Flooding is inevitable for most watermills. Claverton Pumping Station has flooded for over 200 years. But recent years have been extreme.

Two tonnes of water are needed each second to drive the waterwheel at full speed. And the canal was in most need of topping up in the dry summer months. It is inevitable that a site that can provide such a vast quantity of water in the summer, is sometimes underwater in the winter.

It is often hard to describe the scale and regularity of the flooding. From mid October 2023 until early April 2024 the pumping station flooded 18 times. The highest flood was about 8 foot high inside the building. Flooding not just the lower floor but the middle (mezzanine) floor as well.

Read more about the 2024 floods

Live Flood Data

This interactive graph shows the mill pond level at the pumping station. The graph is updated 3 times a day. If pond level is negative, then the building is not flooded. If the number is above zero, then water will be flooding into the building.

Data is provided via the Canal and River Trust’s open data API into their SCADA system. The sensor current sensor is not reliable above about 900mm. So the height of large floods cannot be recorded from this data.

Our Floods in the news

ITV News (9/4/2024)


BBC Points West (13/4/2024)