Imagine doing some Shopping in Kingston Upon Hull in the evening of the last Saturday before Christmas, 1921.
In the busy commercial Market Place and Lowgate there will likely have been a festive scene from the bright lighting of the shop windows, the pavement array of goods under the canopies and a riot of noise from the traders, barrow-men, the phut-phut of a few motor vehicles and a general hubbub of excited consumers making some almost last minute purchases.
In order to make the most of a weekends trading the shops will have been open quite late.
Although one of the coldest seasonal months of the year the weather conditions on that specific evening might have been remarked upon as being quite abnormally windy. Shopping bags and carried packages will have been buffeted about.
Not too unusual for the depths of winter but what did surprise shoppers and shop-owners was very quickly finding that they were wading through rapidly rising flood waters- the mucky, muddy type.
At 7.30pm on that night a disaster unfolded that the London Times called "of unexampled magnitude" causing considerable damage on a widespread coverage.
A combination of freakish conditions of high tide and strong coastal gales caused a bulge or tidal surge to race up the Humber Estuary from its source out in the North Sea. This overwhelmed Victoria Pier on its way West and being funnelled up the narrow River Hull corridor the pressure and height of the wave burst the banks and led to flooding of the surrounding low lying urban areas.
The unfortunate shoppers will have witnessed the inundation along Market Place, around and into the landmark Holy Trinity and St Mary's Churches and affecting the Town Hall, Central Post Office and Bank of England.
Of the two places of Worship St Mary's suffered more damage. The ancient oak lectern floated away but miraculously the heritage Bible was thrown clear of the water onto a dry desk top.
The densely populated housing areas running parallel to and branching outwards from the River corridor became quickly overrun with gates and house doors swept aside by the tidal wave and ground floor parlours and kitchens put under the brackish water. The stricken families in the most part were able to take refuge upstairs and although some narrow escapes were reported there was no loss of life.
Worst hit was the Wincolmlee industrial area just to the north east of the city centre with the large Oil Mills directly affected. A stack of stored barrels, 25 feet high was toppled and swept away, similarly some 200 tons of coal which was waiting for use to fuel the steam powered machinery of a flour mill was taken away by the current down Great Union Street.
Hundreds of homes were ruined and added to the losses experienced by commercial and retail businesses the estimated damage was upwards of three quarters of a million pounds.
Areas around Hull did not escape the deluge, particularly on the North Bank of the Humber and the Main railway line at Brough was under water.
The severity of the tidal surge was thankfully short lived and by 10.30pm the waters had receded.
Here is a link to a wonderful bit of footage at BFI
The clean-up operation was immediately begun as regular river flooding was, and indeed still is now, a major threat particularly with much of Hull's population living on the flood plain. It was a well rehearsed activity of remediation by homeowners, businesses and with the dutiful attendance by the Fire Brigade and their pumps.
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