Moulton Chapel man Ted Beasley looks back on 1947 Crowland floods and discusses Buffalo memories

A man who lived through the Crowland floods has fond memories of amphibious Buffalo vehicles travelling through the area.

Last month marked the 75th anniversary of a devastating combination of heavy snow, high tides, rain and wind which led to the the North Level barrier bank bursting between Brotherhouse Bar and Crowland.

Ted Beasley has lived in Moulton Chapel since he was a child, and his father Lesley was a lorry driver who used to deliver bags of soil to Cowbit Bank to help with flood defences.

He remembers taking a trip to that area when he was a child, where he spotted three Buffalos coming over a hill between Cowbit and Peak Hill.

“Me and dad were playing and jumping from one tank to the other. They were tethered up in the gap,” he said.

“There were three tethered up together.”

Mr Beasley said he and his dad used to get told off by army officers for climbing on the vehicles, with officials worried they might get damaged

He added: “My dad said ‘Well I ain’t very big, and the boy is even smaller. If we’re going to break them, what chance do they stand?’”

The Buffalo vehicles were dispatched to Crowland in 1947 to deal with the floods, but were carried away by waters and sunk into the ground.

An ambitious project helped to unearth one last year after more than 70 years, and Mr Beasley believes others may be awaiting discovery.

“One has been found. There were three there - maybe they went the same way and sunk down,” he said.

He also remembers the flood defences set up in Cowbit during the months and years before the devastation unfolded.

According to Mr Beasley, walls built at the area he spotted the Buffalos were built purposefully smaller.

“What people don’t know is that they made the bank a bit lower there so that if it did come over, it wouldn’t come over where the village was,” he said.

“My dad thought it was going to burst at Cowbit, and it was coming over. He knew better than anybody else because he was there with his drivers.

“It didn’t burst at Cowbit where they thought. It was further down.”