Post by Les on Oct 7, 2017 3:40:42 GMT
Maidstone I remember it well: Seeing the picture of the floods in the High Street reminds me that in the 1960 flood I was working at Chiesmans then and we had about 3 feet of water in the basement for several days after that flood so we couldn't work down there and the whole department had to be re-decorated afterwards, the staff gents toilet was down there too so that wasn't available either, we had to use the undergound public toilets outside under the Cannon traffic island, anyone remember them? Also Maidstone featured on the front page of the Daily Mirror the day after the flood, a view looking towrards the river with a Loose Trolley Bus on the front of a national daily paper!!! Wow, how extraordinary was that!! I recall the raised walkways provided by the Council to get people to work and to and fro to the station and numerous vehicles that came to grief as the water was very deep each side of the bridge and had to be towed out. We had another flood in 1968 which was not quite as bad, but again the High Street was under water and I had a friend who worked nearer the river at 'House of Carpets' and his car was submerged at the rear of the shop, it was an old Ford Zepher, but we got it out after a few days and lo and behold after towing it along Fairmeadow a few times it started!!! It smelled rather badly though until it was totally dried out as you can imagine!! It was this flood (1968) that I recall seeing furniture from Len Cabinet Works floating along Palace Avenue and into Bishops Way before flowing off the edge into the Medway as the river Len had swollen to such a degree it swept right through Len Cabinet Works and Marchant & Tubb's premises in Water Lane and Granada Street quite an event!