XX. 



THE FLOOD IN THE VALLEY OF THE GADE, Srd AUGUST, 1879. 



By John E. Littlebot. 

 Read at Watford, Uth December, 1880. 



The year 1879 will long be remembered as remarkable for the 

 unusual quantity of its rainfall, and it seems desirable that some 

 particulars of the notable storm that passed over a portion of our 

 county on the 2nd and 3rd of August should be preserved among 

 the records of our Society. It appears to have approached our 

 district, in a north-easterly direction, from the valley of the 

 Thames. It commenced, in this neighbourhood, between the hours 

 of 9 and 10 o'clock on the evening of Saturday, the 2nd of August, 

 and from that time until nearly 5 o'clock on Sunday morning an 

 extraordinary downpour of rain, accompanied by loud peals of 

 thunder and almost incessant lightning, continued without 

 perceptible intermission. The quantity of rain that fell during 

 these six or seven hours has been recorded as under : — Berk- 

 hampstead, 2-5 in. ; Harpenden, 3-0 in. ; Great Gaddesden, 

 2-3 in. ; Nasli Mills, 2'5 in. It would be difficult to exaggerate 

 the awful grandeur of the storm. It is spoken of in Symons' 

 'Meteorological Magazine' (vol. xiv, p. 97) as one of "excessive 

 severity." Between 10 and 12 p.m. flashes of sheet and forked 

 lightning occurred continuously or with only momentary intervals, 

 and lighted up our rooms so completely that every object around us 

 was distinctly visible. At about 3 a.m. the extreme violence of 

 the storm began to moderate, and before 5 it had almost subsided. 



At nine o'clock on Sunday morning the sky was clear, the 

 atmosphere fresh, and at Hunton Bridge a somewhat swollen river 

 was the principal remaining evidence of the past tempest. We 

 hoped, and believed, that the worst was over ; but it soon became 

 apparent that such was not the case. The deluge of rain that had 

 fallen during the night could not fail to leave its mark behind, and 

 before the day was over it resulted in a flood such as, in the memory 

 of the oldest inhabitant of the parish, had never before occurred. 



It will be my duty briefly to describe the rise and progress of 

 this remarkable flood, and I shall afterwards offer a few remarks on 

 the causes that appear to have produced it. 



I have not been able to obtain much information respecting the 

 reaches of the Bulborne above Berkhampstead. At Berkhampstead 

 the river joins for the first time the Grand Junction Canal, 

 and the pound of the canal becomes the mill-head of the Lower 

 Mill. At this spot it might be expected that the flood would make 

 itself apparent, and I am informed that as early as four o'clock on 

 Sunday morning the canal had overflowed its banks. The residence 

 that adjoins the mill was suiTounded by water, and a current about 



