Floods of 1953: Flood water hit prefabs in Felixstowe like a sledgehammer

Prefab homes floating down Langer Road, Felixstowe, in the 1953 floods. (Image: Archant)

Felixstowe editor Richard Cornwell has been discovering what it was like for those caught up in the 1953 east coast floods ahead of tonight’s anniversary.

Brenda Fenton of Trimley. (Image: Archant)

Ray Versey is one of those who has looked back across the decades to the night when unimaginable horror swept through Felixstowe’s low-lying seafront on a torrent of water, it was still the only feeling he could muster.

A prefab which was ripped from its foundations by floodwater in Felixstowe in 1953 is wedged in a street. (Image: Archant)

The 60 years since that night in 1953 when a surge tide smashed through the river walls and flooded homes has failed to dim his memories or the feelings from that time.

They say time heals, but for many caught up in the disaster – in which 41 people died in the dark, wet and bitter cold in just a few hours – the memories are still as raw today and not a day has passed when a photo, building, news report or person has failed to jog them.

“When I saw the coffins lined up next to each other in a marquee that was put up specially at the cemetery, it was heartbreaking,” said Mr Versey.

“To know their bodies were in those boxes, people of all ages – including families together.

“It is still as vivid in my mind today 60 years on. It was heartbreaking then and is still heartbreaking now.

“It was so totally unexpected and no-one would have imagined a set of circumstances in which it could have happened. Everyone would have expected flooding to have come from the sea – over the promenade, from where people could see it. Not from the river.

“Eyewitnesses said that when the water came down Walton Avenue and hit where the railway crossing is, it shot into the air and hit the prefabs there like a sledgehammer – the power of the sea is incredible.”

Then 23 years old, Mr Versey was drafted in to help with the aftermath of the emergency as a special constable.

He had been waiting to be sworn in when he suddenly got a message asking him to report to the police station as help was needed urgently to patrol the flood area and relieve those officers who had been working non-stop since the disaster struck.

“I didn’t know about the floods, even though I only lived in Walton,” said Mr Versey, now 83, living in Constable Road, Felixstowe.

“There were few telephones, no communications in those days – even when I was working with the police you had to find someone with a telephone to ring in if you needed help or to find out what your next task was.

“I was sworn in by a Justice of the Peace, then sent into a locker room where there were piles of clothing and told to sort myself out with a hat, a long mac that went almost to the ground and a pair of gumboots, and that was the uniform, designed to keep the wet out.

“My first duties were to patrol the flooded area in the evenings just to keep an eye on properties in case there was any looting.

“People had been evacuated or rescued and homes were just left, doors couldn’t be closed because of the water, windows open or broken, and there was a real concern that some looters might go in and try and steal folks’ belongings.

“When we went down to patrol, there was still water in the roads but it was just inches deep by then and most of it had gone.”

He could recall the RAF using massive air heaters to dry out the homes.

Mr Versey also worked part-time as a pallbearer for Knights and Parkers, funeral directors, as did his father, who got him the job.

“I remember being told, keep yourself on standby, there will be a lot of funerals in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

The urban district council staff put up a marquee at the cemetery for the coffins as the funerals drew near.

“We went up to help with the burials and it was awful, so sad. I had never seen or experienced anything like that before. If there was ever a need for counselling it was then, people were so distressed.”

? Give us your memories of the 1953 floods – write to Your Letters, Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN, or email starletters@archant.co.uk