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Description: | Floods swept through Portchester at various times up to the mid 1930's. Possibly the worst of all were the floods of Christmas 1912. All the land from the castle to the main road (A27) was swamped and the village almost came to a halt. The highest tides in the Solent area for about a quarter of a century brought havoc to Portsmouth and Fareham as well.
The floods of 1916 lasted three days and the high tides broke the sea banks at the Vicarage and brought the water up Castle Street. The postal deliveries were made by punt and at one point, by the parish hall, the water was waist deep and the mail was posted through windows on a pike. During WW1 the post was delivered by postwomen May Ross and Marjorie Wilson. As well as the mail, bread and milk came by boat. All the wells were polluted with the water coming from the fields but the mains water was still fresh and usable.
In the mid 1930's floods were still frequent in Portchester. When there was a storm or it rained heavily, surface water came running down Portsdown Hill and Station Road and into West Street. The garage advertising Power Petrol was run by Alfred Hayter, who started off by repairing cycles in the front room of his home in West Street. The Hayters ran many businesses in Portchester. William Hayter, from the 1880's built farm wagons, lorries, bread vans and wheelbarrows in West Street. Hayters also used to push a handcart with rubber wheels carrying the coffin down to the deceased's home, where the body would be lying in the parlour. Then the hearse, pulled by horses, would come from Fareham to carry out the funeral. Today the floods have vanished and the area replaced by a shopping precinct.
References:
1. Montgomery, Alan. 1984. My Goodness! My Portchester!, p.21-23, 51 and 54.
Copy photograph of a photograph. | Format: | image/jpeg | License: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=gateway&f=generic_sitetext%2ehtm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&cms_con_core_subtype%3acms_con_text_what=copyright&%3acms_sys_group=%22sopse%22 | Rights holder: | Hampshire Library and Information Service - Hampshire County Council | Subjects: | car Matter and Son petrol station street Station Road road storm business bicycle West Street transport tide A27 weather Marjorie Wilson work hill Castle Street Portsdown Hill May Ross Power Alfred Hayter post office flood William Hayter | Temporal: | start=1934-01-01; end=1938-12-31; | Source: | Sense of place SE | Creator: | Copied by: Dine, Derek; Hampshire County Library; | Identifier: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | image/jpeg | Go to resource |
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