3-008-588 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Flood in the Fens: the breach in the bank, three miles and a half above the sluice, 1862. 'The high tides of the past week made no impression on the eastern bank of the Middle-Level Drain, so that the districts opposite those which are under water have thus far escaped the calamity with which they were threatened; and the speedy completion of the cofferdam will, it is believed, effectually stop the progress of the flood and form a barrier against the assaults of the sea-water. This work is being prosecuted with all due activity. In the earliest accounts of these floods there were enormous exaggerations as to their extent. About 8000 acres are under water. It is not, however, much to be wondered at that some highly-charged reports got about in the first instance, for, making one's way around the area of inundation, from almost any standpoint the vast sheet of water looks like an arm of the sea; and the salt-laden breeze coming briskly across it assists the fancy to a perfect realisation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.