
Elizabeth Ann Hook
Native of Whitstable but living in Canterbury
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| Our
Reply: Thanks, Elizabeth. We had some friends
living in Reservoir Road. They told us that the man from
the insurance company turned up in wellies to assess the
damage.
PS I'll keep an eye out for your mum's doll.
;-) |
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