LOOKING BACK LEAD FOR JULY 14

TODAY marks almost 60 years to the day when a national record was set in a village outside Dorchester.

On July 18 1955 the highest rainfall ever recorded in the UK in 24 hours fell in Martinstown.

Some 11 inches or 279 millimetres were recorded!

At Hardy's Monument, at the centre of the storm, 12 inches of rain were recorded.

On the morning of Monday July 18 1955 this very newspaper reported that holidaymakers should expect some rain after an unbroken fortnight of sunshine.

And soon after the Echo went to press storm clouds opened along a 60 mile bet of coastline and the rain swept in.

Tragically there were two fatalities as a result of the floods - both in Weymouth, where one man had been struck by lightning and a boy drowned.

The river in Martinstown became a 20ft wide river over a foot deep.

The Brewers Arms pub and the cottages nearby were marooned and the occupants had to retreat upstairs.

Martinstown was cut off and sandbag barricades were built up and trenches dug.

Pumping out was impossible due to the constant flow of water.

No deliveries could be made and only tractors could get through to the village.

Derek Pride of Dorchester has some personal recollections from that day when he was a Thomas Hardye's schoolboy.

He said: "The day got darker and darker with menacing clouds going seemingly round and round.

"The thunder and lightning was unbelievable. I had to make the journey home from the upper or senior school (now Thomas Hardye Gardens housing estate) to the museum, where I caught the Salisbury bus to Stinsford.

"I then walked through Kingston Maurward Park to Lower Bockhampton.

"The weather was so bad I ran all the way home to Lower Bockhampton.

"My mother Marjorie Pride was teaching at Upwey School, when arriving to the school which at that time was next to the Wishing Well, she found that the school had been flooded.

"Exercise books, papers and desks were floating in the classrooms and clearing up exercise books took several days."

The Book of Martinstown by Margaret Hearing says that the flooding placed Martinstown in the Guinness Book of Records.

It says: "There was a 24 hour delay before the full effects were felt in the villages.

"The river had not been cleared out, and it was not able to cope with the tremendous flow of surface water. All local springs including the Wherry at Winterbourne Abbas broke because of the supercharge to the aquifer.

"Oliver Duke remembers that when the flooding did occur, the road through the village became a 20ft wide river over a foot deep.

"The Brewers Arms and the cottages nearby were marooned and the occupants had to retreat upstairs."

Workmen toiled round the clock to get all other roads in the county re-opened by Wednesday - sandbag barricades were built up and trenches dug.

Hearing writes: Pumping-out was impossible due to the constant flow of water.

"No deliveries could be made and only tractors could get through to the village."

Martinstown and Steepleton residents had to wait until July 25 for pumping out to become possible.

Hearing writes: "A fund was started by Major RG Warren, chairman of the Dorchester Roural District Council, to help those badly affected.

"Livestock and crop losses were very considerable over a wide area."

Soon after, the river-bed was deepened, Hearing writes.

Martinstown's record was broken in 2009 by Cockermouth in Cumbria where 12 inches of rain were recorded in 24 hours.

*DO you have memories of the floods of 1955? If so get in touch with Looking Back by emailing joanna.davis@dorsetecho.co.uk