This incredible photo shows Weymouth as never seen before.

It was taken when the town suffered in the Great Flood in the summer of 1955.

Note the flooded tennis courts above the old bridge and to its right.

Click on the picture above to see it in a larger size

In July 1955 it rained and it rained....and then it rained some more.The village of Martinstown, near Dorchester, set the Guinness World Record for the highest level of rainfall in 24 hours (12 inches).

There was widespread flooding in the area.

Many people living in the Westham area of Weymouth couldn't return to their homes because of the amount of water and had to find overnight accommodation elsewhere.

This freak weather brought tragedy to Upwey where, in the aftermath of the flooding, schoolboy Robin Crump, aged 12, died when he went to look at the damage the flood had caused and fell into deep water.

In February 1956, John Jewers, 17, of Chapel Lane, was presented with the Royal Humane Society's certificate by the Mayor for 'having on 19 July 1955, at personal risk, gone to the rescue of a boy who drowned in an area disturbed by floods … but whose life he gallantly tried to save.'