MR. PRESTON'S NOTES ON THE NORFOLK FLOOD. 553 
rainfall lay between Norwich and Yarmouth, and that the 
rivers above Norwich were all the time flowing from a region 
where the rainfall was smaller towards one where it was higher. 
Had the area of most intense rainfall been shifted a few miles 
to the westward, the severity of the floods at Norwich must 
have been very much greater. In my own opinion the direction 
and force of the wind was an important factor in the cause of 
the disastrous inundations with which the County of Norfolk 
was visited. It is well known that a strong north-west wind 
will at any time cause floods in low-lying districts adjacent to 
the rivers Yare and Wensum by reason of the obstruction by 
the wind of the flow of water to the sea through the flowing up 
of high tides, and it was near the period of Spring tides at the 
time. On August 25th and 26th, after the wind had at about 
1 p.m. on the former day shifted from the north-east to the 
north-west, it blew with great force from the latter quarter for 
nearly 17 hours. According to observations taken by Mr. J. H. 
Willis, F.R. Met. Soc., at Southwell Lodge, Ipswich Road, 
Norwich, with a pressure-tube anemometer, the maximum wind 
velocities observed every hour during the period ranged from 
24 to 42 miles an hour, or equal to wind forces 6, 7, and 8 ; 
while at Great Yarmouth I am officially informed that the 
anemometer on the Sailors’ Home registered force 9, or about 
50 miles an hour. This continuous high wind doubtless kept 
back the water which was at the time falling in such a prodigious 
downpour. 
At Norwich the water rose to a level never before recorded. 
The “flood marks” at the New Mills show that the highest 
level was about 18 inches higher than that of the flood of 1614, 
although Mr. A. E. Collins (City Engineer) informs me that the 
flood of 1614 was previously exceeded by about three inches by 
the “ Candlemas Flood” of 1570, and that the latter previously 
held the record. The 1912 flood was about three feet higher 
than that of 1878, which can still be remembered by many 
persons. The 1878 flood had been, however, exceeded not 
only in 1570 and 1614, but also in 1646, 1734, 1762, and 1770. 
According to “Browne’s History of Norwich,” published in 
