Sparrow's Den

Flooded rugby pitches at Sparrow's Den, at the bottom of Corkscrew Hill, West Wickham.  24 February 2014.

Towards the end of the recent wet spell, this field filled up with water.  It's still there a month later, though the rain stopped a couple of weeks ago.

These rugby pitches were flooded a few years ago, apparently because an underground watercourse became clogged or blocked.  So perhaps the same thing has happened again; or maybe it's just a very high water table.

Some houses and gardens were also affected, and for a week or more a relay of fire engines were pumping water down the road.

Relay of fire engines emptying from behind Courtfield Rise to a stream in Summer Grove.  23 February 2014.

 There were three fire engines in the relay.  The firemen seemed to have done their work and were now busy supervising the pumping.  The outlet was in a small stream a little further down.

Water being pumped into a stream in Summer Grove.  23 February 2014.

A few days later, they found a closer outlet that just needed a single fire engine; then, later still, there was just a mobile pump with hoses leading to a drain close by.  But the field is still flooded.  By now the grass will be dying and it will be some job to get it back into shape when - or if - it is drained again.

Sparrow's Den, West Wickham.  17 February 2013.

This is what Sparrow's Den was like a year ago.  And below, a view from the hillside opposite earlier in March.  Incidentally, the wood on the hillside beyond it and the so-far-unflooded field below is Spring Park, which I have shown here before and will do again.

The flooded Sparrow's Den rugby pitches seen from the steps of St John's Church, West Wickham.  6 March 2014.

(Added later:  The earlier flooding was in 2001, apparently beginning on Wednesday 4th April.  According to a report on the web, the current flooding is caused by tree roots in a culvert silting up and causing a blockage.)