Water, water, everywhere.

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My previous post showed quite a bit of shallow flooding around Bourne End over the Festive season and I was wondering, how things were at Marlow, further upstream, and at Cookham in the other direction. 

There are weirs at both locations holding the water back if necessary, but on closer investigation both were fully open allowing everything through. This means that flooding usually takes place below the weir, as any rise in level upstream, simply flows over it. 

The river was 'up' however at Marlow Bridge and was just starting to flood the park. Below the lock it was a totally different matter. 

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The River is normally 12ft. lower here.

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The Thames path and meadows here are normally a good 12 ft. above water level, and were now probably a couple of feet under-water. As the river widens out along the Winter Hill and Bourne End reach, the fields and Cock Marsh, flood (see the previous post) and so that near Cookham the level is back down again.

Alongside Cookham bridge some builders appear to trying to put up some ‘Luxury apartments’.

And they talk about ‘building on a flood plain! 

Just imagine trying to get house insurance here?

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Building on a flood plain.

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I stood on Cookham Bridge looking down to the islands and thought,
I’ll try and get on them and take some pictures.
Towards the end of the video you can see that the water level on either side of Cookham weir is almost the same. 

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Same level on either side of the weir!

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The island that I went to is slap bang in the centre 

(where the wee post is) on the next picture.

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Weirs to the left - weirs to the right.

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I stood right on the end of the island and for a bit of fun, took pictures looking back towards the bridge. 

I thought of playing ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’ but I couldn’t find the music, and besides - the river wasn’t really the cause of much ‘trouble‘ here.
I’m pleased to say that I haven’t heard of any homes flooded near here.

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