2024 isn’t even a week old, but we’ve had plenty of drama and excitement here in darkest Gloucestershire already. First we froze, then there was a flood…
The Heater Rebels
Living in the middle of a wood, we’re used to the electricity supply failing pretty regularly. Squirrels often gnaw through the wires, or falling branches bring down the power lines. What we didn’t expect was for our central heating and hot water system to grind to a halt within months of getting a new boiler. For two days and nights we had no heating, and no hot water unless we boiled a kettle.
A Chilly Crisis
On Wednesday morning, (3rd January) the heater began burbling and banging. Its onboard computer reported there was “no flame detected on ignition”. We reported the fault, but the gas company couldn’t send an engineer out for a couple of days. In trying to do our bit for the environment, we had our solid fuel system taken out a few years ago. What a mistake that was! Tottering Towers is an old, cold house. Although we’ve added lots of insulation and draught-proofing, the temperature dropped like a stone. By Wednesday night the temperature in the coldest room in the house barely reached 54 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius).
We always keep lots of fresh, frozen, and dried food in stock in case we’re snowed in. There are boxes of batteries and candles, too, for those times when the lights go out. The only thing we didn’t have was any form of non-electrical heating. We had our solid fuel system replaced with gas central heating and an electric cooker several years ago. After this brush with hypothermia, we’ve decided that relying on a single form of power isn’t worth the risk. We’re going to invest in a log burner!
Elli’s Flood Ordeal
We were chilly, but our daughter Elli was facing something far more frightening.
Elli lives in the small country town of Tewkesbury. Her tiny cottage is more than four hundred years old. It’s all old oak beams and handmade bricks, and I don’t think there’s a right angle or any parallel surface in the place! On one side, her home is so close to ancient Tewkesbury Abbey, a decent bowler or pitcher could make a ball rattle the Abbey’s bells. In the other direction , the River Avon flows past, only yards from her front door.
Over the past few months England has had a lot of rain. Low-lying Tewksbury lies between the Malvern Hills and the Cotswolds, so water drains into the river from a lot of high ground. Storm Henke hit Gloucestershire on January 2nd. The Avon had already crept out of its bed, and by Wednesday 3rd January had covered the riverside walk beside Elli’s house. The monks who built Tewkesbury Abbey knew what they were doing. That building is on high ground, so it never floods. The houses built in its shadow are slightly lower. Water often rises to within a foot or so of these houses, but they rarely flood. The last time was in 2007. This week, though, the water rose so high and so fast that my husband Martyn drove through the night to go and give Elli some moral support.
He reached her house at 1am on Thursday morning. She has a flood gate which should stop the river actually getting in to the house, but who wants to put something like that to the test?
Elli’s Challenge
Next morning, Elli had to wade through a foot of flood water to reach her car, which she had parked on higher ground the previous day. She drove to work through many patches of surface water. During the day, those patches joined up to make such widespread flooding that she and her workmates were sent home at 3pm “while you can still get there”.
She had to take all sorts of detours as many roads were closed. At one point she thought she would have to come here and stay the night. Martyn was marooned in Tewkesbury, as almost all the roads in and out of the town were impassable. Eventually she got home to find the flood water level with her doorstep (see photo).
The rain stopped, but the river went on rising through the night. Martyn took the photo of Elli’s front door a few hours before the one of the flood height measure (below). At its peak the floodwater lapped close to the bottom of the blue floodgate, but not a drop got into the house. The photo taken during the night shows how deep the floodwater was around the Abbey Mill. That building is directly opposite Elli’s house. It’s only a few yards away, but it sits a few feet lower. Hard to believe, but a public footpath linking Mill Street with the water meadows of The Ham runs past that flooded lower floor!
Phew!
The weather forecast for Gloucestershire over the next week is sunny spells, but getting much colder. I hope that gives the Tewkesbury floods time to recede. We’ve all had enough excitement for this year, and we’re still in the first week!
The first week of 2024 has been an adventure for us, to say the least. It’s a reminder of nature’s power and the importance of community and family support during tough times. How did your new year begin? Share your stories of unexpected challenges and triumphs!
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I do hope your heating has been restored, Christina, and that Elli’s house is still safe. We too live in the sticks (as you know). Our boiler stops working if the electric fails. We do have a small generator (bought after a long power cut) but it doesn’t produce a stable enough current for the boiler’s controls. However, it does give us lights and the ability to connect fan heaters. And we have a fireplace in the sitting room. Maybe buy a generator as well as a log burner? Or instead of?
Thanks for your kind thoughts, Joanna. It’s lovely to hear from you. We considered a generator a while ago, but it seemed they could only power the equivalent of couple of sockets and that wouldn’t have been enough. It’s definitely time for a rethink!