The Media Archive for Central England is the public screen archive for the East and West Midlands. An independent charity and company based at the University of Lincoln, MACE acquires, catalogues, preserves and makes widely available moving image materials that inform our understanding of the diverse cultures and histories of communities between the Lincolnshire coast and the Welsh border.
This film is part of Free
Ruston and Hornsby Beevor Street Floods 1947
A post-war spring thaw brings flood chaos to Lincoln's industrial heartland.
From the collection of:
Overview
The winter of 1946/47 had been particularly bad. Large quantities of snow had built up causing chaos across Britain. The thaw struck in March and this amateur film shows its imapct on parts of Lincoln. The Beevor Street works of Ruston and Hornsby were flooded when Fossdyke and Brayford Pool overtopped their banks. There was no work in the foundry for a while, although the film shows office staff, presumably working above ground level, carrying on regardless.
Ruston and Hornsby Ltd was known in 1947 as makers of industrial diesel engines. In 1950 a huge new foundry was opened on the Beevor Street site, which was claimed at the time to be the largest in Europe. The company diversified into gas turbine production in the 1950s.