FLOODS during torrential downpours in the centre of Ipswich were featured in a recent Kindred Spirits. Readers have sent memories of past storms in our area.

FLOODS during torrential downpours in the centre of Ipswich were featured in a recent Kindred Spirits. Readers have sent memories of past storms in our area.

Michael Field said by e-mail: “I am now 74 and I recall as a small boy seeing a mound of wooden blocks gradually rise up in the Butter Market about halfway between Upper Brook Street and the Ritz Cinema during a downpour.

“The road was made up of wooden blocks then. The mound grew to about four to five feet high and roughly seven to eight feet wide at the base. It covered the width of the road.

“I feel sure that we saw it grow, then a council workman hit it with a sledge hammer, it collapsed, the blocks were then cleared away and re-laid into hot tar. It would be interesting to know if any of your readers saw this and could put a date to it.”

John Harrold, of Risby Close, Ipswich, recalls the massive storm of September 1968. John said: “The storm I particularly remember was a massive affair which affected a large area which reached Ipswich around 11pm.

“The storm caused much disruption to electricity supplies. I have not seen one so bad since.

“I was outside with many neighbours watching in awe an incessant lightning display, much of which was cloud to cloud lightning appearing horizontal much of the time and the thunder was rumbling continuously, but it seemed to take ages before it actually began raining.

“If I remember correctly it went on for a good two and a half to three hours.”