Winter Storms (October 23)

Winter weather arrived with a bang in October 2023 with Storm Babet. It hit the whole country with East Anglia, and especially Suffolk being badly hit. Roads were flooded, houses were flooded and even villages were cut off. Schools and offices were flooded and even if they weren't people who lived out of town had difficulty in reaching their destination due to flooded roads.

Parts of Suffolk had nearly two months worth of rain in four days in the wake of Storm Babet.
A major incident was declared in the county on Friday, as persistent rain and high winds caused flooding and major disruption

Framlingham was one of the worst hit towns, with 70 homes affected, while a herd of cows nearly drown. The water in the Railway Inn reached the window sills.

The villages of Upper Layham and Lower Layham were completely cut off from each other. Villages who had lived in Upper Layham for more than 40 years had never seen the water so high or so far spread. The area between the Granary and the Mill House was under three feet of water as was Water Lane. A large part of the playing field and the entire nature reserve was under water.

The bungalows facing the river Brett were watching the river carefully as the water rose to unprecedented levels on the housing side of the river. Fortunately it never reached beyond the path that separated the green swathe from the gardens of the bungalows.

Heading in towards Hadleigh parts of the road were flooded and sheep were stranded where they had been left to graze on the meadow. Residents in Bridge Street, Hadleigh were flooded and the road through to Morrison's, from the town was impassable.

Storm Babet passed and life went back to normal, at least for a couple of weeks, then on November 12 Storm Debi hit. Although Suffolk didn't receive the worst of the storm, waterlogged fields and roads soon became flooded again. Some schools were closed due to flooding and businesses and houses were affected again. Upper and Lower Layham were cut off once again but only for a day.

Going into 2024 there has been more wind and rain with the exception of a couple of days when there was some frost. The meadows at Flatford Mill were very water logged.

Going into February the fields around Suffolk are still water logged and side and main roads flood every time there is any rain.

Anglian water reported 'This winter seems set to be one of the wettest ever seen in East Anglia with nearly double the normal level of rain falling over the the last three months'.

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