The weather is one of the most common topics of local conversation, especially on those occasions when the Thames bursts its banks as it did over Christmas.

Many Abingdon residents made the almost ritual pilgrimage to Abingdon Bridge to view for themselves the extent of the flooding and compare it mentally with other occasions they had witnessed or heard about from older relatives.

Over the centuries the town’s three rivers, the Thames and its tributaries the Ock and the Stert, have burst their banks resulting in widespread flooding.

Flood markers at Abingdon Lock record the height of the Thames during the worst years: 1875, 1894, 1947 and 2014. Fifteenth century townsmen and merchants had the foresight to add flood arches to the end of Abingdon Bridge and construct the connecting causeway to old Culham Bridge.

Victorian mapmakers who produced the first Ordnance Survey maps specifically noted land ‘liable to flood’ and would probably be horrified to see much of this land has been built upon.

A major factor in flooding was melting snow and ice. The 17th and early 18th centuries formed part of a period known as the Little Ice Age. In the closing years of the 17th century, the Thames at Abingdon is known to have frozen over in the winters of 1683- 4 and 1694. A comment in the Christ’s Hospital minute book, “The weather being very cold and all things dear,” is in sharp contrast to the almost carnival atmosphere of the first ‘Frost Fair’ held on the frozen Thames in London recorded by John Evelyn in his diary: ‘all sorts of commodities, trades and shops, even a printing press……and all manner of sports.’ The extreme cold ensured that the Thames was frozen over for several weeks and the eventual thaw brought inevitable flooding. Melting snow was also a major factor in April 1908 when up to 27 inches of snow is recorded as having fallen on Abingdon.

Throughout the Thames Valley the November Floods of 1894 were spectacular but catastrophic. They were described at the time as ‘the worst in living memory’.

Between October 23 and November 17, more than eight inches of rain fell locally inundating the Rookery and riverside meadows as far as the eye could see.

The effects were also felt throughout the town from Broad Street to Ock Street. The residents of the Long Alley almshouses had to be temporarily rehoused.

1903 was a very wet year with tropical downpours in June which brought major flooding to Ock Street and the bottom of Spring Road.

The courses of the Ock and the Stert are not immediately obvious. The Stert, once an open stream on the east side of the street bearing its name, is now largely culverted.

Today the Stert may occasionally be glimpsed as it wends its way through north Abingdon and past Boxhill Wood before entering the Thames near Abingdon Bridge. The Ock, once the southern boundary of the old borough, is largely hidden from view by buildings to the north and south.

In May 1913, the local press reported on the effects of a violent thunderstorm and downpour lasting over two hours which caused major flooding throughout the town but particularly in Stert Street.

The newly constructed culvert in Stert Street was completely overwhelmed by the swollen Stert rushing through the grounds of Fitzharris House where the force of the water smashed the stone boundary wall.

Businesses in Stert Street and Broad Street bore the brunt; stocks were destroyed as cellars were engulfed and ground floors flooded to a height of two feet. The audience at the Picture Palace in Stert Street was forced to evacuate the premises in the middle of a performance.

Tropical downpours are now happening more frequently. In July 2007 heavy and prolonged rainfall caused the river Ock to burst its banks and Ock Street was flooded for the first time in over a hundred years.

The Thames was also running high causing the volume of water coming down the Ock to back up.

The little brick footbridge near St Helen’s mill was later demolished by the Environment Agency to improve channel flows and thus prevent flooding in the Caldecott area, one of the areas designated as ‘liable to flood’ in the 1870s.