My grandparents, Harry and Rose Brown lived at 53 Cardiff Road and my parents, me and brother lived in Salisbury Road. So many happy memories, I really do miss my home town.
Thank you for these very interesting photos. My mother and her parents lived on Caversham Road near the river and part of their home was flooded at this time. They had been bombed out of their home nearby on Cardiff Road during the war so it was a very tough few years for them. I recall my mum telling me she measured the height of the water each day with a ruler.
Brilliant compilation! I was only seven, but I remember being a bit alarmed when Dad took us for a walk by the Thames---probably when the water was beginning to subside---and you could scarcely tell where the towpath was supposed to be.
I lived on Newport Road close to Caversham Bridge & this happened when I was nine year old. All the houses there had six foot drops below the floorboards as flood protection & at its full height the water stopped just below the floorboards, which my father kept a beady eye on. In the road, I remember people paddling the old metal baths along, in some respects it turned into a bit of fun but obviously it was very worrying for the more fragile residents. We just got on with it & people helped each other out with any individual problems. Across the road on the other side there was a large covered culvert that came from the Caversham Bridge hotel side, underneath Randolph Road & along underneath the other side of the road to me. It then progressed towards York Road, eventual continuing across Caversham Road then the full extent of Vastern Road & turning out back into the Thames at Kings Meadow. I know this because during the summer that followed I walked along some its extent. Days of exploration, we did have fun without lashings of money.
I wonder how they coped? I wondered if they complained as much? Or did they just get on with it? Looks just as bad or worse in some cases than the current day.
I suspect they got on with it, plenty of smiling faces about. They of course wouldn't see anything like the coverage we see today, no 24 hour news, mobile phones, internet, etc.
ReadingBerkshireUK , yep I bet they did. I do think the press encourage people to moan and whinge when they wouldn't have. Of course certain things were preventable, but in the main not. But when people are up to their waist in water and there to help you shouldn't be abusing them as apparently happened in Somerset this week.
28/11/2012 [ 23:10 ] and ...?????????????????// What is going to happend with Nire and Managua C|ose????????????????. Caversham resident :/ Dniia 28 listopada 2012 czekam na zalanie mojej chaty którá wyremontowalem w ciagu 2 lat :/
