Early in 1947 England was hit by serious flooding, but by September there was a different problem: drought.
The video above comes from this part of the world, and there's more detail in this cutting from the Leicester Mercury (28 October 1947):
Harborough Villages Short of Water
A water shortage in several villages near Market Harborough has reached serious proportions and arrangements never been more extensive in the 12 years Mr R. W. Turner has been surveyor to the Harborough Rural District Council.
The shortage is particularly acute at Husbands Bosworth but wells have also dried up at Saddington, East Langton, Shangton, Stonton-Wyville and Slawston.
To all these villages the Rural District Council is sending emergency supplies on alternate days, when a lorry with a 500-gallon tank is met by villagers with buckets baths and other receptacles.
I remember following a village heritage trail around Husbands Bosworth and being surprised at how late mains water came to the village.
And Stonton Wyville gets another mention on Liberal England, but it's odd to see the name hyphenated like that.
During the 1976 drought elderly farm labourers in S Rutland who knew that I was working at that time for the Welland & Nene River Authority, were telling me that "we hadn't seen anything yet."
ReplyDeleteThey recalled daily cattle drives from places like Uppingham & Stoke Dry down to the Welland at Thorpe by Water. The cattle were becoming unruly a mile or more away from the river, & stampeding down to the puddles of remaining water.
Grass was so short that the labourers were set to work to cut branches off Ash trees, so that the leaves could be fed in lieu of hay, as there was so little grass.
Many thanks for that, Nick.
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