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~ ~ The High Tides
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High Tides
The whole coast of East Lincolnshire is low-lying. Much of the land a few miles behind the coast is only six or seven feet above sea level, and for a few more miles further inland there are just mounds of glacial clay some ten to twenty feet above sea level, that form the site for some of the older villages. In Roman Times sea level was about 20 feet lower, and a long line of sandbanks off the Lincolnshire coast broke the force of storm surges, but from the 2nd century sea level stated to rise and by the 13th century had led to slower runoff from rivers (lower gradients), and seasonal freshwater flooding of the coastal marshes (especially in winter).
The tidal range on the North Sea coast is about 22 feet, though higher in estuaries like the Humber. Poor protection from sea incursions at high tide is provided by low sand dunes (at most 25 ft above mean sea level), but 'sea banks' were built by farmers to protect their reclaimed fertile silt land, mostly along the Wash shoreline. In recent times massive stone and concrete constructions protect holiday settlements from erosion. A natural North to South longshore drift of material along the coast, sometimes held up by the construction of groynes (wooden fences built out of material along the coast) helps to maintain a broad gently shelving foreshore a feature that led to the development of the 'holiday coast' when the railways brought families from the industrial midlands - on August Bank Holiday 1874 Skegness's 500 inhabitants were swamped by some 10,000 trippers.
The potential for increased flooding is enhanced by the fact that the whole of south-eastern England is gradually 'sinking' tectonically (for a variety of geological reasons). Sea flooding comes generally with a combination of high tides in the North Sea with a strong wind of northerly and North-easterly direction. As northerly winds have a particularly long 'fetch' (stretch of open ocean), wave size builds markedly as the offshore zone is particularly shallow. The height of waves can then break through the seas' defence, as in the serious floods of 1953.
The High Tide of 1571 and Jean Ingelow's Poem
The famous High Tide of 5th October 1571 was not the first, not the last, flooding to affect the Lincolnshire coast. There are references to fresh water flooding and the breaching of embankments as early as 1178 ("the old sea wall broke and the whole country of Holland was deluged and destroyed by the sea") and 1439, possibly more the result of high tides preventing the flow of the embanked rivers into the sea. Another inundation (1467) occurred "by reason of snows and continuous rains ... during a whole month ... the waters ... being agitated by strong gusts of wind." Some rivers had sluice gates, closed at high tide to prevent salt water ingress, but opened at low tide to let out fresh water; the opening of the sluices was not possible during prolonged storm surges.
The 1571 flood affected the low lying land on the North Sea coast but was particularly destructive around the Wash and in Holland to the south of the Wash. The flood had two main causes. There was heavy rainfall over the whole of the south of England, from Kent to Warwickshire and East Anglia. The swollen river Nene draining int o the Wash through Wisbech ("flooded some feet deep") backed up as far Wansford where the bridge carrying the Great North Road had three of the eight arches carried away. Besides the heavy rain, swelling all the main rivers, the storm surge down the North Sea contributed to the disaster.
The onshore wind led to the shipwreck of some sixty ships on the coast between Grimsby and Boston. Flooding destroyed the Elizabethan salterns and drowned a very large number of livestock; there are references to some 20,000 cattle and at least 3,000 sheep being lost on the North Sea coast alone. Hollingshead's Account of Damage done in the County of Lincoln, by the Tempest of Wind and Rain ... on the 5th October .... 1571 refers to a village, Mumby Chapel, that survived as only three houses, with a ship being driven onto one of the houses - the mariners climbed onto the roof and also saved a mother they found there, though the husband and her child perished. Mumby Chapel was located on the north bank of what was one of the main lines draining the southern Wolds, near Chapel Point (slightly to the North of the present Chapel St Leonards).
This account, or version of it, may well have influenced Jean Ingelow's Poem (Verse 17 about sitting on the roof above flood waters). The eygre of verses 14 and 15 is an egre or bore - strong tidal flow that, when meeting quieter water upstream, forms a standing wave. Bores are will known on the River Severn and the River Trent and such a strong flow may well have occurred int he winding 'Lindis' when a high tide was bolstered by a powerful north-easterly wind and funnelled up a narrowing stream. Lindis appears to be a made up river name, but mews and peewits of verse 2 are sea gulls and lapwings. In verses 4 and 5, melick is a grass of the Festuca family; while cowslips and parsley hollow (cow parsley, as opposed to the culinary kind) both seem to be out of season for the October high tide.
The 18th century saw several serious floods in the Boston area; in 1779 the lower part of Boston was "overflowed by the tide;" and in 1807 water was one foot deep over floor level and in 1810 whole streets completely inundated and flooding affected the whole area from Wainfleet to Spalding.
There would have been talk of this in Jean Ingelow's childhood and the true location of the High Tide poem seems closer to Boston's River Witham. The 1807 flood was referred to as a "stolen tide ... the country was not prepared for it" and verse 2 refers to the 'stolen tyde'. The 'tune of Enderby' was heard by the narrator, the steeple was rather more than five miles away, the Lindis flows to the town (verse 21), where the goodly vessels lie and where the lordly steeple shows (verse 9). Everyone along the banks eyed the red sky to the west. The tide might well have been high enough in Boston to flood the Market Place (verse 12). Certainly a beacon (verse 18) was historically lit in the lantern of Boston Stump as a warning signal.
Godfrey Chatfeld
Lincolnshire, 1999