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Wednesday 30 May 2018

Water, Water Everywhere - Sepia Saturday

This week's prompt photograph from Sepia Saturday dates from 1912 and features a group of bsrefooted children.  paddling  in a flooded street in Beverly, Yorkshire.   

Until recently, I lived in Hawick, the largest town in the Scottish Borders, situated in Teviotdale where two rivers meet - the River Teviot and the Slitrig Water. Or as one of the many well known local songs says poetically : 

Where Slitrig dances down the dell
To join the Teviot Water
There dwells auld Hawick's honest men
And Hawick's bright eyed daughters.

In the 1970's the River Teviot flooded and my husband, a teacher, took these photographs around the High School,  which to the delight of many children was closed for a few days. 


Since then, the river has flooded several  times,  with much more serious damage and distress for both residents, evacuated from their homes for months on end, and for businesses. Plans are now in place for a Flood Protection Scheme. 


 

 At least they have footwear!  

The River Teviot, rising high,  can be seen behind the railings. 

 The science labs in the background 

Looking across the to the school sports hall.  












 
What struck me now about these previous two photographs is how, forty years on,   the landscape has changed.  The mill chimney and mill buildings have since been demolished - a sign of how Hawick's once proud textile industry has diminished. 
 








This was the scene in in Wilton Lodge Park











The same bridge and river on a much more peaceful day.
 In calmer waters.
  
Copyright © 2018 · Susan &  Neil  Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs


 
 
Click HERE to read other bloggers' watery tales 

6 comments:

  1. The power of water has been brought home to me with our recent flooding...lots of damage. And I remember Houston last year! But kids will be kids, and playing in water comes naturally. Thanks for sharing the before-after photo especially!

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  2. What a great match for the theme! Not where I live, but elsewhere in Virginia there is quite a bit of flooding going on right now causing mud slides and road closures.

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  3. You did match the theme well! I'm glad to live up on a hill where we are not likely to flood. Several areas in the US being hit by flood waters this weekend.

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  4. A lot of flooding here! But the pix your husband took of the high school kids enjoying a watery break from school were not only fun, but fit the bill perfectly! :)

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  5. A perfect match! Floods used to be devastating in olden times but I don't think the aftereffects were as difficult to deal with as today's pollution and rebuilding.

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  6. Thank you for all your comments. Here in the UK floods seem to have increasingly a deveststing effect on property and people’s lives, no matter the time of year. Fortunately in Hawick we lived on the last road on the hillside, so,flooding was not a risk we faced.

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