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Foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip visited the North Lincolnshire coast after the 1953 floods when he inspected the damage and helped boost the morale of the shattered communities of Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea. He returned in 1983 to mark the 30th anniversayr and has accepted an invitation to visit on February 17 this year. He will travel to Mablethorpe at the invitation of the town council and will attend the flood exhibition at the Dunes Family Entertainment Centre. I happened to be staying in the vicinity of Hickling Broad when the news arrived that the sea had broken through the sea wall at Wolferton on the Sandringham Estate. I later learned that it had broken in all along the coast from Lincolnshire to the Thames Estuary. When I got back to Sandringham, I discovered that some thousand acres of the estate had been flooded. I also learned that a significant area of forestry on the Balmoral Estate had been blown down by the same storm. When such disasters happen, it is always a problem to decide whether a visit would do more harm, in interfering with relief work, or good, in showing sympathy and raising morale. In the end it was arranged for me to visit Mablethorpe in the morning and then the Deben Estuary in Suffolk and Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary in the afternoon of Friday 13 February (it is difficult to imagine that any worse luck could strike on that day!). My lasting
impressino is of the dreadful damage the flood waters do to homes and
buildings generally. I also have vivid memories of the really unpleasant
conditions under which the relief workers had to labour. Trying to move
mountains fo of sand was only slightly less challenging than working in
deep sticky mud. Most impressive of all was the stoical cheerfulness of
all the people whose homes had been affected by the floods.
Aster the waters had receded another problem became immediately apparant, the tons of sand which engulfed the resorts.
Bricks and mortar were no match for an angry sea. The couple who lived here were upstairs during the flood and could hear their home being torn away from beneath them. |
Bricks and mortar were no match for an angry sea. The couple who lived here were upstairs during the flood and could hear their home being torn away from beneath them.
As soon as light broke, a search was made of properties to see who needed help. In many cases, a rowing boat was the only way to reach people. A message from Sir Peter Tapsell MP
Although Sir Peter Tapsell did not serve as MP for Lincolnshire in 1953, better sea defences along our stretch of coast has long been a cause he has supported. With this in mind, Sir Peter sent this comment. “When I arrived as the MP for the area so badly affected, in 1966, memories of the disaster were still vivid in the minds of almost everyone I met in Mablethorpe, Trusthorpe, Sutton on Sea and Sandilands. As always on such occasions of tragedy and drama, the British people, I was told, behaved with their usual courage and steadfastness. Elderly ladies remained quietly knitting in their front upstairs room, waiting for the rubber dinghies to rescue them. The emergency services did a tremendous job. Inevitably, the scene of devastation took several years to overcome. My predecessor the local MP Commander Sir John Maitland, worked like a Trojan and to great effect. Not only did he spend a great deal of time actually in the stricken area, helping constituents, he also persuaded the Lord Mayor of London to launch a National Disaster Appeal, which raised a great deal of money and helped many of those who had lost most, or all of their possessions. Inheriting this situation 13 years after the breaching of the sea defences on such a catastrophic scale, I have always placed the strengthening of the sea defences at the very top of my order of priorities as an MP. Huge sums of money have been spent on improving and strengthening the sea defences along the East Lincolnshire coast-line in recent years. They are, experts tell me, now incomparably stronger than they were in 1953. However, nature in its worst moods can be an irresistible force and no one can say with absolute certainty future sea flooding on a major scale is impossible in some parts of Lincolnshire, which lie below sea level.” |
