Newspaper Articles
Blandford counts the cost (by Gilbert Grevett) Bournemouth Evening
Echo, Saturday 29th December 1979.
Flood stricken towns and villages in North Dorset today counted
the cost of the torrential rain, which wrecked shops, homes and
farms.
The damage at Blandford was estimated to be about £100,000,
and some of the worst hit people were uninsured, including Mr. Jerry
Wilson, owner of Top Ten Car Sales in West Street. He estimated
the damage had cost him £20,000.
More than four feet of water flooded his showrooms and devastated
the workshop, smashing a 4cwt generator, which needed four men to
lift it. A £3,000 grand piano in a nearby house was ruined
and pin machines, costing up to £750 each were badly damaged
at the Riverside Cafe on the Ham. The floodwaters came to the top
of the cafe's fixed seats. The water swept, through the whole of
the ground floor of the town's main hotel, the Crown, where rooms
were under 3ft 6in of water.
Twenty-six guests were staying there at the time, and they were
served with light meals on the first floor. Blandford's biggest
mopup of the century was drawing to its close this afternoon, and
most shops were back in business after the Christmas holidays.
But some are not expected to reopen for several days. Mr. David
Nightingale, of Nightingale Antiques in East Street, had over two
feet of water in his showrooms yesterday. "Damage must run
into several thousands of pounds," he said. He caught a quarter
pound roach from the flooded River Stour swimming in his hall but
lost some of his specimen fish from his flooded garden pond. "I
saw one of them swimming around among my vegetables," he said.
Antiques Damaged
Valuable antiques and paintings, including carpets were badly damaged
at Mr Peter Strowger's nearby antique business. "I fear it
may be several weeks before we fully reopen," said his wife
Christine.
Farmland
Thousands of acres of farmland in the Stour Valley are still under
several feet of water but the level is receding and by mid morning
a large part of the Ham car park at Blandford was in use.
Click on the links below for more newspaper articles on the flood
wall.
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