3-008-558 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Flood in the Fens: attempt to form a dam in the middle-level drain, 1862. 'The destruction of the sluice connected with the Middle-Level outfall...has been attended with the most serious results. Since this sluice gave way a succession of flood tides has poured into the cut, the banks have been unable to withstand the increased pressure, and the waters are flowing out over all the adjacent farms. Every effort has hitherto been in vain...hundreds of workmen have been employed day and night in driving piles and constructing dams, which the first high tide washes away again in a moment...More than 30,000 acres of harvest, pasture, and garden are already submerged. All vegetable produce has been destroyed...the live stock are only saved by being driven to higher levels, and whole families of labourers have had to abandon their cottages...Steam packets are paddling where a few days ago wheat was growing and cattle were grazing. It is impossible, moreover, to set any limit to the calamity, or to know where or when it will end...Many families must have been already ruined. A subscription either has been or is about to be set on foot for the relief of those among the sufferers who are least able to bear their losses'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.