Hewitt's History Files

When the flooding first hit, David, who lives in Yapton, was comfortably ensconced, deep in local history, in Chichester's County Record Office.

It was getting on for lunch. He looked out of the window, saw it was raining and decided to carry on. Mid-afternoon, he looked up again, It was still raining.

And it was still raining when he got up to go- which was when he first realised just what that downpour was now threatening.

Chichester's great flood of January 1994 lives on in the memory of everyone involved, a ghastly few weeks when lifeboats floated up country lanes and in which bridges replaced roundabouts- weeks in which total disaster for the city centre menaced at every moment.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette January 16