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| Tipton St John Memories |
"10 July 1968 saw one of the worst natural disasters East Devon has ever experienced", starts a press release last month from the Environment Agency:
A summer storm flooded homes and businesses across the south west, thousands were driven from their homes and tragically a number of lives were lost.
The impacts of the flood were immense; bridges collapsed causing roads to close. Sidmouth, Colyton, Honiton, Newton Poppleford, East Budleigh and Ottery St Mary all had significant flood damage whilst The Otterhead reservoir was completely washed away.
We've referred to this event before in Straitgate Farm, the subject of a 1968 Public Inquiry:
It was the time of Harold Wilson and The Beatles, the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Vietnam war. On 10 July five inches of rain fell and Ottery St Mary flooded, as did other parts of East Devon. Several people drowned. By coincidence a Public Inquiry was sitting on the same day at County Hall deciding the fate of Straitgate Farm.
Tipton St John, downstream of Ottery St Mary, was also badly affected, and lost its bridge:
The little humpback bridge at Tipton crumbled instantly when the full force of water hit it. During his visit to Tipton the following Monday, the Duke of Edinburgh chatted to villagers in the Golden Lion Public House, including Mrs D. M. Alderdice and her daughter Margaret, who had the honour of serving the Duke with a half pint of bitter. Miss Alderdice later said that the beer glass would be inscribed to commemorate the Duke’s visit.
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| Tipton St John Memories |
A Bailey Bridge was subsequently put up by the Army to keep the road open.
Some years later, also in the month of July, Ottery St Mary flooded again. We posted:
Ottery St Mary has a history of flooding: in recent years, August 1997, September 1997, September 1998, October 2005, November 2005, October 2008, and now 7 July 2012.
Aggregate Industries need to be aware just how much it can rain here, and how much water they would have to manage if they quarried Straitgate Farm.
