Background

Over the weekend of the 20th and 21st of October 2001, the southern half of East Anglia was drenched by over a month's worth of rain in a few hours. Over the next few days much of this water made its way into the River Cam, and started flooding areas in the centre of Cambridge. On the Tuesday it was reported that the road between Horningsea and Waterbeach was closed due to flooding near the station in Waterbeach, a stretch of the road that had come near to being flooded in February that year.

Until a few months earlier I had lived in Waterbeach, so I left work early that day to go for a bike ride up through Horningsea to have a look at the floods. These pictures outline what I found.

The pictures were taken with my Olympus C-3040Zoom camera on super-high quality (SHQ) setting, and beacuse it was getting dark some of these photos have been gamma-corrected.

This was the scene that greeted me just on the Waterbeach side of Clayhithe bridge, beside the Bridge Inn. I then cycled through the flood waters (which came above the axles on the bike) to the other side of the floods to get some photos of it from that direction.

PA230039 Looking north along the flooded road from near Clayhithe.		PA230040 Looking across the fields from near Clayhithe - note the footpath sign sticking out of the water.

PA230041 Looking across the flooded fields towards the station from Clayhithe.		PA230042 Looking south along the flooded road towards Clayhithe.

PA230043 Looking along the road towards Waterbeach.		PA230044 Looking south along the flooded road with the field to the right.

PA230045 The flooded station car park in Waterbeach.

Once I had crossed over the railway and went into Waterbeach, I found that the first road to the left, Whitmore Way, was flooded. There was a TV crew from BBC Look East present, filming the occupants of the houses who were standing around chatting.

PA230046 Whitmore Way in Waterbeach, flooded.		PA230051 The flooding at Whitmore Way in Waterbeach.

I then rode up to the end of Bannold Road to have a look at the situation at Bottisham Lock.

PA230047 Looking south along the river from Bottisham Lock.		PA230048 Looking north along the river from Bottisham Lock.

PA230049 Looking south to the sluice gate at Bottisham Lock.		PA230050 Looking north along the flood bank at Bottisham Lock.

I then returned to Clayhithe, having to cycle through the floods once again.

PA230052 The view north from Clayhithe Bridge.		PA230053 Looking south from Clayhithe Bridge.

PA230054 A boat and the flooded towpath to the south of Clayhithe bridge. Note the water flowing into the water from the field.		PA230055 Looking across into the flooded fields to the south of Clayhithe bridge, with a red sunset above the railway.

PA230056 Looking down the track that leads towards Waterbeach station from the towpath at Clayhithe.

From Clayhithe I cycled back towards Cambridge, stopping off at The Plough in Fen Ditton to have a look at the situation there. I guess no-one will be wanting to eat outside for a few days yet.

PA230057 The flooded field at The Plough in Fen Ditton.		PA230058 Looking south along the river at The Plough in Fen Ditton

PA230059 Looking north along the river at The Plough in Fen Ditton

Links

For more photos of the floods in the Cambridge area, see Paul Oldham's website.

All text and images on this webpage are © David Cotton 2001. For more information, please email David Cotton.