Talk about water, water everywhere! I cannot let the recent downpours go by without mentioning our adventures.
The above screenshot is from those nice people at the Chilterns Weather Alert Facebook group. We are quite close to Woburn in Bedfordshire and we have had over 130mm of rain in just 36 hours. The average for the month of September is 54mm.
On Sunday afternoon we were at a friend’s birthday party elsewhere in the village. Even though we were inside, we couldn’t help but see the torrential rain outside – it really was quite spectacular and I almost wanted to be outside in it!
By the time we got home, later in the afternoon, it was still raining but less heavy. Our neighbours (in a modern house) were on the brink of being flooded, so we helped them with bags of sand and even bags of compost to give them some defences. There was even a car outside their house with blue flashing lights but clearly the emergency response wasn’t there to help them.
Although our house is quite safe, our cellar is not.
There have been numerous times before when, after a period of heavy rain, water will force its way through little gaps in the brickwork on the walls. Sometimes water will even force its way up between the tiny cracks on the brick floor – the pressure of water must be immense. Our house, aka the Quirky Museum, is built on clay with the oldest part dating from mid 17th century and the youngest part (with the cellar) is Victorian.
It has stood the test of time very well with the forgiving lime mortar allowing for natural movement in the land as we go from one season to another, seasons of downpours through the drought. With the cellar, those clever Victorians built a little gully around the floor by the outside walls to collect any water and this is then channeled to a soak-away which in turn allows water to trickle into the well, which is also in the cellar and has a drop of about 15 feet. If we didn’t have the well, there would be nowhere for the water to drain and we would be living on top of a lake!
However, while we have survived very well, I think the building has been seriously tested with the surrounding land suddenly coping with so much water. The garden outside was sodden and couldn’t absorb anymore water at one stage. It makes us think, with climate change taking place, whether our house needs some strengthening in some way, to cope with more extreme weather. I don’t know but I’d appreciate talking to an expert on these matters.
Food for thought.
And finally, here’s a photo from downstairs in the cellar. Fortunately the water drained easily down into the well. You can see the gully underneath the wall, normally this copes with any water but this has been exceptional.
