Referring To My Frith 1887 Map Of Alconbury

A Memory of Alconbury.

On the 1887 map of Alconbury and its surroundings, there is a reference to the area between Alconbury and Alconbury Weston on Alconbury Brook as being 'Liable to Flooding'. This would have also applied to the areas of the village green and the High Street. On the 'wireless' news you could hear of the Great North Road being flooded at Alconbury. This would have been close to the Bride's Pool, where the brook flowed close to the main road.
Today, village residents still complain about the flooding, since houses built long after 1887 have experienced the ingress of water following a heavy rainstorm upstream, or melting snows, causing the brook to overflow its banks.
I have photographs that I took during some flooding in the late 1940's or early 1950's showing the extent of floods, and they were pretty extensive, extending up as far as the bottom of Bell Lane, and towards Alconbury Weston from the Maltings. From that downward slope there was simply a sea of water as far as you could see.
It seems people will never learn that brooks and rivers can overflow their banks.