July 3, 2019 4.13 pm This story is over 55 months old

Archive footage shows devastating 1940s Lincoln flood

Could lessons be learned from historical disasters?

When the coldest winter in living memory hit in 1946/47, huge piles of snow were left in waiting ready to cause devastation in Lincoln.

March soon came around to melt the snow, but that rapid thaw led to widespread flooding and brought with it chaos to the whole of the county.

In a parallel to the scenes in Wainfleet, water swept into many houses and destroyed all of the resident’s belongings.

Back in 1947 though, thousands of homes had flooded and much of the city had been left in deep water.

An amateur film from the time, recently released by the British Film Institute, shows the impact of floods on the industrial Beevor Street.

Watch the full seven minutes of film here.

It shows people using wooden boats to get around and many of the office staff carrying on with work regardless of the floods.