OF NOVEMBER, 1894, IN HERTS. 145 



the floods seem to have put people to the most serious inconvenience 

 at Watford. On Monday the 12th, the meadows bordering the 

 Colne were inundated, and the water flowed into Water Lane and 

 the lower part of High Street. On Tuesday the water retreated, 

 but the floods rose again on Wednesday morning and attained their 

 highest point about midnight, submerging three roads in the town 

 for several hundred yards. High Street was the most seriously 

 affected, the water being three feet deep in some parts. The river 

 rose to within six inches of the girders of the new High Street 

 bridge. All the houses between the bridge and Dalton House, 

 •where Mr. Schreiber had to remove his dogs for safety from his 

 stables to the loft, were flooded, as well as those in the courts, 

 and the workmen were surprised on looking out of their windows 

 on Thursday morning to see that they would have to make the 

 first part of their journey to their work by water. Horses and 

 carts were soon secured and several men were lowered from their 

 bedroom windows. A boat in which it was intended to row up 

 High Street was carried away by the flood. In Water Lane the 

 water extended from a few yards beyond the river to the railway- 

 arch, and a great part of Loates Lane was also under water, the 

 fields between beinc; inundated. In the direction of Aldenham the 

 water was like an inland sea. At ten o'clock on Thursday morning 

 the waters began to abate, but carts were still busily engaged, 

 nntil late in the day, in carrying passengers along the flooded 

 streets. A few pigs and sheep escaped fi-om the flooded meadows 

 by swimming, but one sheep and a large number of rabbits 

 belonging to Mr. Blathwayt, of Frogmore House, were drowned. 

 Water was pumped out of the cellars of many houses by Messrs. 

 Sedgwick and Co.'s steam fire-engine. 



At tlie meeting of the Watford Local Board on the same day 

 (Thur.sday, loth Nov.) the Engineer reported as follows: — "The 

 heavy rains during yesterday caused various parts of the town to 

 be flooded, notably St. Albans Koad over the railway bridge, the 

 lower part of Queen's Road, Merton Road, and Pinner Road. This 

 moining the river has overflowed its banks and risen above the 

 underside of the girders of the new bridge, flooding the length 

 of High Street from the bridge to the mill-tail between two feet 

 and three feet deep." 



Lower down the Colne several low-lying portions of Rickmans- 

 worth and its vicinity were flooded, most seriously at Batchworth 

 and West Hyde. 



In the valley of the Lea the neighbourhood of Hertford and. 

 Ware suffered most from the floods. The road from Hertford 

 towards Essendon was rendered almost impassable from Tuesday 

 the 13th to Thursday the loth, presenting more the appearance of 

 a running stream than of a public highway, the water in some 

 parts of it being three feet deep ; the Brickendon Road was also 

 flooded to a considerable depth. The Castle Meads, Hartham, and 

 the King's Meads, were more or less under water, and for miles 

 along the course of the River Lea its banks were submerged, and 



VOL. VIII. — r.\IlT VI. 11 



