Page 26 - Thrapston Life A5 March 2023

GLANCE
AT THE
PAST
Eric Franklin looks back
With the River Nene flowing through town, Thrapston has a history of floods. The first picture (top left) taken from an early carte
de visite is of the 1875 floods in the town centre looking towards Midland Road. Whilst most people are wading in the water, one enterprising man has made a pair of stilts.
soaking. This photograph of Midland Road (top centre) shows water up to the gasworks house with what is now Farm and Garden on the opposite side of the road. The High Street was flooded almost up to Chancery Lane. Lasting for two weeks, the clear-up and drying out after took many months.
Whereas more recent floods
have been well photographically
documented, 100 years ago very few
people had access to a camera, and it
was left to the local experts to produce
images. This postcard (above centre),
sent in 1915, was taken between the
river and Midland Road looking
towards town and almost certainly
taken by Frederick Knighton from
Woodford. The buildings in the middle of the picture were part of the gasworks whilst the row of houses on Midland Road are still there.
1947 saw very heavy falls of snow throughout the whole country, Thrapston receiving its fair share. Once the thaw came, the river overflowed its banks, and the town received another
So frequently did the river overflow its banks, the next aerial photograph (top right) taken in, I believe, 1950 shows extensive flooding from below the Midland Road railway viaduct and covering the floodplains between Midland Road and Islip. The expanse of water extended past the Nine Arch Bridge towards Aldwincle and Thorpe Waterville. The route of the railway
line from Bridge Street Station can be made out looping to the north of Thrapston.
In 1998 very heavy rain, when a months’ worth fell in less than a day, became too much for the drains to cope with and water backed up in town to beyond the Post Office, leaving Midland Road once again flooded. I took
History informs us that there are likely to be floods again locally
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