By 8:30am this morning, as rain continued to fall heavily, the water was half covering the O of Bristol at the Iron Bridge.
Water has gone round the flood barrier at St Helens Mill. So the water level is up from yesterday at 2:30pm.
A large puddle has formed at the bottom of Preston Road, covering the kerbs.
As you can see the river level is getting near the L of Bristol on the Iron Bridge.
Thanks to Sean for sending this update on the level of the River Thames at 2:30pm on 6th Jan.
Kevin, AKA “Paringa” Barge, currently stuck in the floods, says the The Boat has at last floated itself off its position in the field below Abingdon lock and was last seen going under the bridge. It stopped for a while at the bottom of the island but is now on it’s way further down. Whereabouts unknown.
The Ock Mill Flood Barrier, installed on Christmas Eve, is now saturated on both sides. I was told by one local resident that when the water gets through the barrier it has nowhere to run away.
The Marina Park has been an island for quite a few days now but is getting increasingly further from the mainland.
The Ock Valley Walk has been cordoned off – as has The Margaret Brown Gardens.
The houses on the Ladygrove Estate were flooded in 2007 but that was an extraordinary summer event when the water rose very suddenly. The current Environment Agency Map shows risks of flooding. A few houses appear to be high (greater than 1 in 30 years), and some are medium (between 1 in 30 and 1 in 100 years) and more are low (between 1 in hundred and 1 in a thousand years).
The River Thames has such a wide floodplain that it has not caused much Abingdon flooding, in recent times, but there is still a lot more water to come down, and more rain is forecast. So I would expect there are people watching the water level again.
Sweet Chocolate opened in Stert Street during September 2009 and closed down today. They thank all their customers for the last 5 years and may have an online presence some time in the future.
They provided some good gifts over Christmas and for special occasions – particularly the jars full of assorted sweets. Everything was half price today. They say there just was not enough footfall to make a shop like theirs work at other times.
Simon’s Emporium (pictured above) , down East St Helen Street, are expanding their range of sweets to fill the gap in the market now Sweet Chocolate have gone.