The rainstorm which fell in the Rushden and Higham Ferrers district on Sunday night was the most terrific known in this neighbourhood for many years, the volume of water for so short a period being about the heaviest on record.  According to Mr. Primavesi’s readings at Northampton, 2.65 inches fell in about ten hours on Sunday night and early Monday morning, and 0.24 of an inch was recorded on Monday, or nearly three inches of rain, equal to 67,851 gallons of water to the acre, in 18 hours.  It is interesting to note for comparative purposes that only 1 ¾ inches of rain fell in Northampton during the whole month of August 1921.

  At Rushden last Sunday night’s experiences were little short of appalling.  The rains during the night were torrential, and combined with the strong wind, made a weird mid-winter sound which probably kept awake the majority of the inhabitants.  So fierce was the beating rain that in scores of houses the roofs began to leak and the water found its way through the faulty window cills and the cracks in the door-ways.  Some of the house-holders were kept busy the night through in trying to combat the ravages of the elements.  In many cases walls which hitherto had been impervious to the attacks of storms succumbed on Sunday night and were next morning dripping with moisture.  Serious havoc was made with the fruit trees, and thousands of immature apples, pears, plums, &c., were hurled from the trees by the combined attack of rain and wind.

  In one office in Rushden the furniture was found on Monday morning to be floating about in the water, while books and papers had to be rescued from the flood.  Several High street tradesmen found their basements flooded on Monday morning, and the greater part of the Bank Holiday had to be spent in rescuing goods of various kinds, and in baling out the water.  In one house the breakfast table had been laid out over-night as the occupants were to start early on Monday on a holiday, but when the people came down on Monday morning they found the breakfast cups half filled with rain water.

  During the torrential downpour at Wellingborough in the early hours of Monday morning, many cellars were flooded and drains, unable to carry off the rush of water, were burst.  Campers and trippers off to catch the early trains were thoroughly drenched ere they reached the station.

  People arriving by train on Monday for Castle Ashby Flower Show had to go through flood water, and the Rushden Band arrived late on account of being turned back by floods at Grendon.

  Yardley Hastings suffered badly, six sheep and many hens being drowned.  In one instance supply milk churns were floated out of a farm cart and borne swiftly away on the flood water.

  The acreage under water in Northamptonshire is the largest for some years.

  A boys’ camp in the neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon has been washed away, and Anne Hathaway’s cottage was completely isolated.