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Quorn and District floods of 1948
Loughborough Echo - 12th November 1948
SOAR VALLEY FLOODS
Many Roads Impassable
Woodbrook and Loughborough
The continuous rain at the end of last week resulted in extensive floods in the Soar valley area near Loughborough.
The road from Mountsorrel to Sileby was cut off and traffic had to travel via Cossington. Similar conditions existed between Quorn and Barrow-upon-Soar. The Loughborough Meadows were flooded. Some roads were impassable in the Kegworth and Kingston-on Soar area and there was a lot of water out at Zouch. At Cotes the fields on either side of the road had acres of water.
A South Notts bus ran out of its course on entering the flooded Loughborough Meadows and finished up in the water on Saturday night when on its way to Nottingham. The passengers were transferred to another bus, which completed its journey via Cotes.
It rained all Tuesday evening and a violent storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning broke over Loughborough and district. The Woodbrook rose quickly on Wednesday and at one time in the evening the water was only two or three inches from the top of the bank in the Forest-road. At one point the water overflowed and swirled amongst the shrubs on the side of the brook. Later the water receded.
There is no doubt that but for the Woodbrook improvement scheme carried out some years ago, serious floods would have occurred in Loughborough. In the Loughborough district the worst part affected on Thursday (yesterday) were the Barrow-on-Soar and Sileby districts, south-east of Loughborough. ………
Thousands of acres in the Soar Valley are now under water and farmers in all parts are hurriedly moving cattle to higher ground. Water is about two feet deep in the Loughborough Meadows and on Thursday was still rising. All small traffic has been diverted from this route, but buses passing through on the way to Nottingham were carrying on up to midday on Thursday.
Water was rushing across the main Leicester-Loughborough road at Quorn, although it was nothing like the depth of 1875, when a man was washed down and drowned in the White Horse Inn yard.
Apart from a shallow covering at Dishley Mill, the Loughborough-Derby road was clear by Thursday morning. The main road from Kegworth to Nottingham was impassable and at Zouch the water was flowing over the road.
From November 14th to the 21st, 3.85 inches of rain was recorded by Mr T G Wilkinson, headmaster of the Barrow Grammar School.
FLOODS AT QUORN
The rumour, on Wednesday night, that there were two feet of water in the middle of the village may have been true at the time, but on Thursday morning the water was over the road between the Royal Oak and the White Horse and along Station Street as far as the County Library, and all over the Green.
Mr Pepper’s big meadow was covered and the mound at the east corner, said to have served as a gun stand in the Civil War, looking like Mount Ararat, contained, in place of Noah’s Ark, a hay stack surrounded by the deluge.
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Submitted on: |
2010-12-07 |
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Submitted by: |
Kathryn Paterson; |
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Artefact ID: |
1006 |
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Artefact URL: |
www.quornmuseum.com/display.php?id=1006 |
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Print: |
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