OUR timely recollection of the floods of July 1955 60 years on have sparked many comments from Looking Back.

In that year Martinstown set the record for the highest rainfall ever recorded in the UK in 24 hours.

Hardye's Monument, at the centre of the storm, saw 12 inches recorded.

Today we are delighted to bring you this never seen before collection of photos from Ron Matthews of Martinstown.

He had just married his wife Ann and went around Martinstown on the day the waters rose taking these pictures on a Brownie camera.

Ann said: "We got married in March of that year and the floods were in July.

"My husband was able to get through the floods because he was driving a tractor at the time.

"But I do remember it was really horrendous for some people, especially for the people in the low lying houses because they were flooded and the springs came up as well."

In one of the photos we can see a woman bailing out the water from her home.

Ann said: "I remember her as Mrs Walbrin, she lived opposite the pub and she was desperately trying to keep the water out."

Looking Back was also contacted by Liz Laidlow, nee Carter, who was 12 years old and living with her parents at Friar Waddon Pumping Station, when the family home was flooded.

She said: "My father collected me from school early because of the torrential rain.

"I remember a car coming up the road one minute and then it was gone - pushed back by the strength of the water.

"In the house we tried to get as much as we could upstairs.

"When my mother opened the back door the water gushed in; we had,at one stage, 4ft of water in the house, and it was said later that if she hadn't opened the door when she did, it was possible the side of the house might have collapsed.

"We had a coal bunker next to the house and the coke was totally washed away: some of this found its way into our cooker and ruined it.

"The next day we went up to Coryates and the sight was unbelievable - the road was lifted up by at least 6ft.

"My father's unofficial rain gauge, used to keep a record of rainfall at the pumping station, measured 12 inches."

In the last article on the 1955 flooding, we had Derek Pride's recollections of the flooding, with his mother teaching at Upwey School at the time. Coincidentally, Liz was a student of Mrs Pride's!

We were also sent some memories of 1955 by Ann Waters, a friend of Liz's.

Ann, nee Moon, recalls: "I came home from school in Weymouth that day and was unable to get home because of the enormous surge of water, so I made my way to my grandparents’ pre-fab in Littlemoor Crescent.

"The speed and depth of the water was unbelievable.

"My father struggled chest high through the flood in Church Street, Upwey to get to me and my mum at the pre-fab.

"When he arrived, totally exhausted and sodden through, he told us that our little cottage was four feet deep in a swirling torrent of water and that our old wooden steam radio was bobbing around like a cork with our poor old moggie yowling and sitting on top of it like a marooned Robinson Crusoe."

Ann said the torrent came from Martinstown down the valley, past the Friar Waddon Pumping Station, where my Liz lived, down Goulds Hill, into the Wishing Well, down Church Street and was virtually unstoppable until a huge piece of the stone wall collapsed outwards towards the river – but not before it had made its way right along the Wey to Watery Lane and eventually to Nottington and Radipole.

Ann said: "I remember a bungalow in Watery Lane was covered with water up to the eaves. All really frightening."

n Next week we're going to be hearing more about the aftermath of the flooding from Ann, including the tragic loss of a 12-year-old who was helping with the clear-up operation.

We will also have some more photos of the floods courtesy of Patrick Warne of Portland.