Chew Stoke Flood was a heavy rain event and severe flash flood which occurred on 10 July 1968, affecting
Somerset and Southwest England in particular the
Chew Valley and some areas of Bristol, notably
Bedminster. The
River Chew suffered a major flood in 1968 with serious damage to towns and villages along its route, including sweeping away the bridge at
Pensford.
On 10 July 1968, torrential rainfall, with falling in 18 hours on
Chew Stoke, double the area's average rainfall for the whole of July,
led to widespread flooding in the Chew Valley, and water reached the first floor of many buildings.
The damage in Chew Stoke was not as severe as in some of the surrounding villages, such as
Pensford where it swept away the bridge over the
A37 and damaged the railway viaduct so badly that it never reopened.
It also flooded 88 properties in
Chew Magna with many being inundated with of water.
Fears that the
Chew Valley Lake
Chew Valley Lake () is a reservoir in Chew Stoke, Chew Valley, Somerset, England. It is the fifth-largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom, with an area of . The lake, created in the early 1950s, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956. ...
dam would be breached caused considerable anxiety.
On the southern side of the
Mendip Hills
The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills ...
at
Cheddar the flow of water swept large boulders down the
gorge
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...
and damaged the cafe and entrance to Gough's Cave, washing away cars. In the cave itself the flooding lasted for three days.
A
Spanish plume
The Spanish Plume (Penacho Ibérico in Spanish and Spaanse Pluim in Dutch) is a weather pattern in which a plume of warm air moves from the Iberian plateau or the Sahara to northwestern Europe, causing thunderstorms. This meteorological pattern ca ...
weather pattern saw a low over the northwest of Spain track across the
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
, hot and humid air advected to the eastern side of the low leading to severe storms.
The wake of the storm left 7 fatalities in the United Kingdom.
See also
*
July 1968 England and Wales dust fall storms
The July 1968 United Kingdom thunderstorms were the most severe dust fall thunderstorms in the British Isles for over 200 years. A layer of mineral dust blowing north from the Sahara met cold, wet air over the British Isles, resulting in thick, d ...
, severe storms just one week prior
*
Great Flood of 1968, widespread and severe flooding in the
Home counties of southern England during September 1968.
References
External links
Environment Agency, Learning the lessons: The Chew Valley floods of 1968Met Office, Chew Stoke floods 1968
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chew Stoke Flood Of 1968
Floods in England
1968 natural disasters
1968 disasters in the United Kingdom
1968 in England
1968 floods
September 1968 events in the United Kingdom
20th century in Somerset