All our yesterdays: a photo from the Bourne Society of the Coulsdon Bourne flowing down the road in 1930
There were power cuts. The Army was mobilised to provide flood barriers. The underpass at Purley Cross was turned into a flood relief pond. The Red Cross was called out to provide emergency aid. And Boris Johnson showed up for a clown-ish photo op.
And after two months of heavier-than-usual rainfall this winter, might residents in the area need to get their sandbags ready once again?
The Society takes its name named from the intermittent streams that sometimes emerge to the north of the North Downs to follow the lines of routes A22 and A23, meeting at Purley, and which overflowed so significantly in 2014. It was Bourne Society members who raised the alarm about the 2014 floods when they observed the high groundwater levels in late December 2013… not that anyone at Croydon Council paid much notice until it was too late.
There is a kind of rural myth about the Caterham Bourne and other seasonal streams, along the lines that they will rise and flood once every seventh year. So we might be overdue such an event.
Certainly the Bourne Society think it is a possibility.
They posted last week a note about the Coulsdon Bourne in 1930.
“In those days, it flowed along the main road. Now you have to look behind Coulsdon South Station.
“In 1930, the flow started on 23rd January and lated until 7th May.
“Is it time for another?”
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Unlikely . Last week I inspected the Bourne flow behind Whyeleafe South Station. there was barely a trickle and the gulley under the Woldingham Viaduct was dry as a bone.
I’ve lived in coulsdon for 40 years. The Bourne is there and always will be. You can see the 4 valleys merging from farthing downs. Ever since I’ve lived there the stink under marlpit Lane Bridge has been constant. The sewerage systems around that areseem to be contained in underground tanks that soak away. The tanks have to cope with the continuous development of the area. I’ve witnessed sink holes opening along Chipstead Valley Road going towards Rickman hill. I don’t know if years ago the Bourne could cope with taking the waste water away. It can’t now.