A flood at Easterton

Easterton’s main street has a stream running alongside one edge of it. Very occasionally, after times of high rainfall the stream floods across the street. Our photo shows one of the occasions when this happened.

An Easterton flood, possibly in the 1930s. The photo is now at Market Lavington Museum

We think this photo dates from the 1930s. There is clearly an electricity supply as the poles indicate, but there are no TV aerials to suggest it was into the 1950s.

This scene has changed considerably. We are looking at the junction where Easterton’s White Street joins the main road. You can see the standard finger post to the left of the people inspecting the flood. The building next to the 30 MPH sign on the right has been demolished and the road has been straightened. The wall on the left is around the grounds of Easterton Manor. It is still there but is separated from the roadway by a footpath and a grassed area. The road now goes straight through where the building on the right stands.

Immediately next to the 30MPH sign we are looking at the end of ‘Kandy Cottage’. Joined to that, and a little further alongside White Street was ‘The Bakehouse’ one of two such establishments that operated in Easterton.

Looking up The High Street we can see the former Post Office. The building remains but is now a residence rather than a shop.

Just in front of the finger post we can see a churn of milk on a trolley. This photo was part of a collection belonging to the descendants of John and Florence Williams who held the Manor of Easterton until the mid 1940s. It would seem that the churn of milk probably represented the main source of income for the manor estate at the time the photograph was taken.

Market Lavington Museum is delighted to be receiving more information, records and artefacts from Easterton which was, until the 1870s, a part of Market Lavington parish.

Tags: Easterton, farming, flood, Manor, Market Lavington, Museum