Oakington and Westwick were originally located on the edge of the fens, a large area of wetland that once covered much of the northern half of Cambridgeshire as well as south-east Lincolnshire and parts of west Norfolk. The fen edge was a desirable place to live in medieval times and earlier, as it offered sufficiently dry ground for building and agriculture while the adjacent wetland provided fish, eels and fowl for food, turf and reeds for fuel and building material, waterways for transport, and highly fertile meadows that although flooded in winter provided rich summer grazing for cows and sheep. Anglo-Saxon immigrants such as Hoc, from whom Oakington (originally Hochinton) derives its name, may have had such benefits in mind when they chose to settle here in the 5th century AD (see Anglo-Saxon Oakington). Large scale drainage of the fens began in the 17th century and continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and comparatively little wetland now remains. However, the low-lying and flat nature of the land means that flooding is still relatively common.
Waterways
Oakington lies on the Oakington Brook, that drains water from the comparatively high ground around Bar Hill and towards Hardwick and Childerley. The brook flows through the village, crossing both Dry Drayton Road then Cambridge Road near the crossroads, and runs southeast of Water Lane (the very name of which is suggestive of flooding!) to where it joins Beck Brook by Mansell Wood. Beck Brook (which drains water from areas including Girton, Madingley and Dry Drayton) then crosses the busway, is joined by Histon Brook, and flows through Westwick Park to Westwick Bridge. It subsequently flows north to Cuckoo Bridge and Rampton before joining Cottenham Lode which leads to the River Great Ouse. Oakington Brook and Beck Brook have been major sources of flooding in recent times during periods of heavy rain that lead to water overflowing their banks.
Some significant floods in Oakington and Westwick are recorded below.
14th Century Floods
There is some evidence to suggest a rise in the water table at some point in the early 1300s. An area to the northeast of Cuckoo Bridge in Cottenham parish known as the Holme appears to have become known as Holmere around this time, suggesting that it had become fenland when normally it was dry, and documents from the time also show it as being the terminus of the Beck Brook. Impington parish reported 200 acres of floods around this time, and significant floods were also recorded in Swavesey in 1325 and 1340. In Landbeach there are numerous appearances of le slo (the slough) as a place name from 1316 until 1402, and blocked watercourses became a major topic on 14th century court documents. Moreover, deposits of alluvium (clay, sand and gravel) extending 100 m or more on either side of the Beck Brook from the Holme as far as the present day Gatehouse Road, and along Oakington Brook as far as today’s Cambridge Road suggests significant flooding in these areas. Along Oakington Brook the deposited alluvium covers a number of deserted house platforms and ridge and furrow fields, and an ancient track that ran south-east of Water Lane with dwellings on both sides appears to have been abandoned around this time. It therefore seems likely that there was a great flood around this time. No further significant building took place in the area south-east of Water Lane until the 20th century.
Presumably further flooding would have occurred periodically throughout the medieval and early modern periods.
1853 Floods
A newspaper article from 1853 reported:
16th Jul 1853 – VILLAGE FLOODED. The greater part of this village has been flooded and many of the inhabitants were obliged to leave their houses fearing the building would fall on them. Several houses have fallen partly down and a great quantity of hay has been carried away by the storm. Mr John Papworth (farmers) is supposed to have lost £30 or £40 worth. Surely says a correspondent it is now time that drainage should be calmly and dispassionately considered and the enquiry is what holds the water up. I believe it is partly the railroad and hope there will be some improvement made.
1875 Floods
Harry Wilson, who had a workshop on Water Lane in the early 20th century, recalled floods in the village when he was about nine years old, which would have been about 1875. He apparently used a (probably wooden) pig trough as a canoe and paddled about on the flooded roads.
Meanwhile, a newspaper reported:
13th Nov 1875 – VILLAGE FLOODED. On Thursday last, we had a heavy fall of rain this morning and the village is flooded. Some of the inhabitants are obliged to live upstairs. The water in the centre of the village was between two and three feet deep.
1947 Floods
RW recalled floods in Longstanton Road in 1947.
1958 Floods
1978 Floods
The following photos show the 1978 floods
1998 Floods
2001 Floods
2014 Floods
(Photographs taken from the September 2014 edition of the Village Journal, where they were credited to Mike Oakley and Adam Broadbent).
The floods of August 2014 were particularly severe, with around 60 properties in the village having flooding indoors and another 40–50 with flooding in their garage or out-buildings. The immediate cause of the flood was some unusual weather conditions on 8th August 2014, which caused some very heavy rain over a small part of Cambridgeshire centred on Oakington and Bar Hill. 124 mm (over 5 inches) of rain fell between 2 pm and 6 pm, with further rain in the early evening bringing the total to around 140 mm (about 6 inches) – about three times the average for the entire month of August in just six hours, and unprecedented in living memory.
The heavy rain let initially to some surface flooding of roads, temporarily blocking the A14, the A428 and Oakington Crossroads among others in the area. As the water level in Oakington Brook was low at that time (due to previous dry weather) the surface water slowly drained into the brook and by early evening the roads were mostly clear. However, the heavy rainfall in Bar Hill resulted in a lot of water being funnelled into the upper parts of Oakington Brook and its tributaries (such as Dam Brook above Bar Hill), slowly at first while side ditches were filling up but then very quickly once the soil was wet and the ditches were full. This led to huge surge of water flowing downstream. Flood mitigation ponds at Bar Hill were overwhelmed and the surge continued downstream towards Oakington, reaching the village late in the evening of 8th August. The bridges (or, more correctly, culverts) where the brook flows under Dry Drayton Road and Cambridge Road could not cope with the volume of water and caused the brook to back up and overflow its banks, spreading into streets, gardens and houses. Among the most badly affected areas (where many residents had to be evacuated) were the Broadway, Orchard Way, Longstanton Road and Arcadia Gardens.
Meanwhile, Histon Brook (which appears not to have coped well with the rain falling in the Histon area) had also overflowed, causing Histon to flood and closing the main road through the village for a considerable period. The relatively slow flow of water through Histon Brook, combined with the fact that the catchment area of the Beck Brook fortunately did not receive as much rain as that of Oakington Brook meant that the section of Beck Brook around Westwick Bridge and downstream was able to cope. Westwick and the eastern end of Oakington were therefore spared the worst of the flooding that they might have experienced otherwise.
Over the 24 hours after the flood the water levels gradually dropped as the water slowly made its way through to Beck Brook, Cottenham Lode and the Great Ouse. However, many residents had had to vacate their homes, and some were not able to move back until Easter the following year due to the amount of repair work needed to make their homes habitable again.
A more detailed account of the floods can be found in the September 2014 edition of the Village Journal and in a flood pull-out included in the November 2014 edition.
2014 Floods – The Aftermath
Following the 2014 floods some work was undertaken to clean out sections of Oakington Brook, and the Environment Agency began using the monitoring station on Oakington Brook (located upstream of the village, near the former Tomato Farm) to issue flood alerts when the brook rises above a certain level. The current brook level can be viewed here: https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/6295. We have also been promised that a flood attenuation pond will be constructed on Oakington Brook, as part of the development of Northstowe. Unfortunately, progress towards this has so far been frustratingly slow, with no sign of any work starting ten years after the 2014 floods.
A volunteer Flood Mitigation Group, linked to the Parish Council and to the Oakington and Westwick Community Plan Environment Action Group, has also been established in the village. The Flood Mitigation Group monitors the condition of Oakington Brook, Beck Brook, and other watercourses in the parish and on many occasions has had success in persuading the Environment Agency to carry out maintenance work. The group also continues to push for the installation of the promised attenuation ponds.
Sources include:
- Archaeology of Cambridgeshire Vol 2: South East Cambridgeshire and the Fen Edge, Alison Taylor, Cambridgeshire County Council, 1998
- Liable to Floods: Village landscape on the edge of the fens A.D.450-1850, J.R.Ravensdale, Cambridge University Press, 1974
- Oakington and Westwick Journals
- Ralph Warboys’ History of Oakington
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