Wateringbury flood (1968)

Post date: Jun 03, 2012 11:7:15 AM

The following two pictures are provided courtesy of Karen Jones from a copy of the Maidstone Gazette, Tuesday September 17, 1968. In 24 hours to 10.00 a.m on Sunday September 15 some 4.3 inches of water fell in the Maidstone area. the first photo shows the The Telegraph Inn and the second Mill House (now Mill Cottage ) by the Mill Pond.

The following article appeared in the newspaper:

Thirty-three year Mr. Tony Benham looked out of his bedroom window at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning and saw a torrent of water was pouring into the lower part of his house.

The mill pond above his converted cottage home at Wateringbury had burst its banks. As water spurted through the walls and under the doors he pulled up floorboards with a pick-axe to let the water gush into the cellar.

The kitchen was filled to the depth of four feet . In other rooms it reached the window sills and the whole of the ground floor was smeared with slimy mud and other debris from the pond.

"We ripped the carpet up" said Mr. Benham "but there was little else we could do. The cellar filled up in 40 minutes, the flow of water was so strong.

"It was pouring down both sides of the house and it was very difficult to get the children, Clive and James, to safety.

"The steps we had to carry them across had been washed away."

Mr. Benham's Mill Pottery nearby was unaffected by the flood , but much of three years' work that had been put in on the old cottage was washed away in a few minutes.

The raging water invaded farm buildings lower down, ruining hops already picked and sweeping into hoppers' cottages.

Downstream, the farm manager opened his garage door and the car floated out.

At Kent archives (reference CKS -C/PL/2/AH1-50/87) there is a file starting with a letter dated 23/2/1965 from Antony L. Benham of Wandsworth Common to the Treasurer of KCC, staing that he has applied for planning permission to convert old Mill, Mill Lane , Wateringbury into a pottery studio and living accommodation. It continues "I am at present negotiating purchase of this mill together with 2 Elizabethan cottages by its side. My idea is to repair the cottages, modernise them, convert them into one dwelling and then resell." He enquires whether any financial assistance is forthcoming. The KCC planning department thought ideally the pond and some land round it should be bought by Wateringbury parish Council with Malling RDC help.

An earlier flood affecting this same cottage occurred 66 years earlier -see Another Great Storm (1902)