WITH Storm Ciara wreaking havoc across the country this past week, our picture of a flooded Weymouth Swannerycertainly seems to have sparked memories!

Richard Sartin got in touch to tell us that he thinks the picture might have been taken in 1955.

He wrote: "Perhaps the rainfall to which the article refers is the downpour of July 1955 when Martinstown set what was then a British record of 11inches of rain in 24 hours.

"Although that was passed by Cumbria in 2009 as the Martinstown rain fell in nine hours and the Cumbrian in 24, the Martinstown achievement is more impressive.

"As Martinstown is only a few miles from Weymouth as the crow flies (or the cloud bursts) it was very wet in Weymouth. "Boats rowed across Hope Square and on going to school and crossing the High Street in Wyke the water was flowing past my wellingtons even in the middle of the street.

"Your article refers to the early fifties and although 1955 is just outside that it is close."

Keith Hooper contacted us to let us know that he was around 19 at the time of the 1955 deluge of rain and was living at Maiden Castle Farm.

He said: "It rained steadily for 24 hours. Martinstown recorded the highest rainfall in living memory anywhere in the country. It rained a vast quantity in the Monkey's Jump area. The rain created a gulley about 12ft wide and a foot deep all the way down the bypass and it ended up in Castle Park which was flooded by the football ground up to the tennis courts and the second hand car garage up to the cottages in Maiden Castle Road.

"At that time before the bypass was built there was a hump in the road by a pair of cottages by the roundabout that was quite high. It made it like a ski jump. If you came down from Dorchester and drove too fast you'd take off. It had about an 8ft drop."

In Upwey the force of the floodwater water washed a lot of hay bales and even a barn away, Mr Hooper said.

The floodwater engulfed Weymouth as well, Mr Hooper added.

"It blocked all the sluice gates at Westham Bridge, that was why al the area by Weymouth Railway Station was flooded and the Park District too," he said.

Thanks also to our online commenters for sharing their memories of this freak weather event.

'Now Long Gone' remembers: "There was heavy and persistent rain, with thunder, over about 24 hours. This caused flash flooding from Upwey, which also suffered, bringing debris down river which blocked the channels under Westham bridge. The Park District pumps could not cope and failed. It was slightly aggravated by some spring tides.

"The picture is Westham Coach park with the viaduct over Radipole lake on the Portland railway. "The approximate current position is the road junction at the end of Weymouth Way.

"The water stayed for a couple of days and those coached had to be towed out across to Westwey road where they were started up and dried out."

'rjimmer' has remembered the image in last week's paper as being taken around the same time Martinstown had 11 inches of rain?

"Hay from Walt Honeyben's barn in Nottington blocked the sluices under Westham Bridge, causing the flooding of the Park district, and this prompted the construction of the floating guard in front of the sluices. Swans were pictured swimming amongst the railway lines."

*We'll share some more memories of this extreme weather next week.