Due to the ongoing substantial winter rains there is significant flooding in York, due to the height of the River Ouse.
This is not especially unusual at this time of year (indeed far worse floods happen periodically), but will make for a rather different view of York than summer visitors get.
It has been happening for centuries.
A year ago we were in the middle of a nearly month long period of settled, cold, crisp winter weather across the country.
Was there on the 8th, so I missed it. There was only light rain for parts of the day.
I wasn't sure if I would start a new thread or jump on this one, so here I am
It isn't only York.
A bit further south, on the Thames in London, the river was so high yesterday (tidal river so both tide plus strong flow) that it had a river tour boat loaded with Hammers football fans travelling to a match at Fulham by boat crashing into the already perilous Hammersmith Bridge..
Didn't run into a buttress but got scalped by the bridge.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-67680559
This country has a lot of excess water around. My water gauge here in the East completely overflowed this weekend thanks to the pair of named storms we had over the weekend...
Yikes! To both the Ouse and the Thames! Thanks for the updates Stuart and Nigel!
I live in North Lincolnshire close to the Isle of Axholme, which is a low lying area to the west of the River Trent, drained by the Dutch in the C17th.
Driving along the M180 last weekend, there was a lot of standing water and fields were flooded - probably much like it would have been before the Dutch came?
"which is a low lying area to the west of the River Trent, drained by the Dutch in the C17th."
I had no idea. I am guessing they were brought in as contractors since they had drainage expertise? Not just a random pull up to a harbor and get out your shovels kind of operation, hahaha! BTW, in my head I am in the East Lancashire Moors right now...reading a Trisha Ashley book set there over a Christmas.
-->Sorry for the off topic comments! Sometimes I learn so much odd trivia on this forum hahaha!
Pam,
This is more about Cornelius Vermuyden, who spearheaded the Dutch work to drain much of East Anglia and Lincolnshire- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vermuyden
Many of the drains remain as navigable waterways to this day. You will see parts of his earlier CV in the Wikipedia article.
This is a part of the country not frequented much by overseas visitors indeed (apart from the Norfolk and Suffolk broads) by domestic tourists either.
But, for instance, on the Cambridgeshire River Ouse (a different river to the York one) you have the Welney Wetland Centre (a birders paradise)
The Dutch also came in to help with the Fens in Cambridgeshire, where my great-grand and earlier ancestors lived.
Thank you, Stuart, for that link.
In 2018, my husband and I spent a lot of time visiting my ancestral villages around Whittlesey, the town of my great-grandmother and her family.
On our trip this past September, we went to Whittlesey so I could share at least one ancestral village with our daughter. We visited the nearby Flag Fen Archaeology Park, which is close to Peterborough, as well. We hope to go back to that area at some point to visit more archaelogical sites as well as some of the nature reserves. We would not have known about this interesting area had the area not held genealogical importance. It is always nice to be off the beaten track.
Here's a link to some information about the Fens:
https://www.fensforthefuture.org.uk/the-fens/heritage
Wow, so interesting!
And without going too far afield...one of the things I enjoy about Mark Seymour's tours is that he does go to some places that are not on the main tourist trail. He's got a tour set for 2025 in East Anglia so we will doubtless see some of the results. I knew there was a drainage system in East Anglia but really did not understand how it was done. In reading the Wikipedia article it sounds like he wanted to change the course of every river, lol.
More flooding in York today from Storm Gerritt earlier this week which has caused significant disruption to rail and ferry traffic.
The Foss flood barrier has been raised to protect other areas of York.
In this storm three people died in North Yorkshire when their car was swept away in a swollen river, and there was a tornado at Stalybridge, Manchester.
On the A9 in Scotland many people were trapped for hours in a sudden intense blizzard.
At one stage in Gerritt all three rail lines from Scotland to England were closed.
Another storm, with high snow potential, is expected for New Years Eve/New Years Day.
