There have been many floods over the years at Portland, the worst recorded was in 1924 when 16 souls lost their lives. The worst in my lifetime was the 1978 flooding, when as far as I am aware only a few broken bones were suffered.

There are two types of flooding at Portland's Victoria Square; One, the sea would, on reaching a certain height, find its way though the beach, and if there was a particularly high tide along with strong winds, flooding could be expected all along Chiswell, this I have to say has now been alleviated with the new flood defences that the environment agency have built, which takes the form of a culvert buried into the beach and is I have to say very effective as the sea perforates though the beach it runs into the culvert and along it and back out into the Harbour side.

The skittle alley was never rebuilt

The second type of flooding, is over the top. And here there is however one serious flaw (and this is my opinion) so bear with me and draw your own conclusions, the sea that flooded the Victoria Square and Chiswell was a rolling sea, i.e. it rolled in from the channel the normal flood being
big waves and a high tide, on this morning the tide was normal and there was little wind compared with some floods, the fitting of the culvert has if you like straightened the beach, now there is a solid concrete block stretching the length, from Chiswell Bay to half way along Chiswell Beach Road, now when the sea hits the old beach the one before the culvert, it literally sank though it, it was like pouring water on to a sieve, but next time the sea rolls up the beach instead of sinking though it, it will flow over the culvert and retain its power, and the damage it potentially could cause is mind-blowing, when you consider the damage the flood did before.

There is no doubt that Chesil Beach Motors lost out the most, their new showrooms were destroyed they lost all their cars own some brand new and lots belonging to customers too.

To be honest it is why I no longer live in Victoria Square, in my lovely old house, with its fantastic views along the beach, for the sake of my family, I knew (and still know now) that the Square and Chiswell itself are living on a knife edge. I am not saying it will happen again next week, and it may indeed be many years, but I am not prepared to take the risk and there were many like me who got out when they could and will never return.

This picture more than any other, optimises the power of the sea, and should be a valuable lesson in understanding its force and destructive nature, live by the sea and the sea can bite you.

The day of the flood started for me when a driver who was due to pick up from the Borstal, and who lived up Tophill and had taken the taxi home, with a phone call from him to say that the sea had flooded the square and the trip was cancelled. I rang the Navy to see why they had not opened the road through the air base for traffic which they would normally do, only to be told they were not going to as the sea had already flooded it. Looking out my bedroom window I could see that the
square and Chiswell was indeed flooded, and the sea was flooding over the car park wall. I guess looking back I should have realised that this was no ordinary flood as the sea would not normally flood over at my end but at the Chiswell end and run up the road.

Within about half an hour we saw the second wave come over the top of the beach; the noise of the building being hit by this and the four that followed was deafening, (see picture of the fifth wave that I managed to take). Cars, furniture, all sorts of rubbish, all came flooding by our house, people from West Bay terrace were getting out as they knew the stability of their houses was by now at risk. We had no option but to wait, as the only way we were getting out would be across the roofs of the garages at the back of my house, and that for my wife was not an option.

I watched as the front walls of the Victoria Cafe fell out with the force of the water, and I saw the counter still with the till float on it out after it, I rang my father who lived in Wyke Regis to tell him.
Looking back I don't think he really believed it so bad, after walking down to take a look soon came on the phone with advice to sit it out.

You can see in this picture where the sea has washed right through the houses on the beach side of the square.

We watched one chap try to get to his van parked on the car park, only to get washed off his feet. I later found out that the Navy in Devon had known about the waves at Plymouth lookout but failed to tell the Navy at Portland. The damage to helicopters was one reason they later pulled out and moved the Fleet Air Arm to Yeovil.

We were rescued by the Navy in rubber boats in the afternoon, and were then able to walk across the beach to Wyke Regis to stay at Dad's as we had no power or water (well not the sort you need). On our way there we saw the damage done to the Beach Road, where the force of the water had washed half of it away.

On our way to the mainland we came across a hole half the road was missing

I guess we were some of the lucky ones, in that the garage had flooded right through and left a terrible mess in the house, the ground floor where our kitchen was had been wrecked, the fridge freezer toppled over, the plaster on the walls ripped off, and everything totally destroyed.
It even killed the cat (he died three days later probably from shock). Everything in the garage had been moved by the force of the sea but fortunately the coaches were undamaged due to the height of the floor, and the fact that the garage had no cars in it at the time was very lucky.

Still water outside the next day

Walking up though Chiswell the next day, it can only be described as a bomb site, buildings with their fronts washed out onto the road and the Square strewn with furniture. All the cars at the back of Chisel Beach Motors, a Ford agent in the Square, were wrecked (the garage never opened again and moved to Easton Lane where it still is today) the force of the water was immense. I never knew for sure how many people left, but I know when the council offered alternative accommodation out at the Littlemoor estate loads took up the offer. Even the skittle alley was knocked over by the sea all the boats up on the beach were wrecked along with all the fishing huts. Millions of tons of pebbles were washed down the back of the beach and it took weeks to push them back using big bulldozers from the quarries, the whole place was a sorry mess, how nobody was killed is a miracle.

Looking up Chiswell from my house.

Looking down Chiswell from my house.

Piling the back of chiswell beach

The culverts on the car park waiting to be lowered in our garage can be seen in the background