IN a timely return of her occasional column, the chair of Thurrock Historical Society, Susan Yates, looks back to a time when the borough found itself victim to floods that brought devastation to UK and European coastlines.

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70 years ago this year - on the night of 31 January/1 February - Tilbury saw its worst floods. The cause was a storm in the North Sea that had been coming in since about 6am, devastating the Netherlands and the East Coast of England to the Thames Estuary.

31st January 1953 was a perfectly normal mid-winter Saturday. At Coryton the new crude oil distillation plant, completed after many months of work, produced petrol for the first time that afternoon. 

Over on Canvey Island the new Memorial Hall was officially opened bedecked in bunting for the occasion.

In Benfleet the new Secondary School in Shipwrights Drive was being given the final touches prior to its official opening on the following Monday.

At 12.05pm New Scotland Yard received a warning from the Meteorological Office, sent at 11.30am, stating that conditions were right for a very high tide in the Thames in the next 24 hours. 

The warning was passed to the London City Police who in turn forwarded it to the waterside divisions who sent it on to the riverside boroughs and urban districts. Nobody knew just how high it was going to be. 

At Shoeburyness between 5am and 6am the wind was Force 6 (strong) blowing west north west. At 5 to 6pm it was still a west north west wind but no change in wind speed. 

Off the East coast of Scotland the MV Princess Victoria, a roll on/roll off ferry, had turned turtle and sunk in the gale force winds with great loss of life. All over Essex trees had come down in the strong winds. 

At a dinner in Felixstowe such was the strength of the wind outside that the speaker had to strain to make himself heard above the noise of the gale. The strong winds at Clacton had not reached the Thames Estuary at this point.

Between 6pm and 11pm The Met Office station at Shoeburyness reported a lull in the storm. This was only temporary. 

At Tilbury the Coal Factors Society of London's lookout went on duty at 8pm near the Fort in a small wooden hut raised up 10 feet above the top of the sea wall and accessible by ladder. 

At Shell Haven at midnight the water was three inches from the top of the sea wall. 

By 00.45am water was pouring over the sea wall. At Bill Meroy Creek the recorder reported his premises as dry. At 00.30am a Police Inspector was informed about the Southend flood warning.  High water was due at Tilbury at 1.58am.  The Inspector and his sergeant drove to the World's End Pub and water was pouring over a 30 yard stretch of the wall. The water was pouring down the bank across the road and onto the marshes. They rescued the Fort caretaker and his wife and took them to safety at the World's End. Vessels' moorings had become loose and they had lifted upwards as had the floating landing stage. 

By 1am the water level was 9 feet above that predicted. The water was now flowing in to the town. Ferry Road, and the Riverside Station were flooded.   Fortunately, although the hospital was surrounded by four feet of water it remained dry. By 3am. the Police and volunteers were out in the street in force raising the public and alerting them to the flooding. The water now being half way up the second storey of the houses.

Peter Hewitt MBE, founder of the Tilbury Riverside Project, remembers waking up on 1st February and his night light off. It was quiet and dark. He opened the curtains and was stunned to find "a mass of water like a sea was covering everything between our house and those located across the road." He could see a man rowing a boat where the road should have been and called out for his mum not knowing if he was frightened or excited.  

More than 2,500 homes in Tilbury were flooded and 1,300 people in the town and other low lying areas were evacuated to the higher ground. The Chadwell St Mary Primary School was used as a welfare centre. There had been many fatalities elsewhere but there was only one in Tilbury. A 79 year old lady who was trapped in her toilet by the rising flood water.

Further down the Thames in Purfleet, Van Den Burghs factory was completely under water. Production was temporarily transferred to their Bromborough plant who worked 24/7 to make up for the loss of output of margarine in Purfleet. The office workers unable to access the main office on the river side site moved to the Recreation Club Hall in Stonehouse Lane. I spoke recently to someone who worked there at the time and she told me that everyone pitched in with the clearing and cleaning of the site and the transfer of equipment to the Rec. Club.

On Saturday 28th January 2023 guided walks will take place starting at 10.30 a.m. from the TRAAC building reliving the tragic events. 

Thurrock Museum are staging events in the Thameside with family activities from 10.30am concluding with a talk entitled "The Perfect Storm" starting at 3.30pm. There is a small charge.