I just happened to be trawling through some indexes to our records when a subject caught my eye – the Great flood of Salisbury Plain down to the Wylye Valley in 1841. What particularly drew me to the reference was a note concerning a piece of doggerel about the event, which resonates with the events happening across Britain toady, particularly in Somerset.

I have always been curious about doggerel and other poetic forms as an historical record commemorating events (and people), especially disasters, such as William McGonagall’s poem on the Tay Railway Bridge disaster of 1879. But what I found was even more astonishing; forget the 8 verses by McGonagall, our document contains 51 verses, in part 1, and a further 25 in part 2, a grand total of 76 stanzas detailing an event that, according to contemporary local newspapers, lasted a mere 12 hours, though with such force and hugely disastrous consequences for the local communities. The document (WSA 1336/98) is a transcript of a letter by Ann Doughty of Hanging Langford to her mother some days after the flood with a doggerel rhyme by an unknown author.

Those who have lived in Wiltshire far longer than I will probably know about the event, but for the uninitiated here is a summary. On 16th January 1841, two days after a heavy snow storm, a rapid thaw led to a severe flash flood in the area of the Salisbury Plain drained by the River Till, down to the River Wylye. Two communities especially hard hit were Tilshead and Shrewton, where 36 houses were destroyed, 3 people drowned and more than 200 made homeless. The flood reached its peak between 8 pm and 10 pm, but by 3 am the next morning it was completely dry.

Ann Doughty provides a remarkable account. She says that the ‘place was all in a sea’ and tells the story of Mr Doughty who was returning from Warminster. At Codford Mr Doughty just escaped drowning when he climbed on to the horse pulling his cart. Shrewton was “ten times worse then it were any where besides, there were more than 3 hundred souls destitute of a home, all their houses flat to the ground. It came on so fast, about nine o’clock in the evening some of the poor souls were gone to bed.  Poor women hanging on the rafters with their babes as long as they could and then obliged to let them drop.” Collections were made to help rebuild the villages and in 1842 Flood Cottages were erected in Tilshead, the rents raising income to help sustain the poor affected by the floods, with money distributed to the poor on January 16th every year.

The 76 verses do not convey the immediacy and sheer terror of Ann Doughty’s account, but are compelling nonetheless. The poem starts:

Rise mournful muse and sing the flood
That swept through Sarum’s Plain
Where many a lowly dwelling stood
The Test of wind and rain

The following six verses set the scene until verse 8 when;

At Tilshead first the mighty flood
Its awful powers displayed
Its houses, built with clay or mud
Were soon to ruins laid

The poet then follows the flow of the water through Shrewton, Elston, Maddington, Stoke Winterbourne and Orcheston, and by verse 13:

Now step by step the waters climb
First entering  ay each door
Then in a trifling space of time
They reached the second floor

Verses  17 and 18  confirms Anne Doughty’s stories about the mothers and their children “Each to their tender offspring clung, Unwilling to forgo”; while verses 23 to 42 refer to the scenes around  “Blewdon’s House” which “in ruins lay” and was the scene of the apparent demise a young boy who “Fell from his mother’s hold”. A gentleman named Mills from Elston House heroically appears to save some family members from the “threatening currents sway”. Concluding part 1, verse 51 records:

Thus were Four Hundred mortals driven
Away from house and home
Beneath the Wintry frowns of heaven
To wait till daylight come.

Part two describes the scenes and reaction after the flood:

“The morning dawn at length arose
The flood no longer viewed
But every garden, croft and close
Appeared with ruins strewed
(part 2 verse 1)

Now destitute the people roam
Half naked in despair
Some vainly search their ruined home
And tell what once was there.
(part 2 verse 6)

It also shows how the community came together and raised money for the relief of the disaster as shown. In verse 20 it is noted:

“The kindred breast of charity
Has been wide open thrown
And hearts most bountiful and free
Have much compassion shown”

The poem was written by John Frearson, a Leicestershire born schoolmaster residing in Woodborough, Pewsey, and was published in local newspapers at the time.

Our thoughts go out to all those affected by the flooding this year, and hope that the constant rain will come to an end to enable people to rebuild their homes and livelihoods. 

Terry Bracher
Archive and Local Studies Manager