’AFTER searching through family photos for a family project, I came upon some photos taken by my father Ted Parks of the floods at Fullers Vale, Headley Down, in September 1968,” writes Alan Parks.

“These were caused by a violent storm which lasted 48 hours and the sheer volume of rainwater that ran off from Ludshott Common and down into Pond Road and into the pond and overflowed.

“My family lived in Headley Down since 1940 and I still reside there. Sadly, I did not see the floods or the devastation of Farnham and Guildford, because on the night of the storm I flew out of Heathrow on a Monarch Airways Bristol Britannia with seven of my friends for my first holiday abroad to Majorca.

“We even got struck by lightning just after take-off which was rather frightening.

“Luckily my parents saved the Haslemere Herald and the Surrey Advertiser so I could see what happened in the locality.

“When we flew back into Heathrow two weeks later, I can recall the River Thames in London was still at a high level and rather murky.

“Picture one is of an Aldershot and District Traction Company number 18 bus travelling towards Headley.

“The man stood leaning on his shovel, I believe, is Harry North, who lived in the house on the right at the time, which was a shop in the 1940s and 1950s run by a Mrs Pierce.

“Picture two is also looking towards Headley of a car passing through. Picture three is looking back to the pond and Pond Road where the flood is coming from.”

Thanks, Alan. I well remember the disastrous flood in Farnham that month when the River Wey burst its banks, so it’s interesting to see the damage caused by the much smaller watercourses in the villages which ultimately fed into the vast quantities of water that lower downstream were to devastate Guildford town centre.