FLOODS IN OXFORD

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Floods in Oxford

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There was bad flooding in 1903 (June), 1947 (March), 1954 (November), 1959, 1979 (December), 1998 (Easter), 2007 (July), and 2014 (January). Flooding in Oxford was much worse before 1900, as until then the locks were built not to let down the water but to keep it back, so that the flood plains nearly always flooded after heavy rain. They often remained permanently flooded in winter, and when they froze it was possible to skate for miles across the fields above and below Oxford.

Here is an extract from Jackson's Oxford Journal of 4 July 1789:

The rains which have lately fallen in and near Oxford, have raised the Isis to such a height, as to threaten total destruction to the hay harvest. The Cherwell is upwards of 1 feet perpendicularly higher than the Isis, and falls with an amazing eddy.