Wider context – The North Sea Flood
The North Sea Flood of 1953 was probably the worst peace time disaster recorded in the UK.
Nearly 1000 miles of coastline was damaged and sea walls were breached in more than 1000 locations.
Some 250 square miles were inundated, forcing more than 30,000 people to be evacuated from their homes. Serious damage was caused to 24,000 properties. The financial cost of the damage was in the region of £2.5 billion at today’s prices.
The flood was caused by a massive tidal surge which sped down the entire East Coast.
More than 300 people lost their lives on land in the UK and a further 200 lives were lost at sea in UK waters.
Salthouse – The Flood of 1953
It was early evening at around 7pm. It was dark and it was blowing a gale from the North. The day in question was Saturday 31 January 1953.
The tide in Norfolk was racing in some eight feet higher than predicted.
Shortly after inundating King’s Lynn, Hunstanton and Wells, the giant and ferocious surge struck Salthouse.
In just thirty short, but terrifying minutes, 30 houses were destroyed and 20 others were so seriously damaged as to be uninhabitable.
In one of the houses on the Coast Road (A149), water smashed down the front door with such force that it broke a woman’s leg. Her desperate husband carried her to the kitchen and laid her on a table. The next wave swept them out of the back door and they became separated. The husband was eventually rescued by neighbours but the wife was no where to be found. The following morning her body was discovered beneath a hedge. She was 73 years of age.
The death toll in Salthouse may well have been greater. There were some lucky escapes. One man made a hole in a flint wall of an upstairs bedroom through which he and his wife clambered to safety. In another house a man heroically attempted to rescue a trapped friend by wading neck deep in icy sea water and in total darkness, so as to pass him a rope. The rescue attempt proved to be unsuccessful, but happily the friend managed escape by squeezing through a small upstairs window.
More than 60 people from Salthouse and its neighbouring village Cley, were taken to an army camp at Weybourne where they were given temporary refuge. Other residents of Salthouse who were rendered homeless by the flood were taken in by local family and friends whose homes escaped the flood.
By Monday 2 February 1953 the flood had receded. Local residents could be seen removing damaged furniture, carpets and other personal effects from there homes. Many windows were broken and doors had been torn from their hinges. Drinking wells were polluted with sea water and drinking water was brought into the village on carts. Many residents only had the clothes they stood up in. The electricity supply to the village ceased to work. Likewise the telephone system.
The Coast Road had been made impassable because of reeds and other debris washed ashore. This had formed a thick sludge. Many wild mammals and birds were washed up drowned and formed part of the general detritus.
Serious structural damage was done to many houses and flint walls were totally demolished. This will be apparent from several of the photographs forming part of this exhibition.
As the big clean up began in earnest on 2 February 1953, a meeting of villagers took place at which it was decided that a temporary village shop should be set up in a garage in Cross Street because the regular village shop was too badly damaged to function. It was also decided to make an appeal for the loan of caravans to provide temporary accommodation for homeless families. With the assistance of the Red Cross, clothing was hastily collected from donors and distributed to people affected by the flood. It was also resolved that the Parish Church would be used to store the salvaged belongings of flood victims. Local people were advised not to drink water from local wells because of the risk of contamination. Fresh meat was donated by the Holkham Estate and the US Airforce donated tinned food and provided a NAAFI wagon to provide hot drinks. The temporary shop remained open for six weeks and the church continued to be a depository for local residents’ salvaged furniture and personal effects for several months.
Nearly 70 years on from the 1953 flood, the charming village of Salthouse remains at the mercy of the sea. Vested interests vie with each other about the recurring problem of tidal surges and whether the solution is the construction of a protective clay mound or the rebuilding of the shingle bank. Currently, the Ministry of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is showing little imagination or interest in the problem and seems content to surrender our beautiful coastline to the North Sea.