SLHS Floods In Stratford

1588 Was Not A Good Year

Back in the days before Hugh Clopton gifted the town its marvelous first stone bridge across the Avon floods were killers. In his book The Borough Town Of Stratford-upon-Avon (p22) Levi Fox recounts..

1. “On 18th July 1588 .. a sudden rise in the river ‘higher ever yt was knowne by a yeard and a halfe and something more’ carried away all the hay in the Avon valley, breaking both ends of Stratford’s bridge and leaving a trail of devastation all along the river course, from Warwick where houses were broken down, to Welford and Bidford with consequent loss of life and goods.
   

2. According to a contemporary account the water rose a yard every hour from eight until four o’clock in the day and it depicts in graphic detail the plight of three men going over Clopton Bridge ‘when they cam to the middle of the bridge they could not goe forwardes and then returned presently but they could not goe backe for the watter was so risen’.

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Flood January 2024

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The nothing surrounding The Swan Theatre   1901

Waterside again   1904

Controlled But Still A Problem

William James had bought the whole upper Avon River and had repaired locks and weirs along it. However is it any wonder that even he went bankrupt in trying to maintain what he’d invested in given the nature of the snake that he was trying to tame ?

It seems that other years had their particularly bad moments too..

And yet again in 1932 but not even in winter !

The mess left by floods was outside and in the houses which had ill-fitting doors    1867

SLHS Picture & Document Archives

1. Picture Vault:
   

1. Flood 2024 - video
   

2. Flood 2024 - stills

The river was no respecter of important social premises either   1867

Renowned flood levels on Waterside