When it comes to devastating floods, the 1947 deluge was far worse, writes CHRIS KOENIG

Who could he have been, that half-smart gent I saw two weeks ago in Botley Road? A solicitor, an estate agent, a banker? He was wading along through the water in shirt, tie and the top half of a smart suit; his bottom half was covered by a pair of boxer shorts. He was carrying his trousers, shoes and socks.

He also wore a smile on his face in keeping with the spirit of bohomie that reigned in West Oxford during the flood of 2007.

Had he been clad like that in the great flood of 1947, the smile would have been absent. For the great difference between that flood and the one that followed 60 years on was that the former arrived in March, in a near-freezing city still suffering from wartime rationing and at the tail end of a particularly snowy winter.

Wading about with bare legs would have been unthinkable. In the winter of 1946-47 buses and even whole houses in Oxfordshire disappeared in snow drifts. In Oxford itself there were milk and bread shortages.

Then, just as people thought the worst was over, came the thaw. Then the rain. Then more rain, then more. One writer described the county as resembling "one large lake" after both the Thames and the Cherwell rivers burst their banks.

By Saturday, March 15, Wytham was completely cut off and in Wolvercote 200 homes were flooded.

Among the worst affected Oxford areas were Hinksey, St Ebbes and Osney.

With the ice and snow up river melting and the rain still falling, water left many Oxford houses awash. One family was sitting round their fireplace when water rushed in through the door, swirled round the furniture and put the fire out.

More than 3,000 households were affected in the city of Oxford alone. Lord Mayor E. A. Smewin opened a special flood relief fund for the needy.

In many cases, there was little time to take furniture upstairs, so the pieces floated about. In one house, hens took up residence in a bathroom. The owner said they didn't seem to mind too much as they laid double yokers!

A power station in Lower Cherwell Street, Banbury, was swamped, causing the town to lose electricity. When the Cherwell and the canal merged to form one large watercourse, the mainline railway was left under 2ft of water.

In Chipping Norton, gas was cut off when the gas works flooded. In Burford the church floor was flooded with 11in of water.

Still worse followed. Hurricane force winds hurtled across Oxfordshire after the weekend, bringing down trees and power cables.

In 1947 there were still people around who could remember the other big flood - November 1894. In that year one man paddled down Great Clarendon Street in a bath tub, and water poured in torrents into houses in Grandpont, Hinksey, Osney, and Jericho. Abingdon was described as Venice without the gondolas.

The other great flood was in 1774 when the old Henley Bridge, dating back to 1234, was swept away.

Leafing through The Oxford Times cuttings it seems that there have been floods every few years in the city, though levels of water that used to occur once every 20 years now appear once every five years. Let's just hope the next flood does not strike in winter!