The 1924 Floods and Halsey's Photographs

Halsey Freeman

Many Tewkesbury people still vividly recall the great winter of 1947 and the flooding – the worst this century – which subsequently engulfed the town. But how many, some seventy-five years on, are aware of the almost equally disastrous floods of 1924 that were so graphically described in the Tewkesbury Register at the time? For the minority who still have some memory of this exceptional event, it is probably not the severity of the flooding that they will remember, so much as the fact that it occurred, quite extraordinarily, in June.

The photographer, Halsey Sydney Viscount Freeman^[1] (grandfather of the second author), shown here, was not slow to exploit the photographic potential that such a freak natural event provided and, as a result, left behind a collection of images that are as evocative as they have since become highly prized.

In this short article, we reproduce a selection of Halsey’s shots – particularly of the Abbey Mill (photograph 1) and the Mythe Road (photograph 2), copied to us by Miss P. Pearce of Cheltenham from her extensive collection of period postcards.

The other shots are courtesy of the first author whose interests and knowledge of all matters relating to old Tewkesbury^[2]  are well-known in the locality. The photo of the White Bear (photograph 3)^[3]  is the only one of this group to have been published before. The pub was managed by Henry Jones and his wife at the time and the car here, driven by Dick Green, belonged to Rimbo Green’s father, Fred Green – a farmer – who was the first to buy a Model T Ford in Tewkesbury.

The shot of a horse pulling the fire engine through the floods on Gloucester Road (photograph 4) is of particular significance. The row of houses in the background, now known as Abbey Terrace, was then called Gloster Row.  As Tewkesbury did not have its own motorized fire engine until 1934, the engine in the picture is believed either to have come from Gloucester or be en route to Cheltenham. Mr. H. Walkley, one of the early founders of the Salvation Army in Tewkesbury, was owner of the horse and dray in front, and later became mayor of the town.

Photograph 5 shows two motorcyclists apparently (against the odds) trying to ride out of town through the floods. The crowd had gathered to see if their attempt proved successful. Motorcycling had an almost pioneering glamour in the 1920s, so the riders’ bravado was very much in keeping with the age. Although the identity of one of the motorcyclists remains unknown still, the one on the right was recently confirmed to be Harry Bayliss, a labourer from Forthampton, and the names of many of the individuals behind or around them have now been traced. Going from left to right, there is Mrs. Hopton and her daughter, Frances. A couple of faces along we think are Mr. Heath, Mr. Spiers, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Greening, in front of whom is Mr. T. Woodward. After a couple more places there are B. Underwood and next to him, F. Walker. Finally, close to the right-hand side of the photo are Fred Green, Bill Cull and, in the foreground, A. Hodges.

During times of flood, many ditches and brooks in the neighbourhood became blocked with rubbish and debris and we think the ditch clearance squad (photograph 6) was possibly one of a number deployed, as part of a public works programme, to help clear up the sub­sequent mess. In the back row, going from left to right, are Mr. Cumberlin, Mr. Knowles (father of Danny), Mr. King and his father Charlie, then Alex Good. After two men further along is Harry Jones (cousin of Mr. Bill Miles). The digger kneeling in the front on the right is Mr. Collett, whose father used to live in ‘Tin Town’ ^[4] and who worked in insurance.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the following for their invaluable help with the research for this article:

Dave Chandler of the Albion Inn, Rimbo Green, Kathleen Gyngell, Lou Hawker, Clarry Heath, Harry Hewitt, Harry Jones, Brian Linnell, Joan Neale, Miss P. Pearce, Harold Purser, Syd Walkley, and Tom Wilkins. Also Peter Blore and his staff at the Media Centre, University of Manchester, for computer enhancement of some of the photographs.