• Question: how come England floods more in somerset than any where else ?

    Asked by sophwebie to Angela, Claire, Ian, Robert, Sarah on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Ian Cade

      Ian Cade answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Not an enormous mystery, despite the impression you might have got from the news.

      Simply, some parts of Somerset are very low lying (the Somerset levels no more than 10m above sea level). This means they are more prone to flooding from the sea, and if they are covered in water it takes a long time for the water to drain away.

      Indeed the Somerset levels were inhabitable only fairly recently having been drained from the 1600s onwards. I remember seeing pictures from in this region in a particular village, in which some houses had been flooded. It was immediately apparent that the church (presumably one of the oldest buildings) was on the little spot of high ground and the newer, flooded, houses were off that small rise, on what presumably used to be farmland.

    • Photo: Angela Stokes

      Angela Stokes answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      Hi sophwebie
      The fens in East Anglia flood almost every year as they are very low lying too, the difference is that in East Anglia there are drains which were built in 15 century by a Dutchman called Vermuyden which causes the fens to drain relatively quickly

Comments

  • Photo: 358chea24

    358chea24 commented on :

    I think Somerset floods more because when we a lot of rain, the water has nowhere to go because the drains are blocked with leaves and other things such as mud and dirt. If the rain is very bad, then roads will flood easily and will have to be closed until the weather improves.