It’s the 50th Anniversary of The 1968 Guildford Floods!

Published on: 12 Sep, 2018
Updated on: 19 Jan, 2019

By David Rose

Fifty years ago this weekend saw the worse floods Guildfordians had witnessed within living memory. It was said to have been on the scale of an event that only occurs once in a thousand years!

A RNLI lifeboat in Guildford High Street during the 1968 floods. Click on all pictures to enlarge in a new window.

It has been a topic of conversation on a regular basis ever since. Those who were in Guildford at the time and saw the effects recall them vividly.

Friary Street, Guildford in the 1968 floods.

Before we look at the events as they unfolded, with pictures taken at the time, I will be featuring the ’68 floods in my illustrated talk Guildford’s Stormy Past at the Keep pub in Castle Street on Monday evening (September 17) from 7.30pm.

The talk also features the floods of 1900 that destroyed most of the old Town Bridge; further floods in 1910, 1927-28, 1936, and those in 2013-14. And also snow storms (including the infamous winter of 1962-63); the Great Storm of 1906; as well as the second Great Storm in 1987. Hosted by the pub and Ben Darnton of Guildford Collectors Records and his Facebook page Guildford Past & Present, the talk is free. All Ben asks is that you drop a few gold coins into the pot as it is passed round too show your appreciation. Come along and give your memories of 1968 if you have some.

Onslow Street bus station in the 1968 floods. Sheila Atkinson collection.

Back to September 1968, and Saturday, September 14 had been warm and sunny. But that evening it started to rain. The abnormal torrential rain continued throughout the Sunday and by late that night and on into the early hours of Monday, September 16, the swollen River Wey, as its waters passed through Guildford town centre, burst its banks.

With rain that had fallen on the surrounding hills flowing into the Wey from other streams, such as the Tillingbourne, the floodwaters rose further. Although the rain had ceased by the Monday and the sun shone again, during that afternoon and evening hundreds of onlookers came into Guildford to witness the floods.

The High Street, deep in water.

The bottom of the High Street was under six feet of water.

Amateur metrologist Dennis Mullen (who once supplied regular weather reports to the Surrey Advertiser) recorded at his home in Stoughton 3.75 inches of rain on the Sunday.

It was a spokesman for the West Surrey Water Board who described it as a disaster which happened only once in a thousand years.

Leas Road in the 1968 floods. Picture by David Salmon. Geoff Burch Collection.

Homes close to the river in streets such as William Road and Walnut Tree Close were flooded out, as was the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and the then ‘new’ Plummers store (now Debenhams).

A rowing boat at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre during the 1968 floods.

The emergency services sprang into action with the food control centre being at Surrey Police’s HQ at Mount Browne, with the Chief Constable Peter Matthews in charge.

It was not only Guildford that was flooded. Towns including Godalming and Cobham were also hit, as were other low lying villages – and even Fairlands.

Playing in the floodwaters at the Farnham Road bus station.

Up to 300 people were evacuated from their homes in Guildford, many of them spending the Sunday night at the Sandfield Terrace Drill Hall, with members of the Women’s Voluntary Service making sure everyone was as comfortable as possible.

Once the floodwaters had subsided a large clean-up operation took place. In the time-honoured British tradition of when there is a crisis, people volunteered to help out. These included scouts and guides who turned out with buckets and mops to do their bit.

Onslow Street in the 1968 floods. Picture by David Salmon. Geoff Burch Collection.

To give some kind of scale of the floods, it is estimated that the waters then rose around three times as high as the more recent floods of 2013-14. Plaques on the wall of St Nicolas Church at the foot of the High Street mark the height of the water back in 1968. If you are in that part of town, do have a look at them.

Vehicles make their way along Ladymead during the 1968 floods.

I am fortunate to have a good collection of pictures of the ’68 floods. However, if readers have some of their own and would care to share them on The Guildford Dragon NEWS, if you can scan them, please email them to d.rosedragon@gmail.com and we will feature them in a gallery.

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