Maidenhead flooding through the ages

The Royal Borough is no stranger to rising waters and sandbags.

Soldiers helping out in Wraysbury and Datchet this week evoked the spirit of March 1947 when they pitched in with rescuing people stranded during floods in Maidenhead.

The Advertiser called the flooding at the time the 'greatest disaster to ever hit Maidenhead'.

Floods returned to the town in 1959, when Bridge Road was submerged underneath water.

1974 was the first test of a flood ditch that had been installed in 1967 at a cost of £240,000.

The council's then technical services officer, Harry Mills, said the ditch performed 'majestically'.

Cookham was cut off for two days and planners were heavily criticised for building on the flood plain.

Torrential rain in February 1990 saw homes in Marlow and Maidenhead's Riverside area flooded, with Cookham once again cut off.

It was followed by flash-floods in July 2007, with drains unable to cope with heavy rainfall.