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Floods
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Christmas 2013
The River Avon at Bradford on Avon has always been liable to burst its banks. The river rises quickly with heavy rainfall and usually falls just as quickly after a brief flood.
It spills fairly harmlessly over the floodplain above Bradford, with the roads to Staverton Bridge becoming inundated very easily. At Bradford it has been narrowed by embankment walls and then enters the gorge-like Limpley Stoke valley, so is likely to flood the centre of the town.
Local myth has it that things improved when flood prevention was carried out in Bath in the 1960s, but there is a 10m difference in height between Bath and Bradford and much of Bath would have to be under water before it backed up to Bradford and there have been several incidents since then. The scheme has worked well for Bath, but didn’t affect Bradford. Another myth is that the bridge partially blocks the river and causes flooding, but flooding only occurs on the downstream side.
The level of the highest recorded flood, on 25 October 1882, is marked on a plaque on the riverside wall of Westbury Gardens.
St Margaret’s Street 1890s
The junction of Silver and Market Streets in 1903
May 1932
December 1960, Kingston Mills rubber factory
Flooding at the rear of the Swan Hotel, probably 1963
1979-1980 New Year
Bridge Street 2000
2003
Church Street 2009
Kingston Mills development 2012
Christmas Eve 2013
January 2024
November 2024 (photo by Gill Winfield)