Flooding in Fareham

Being based at the end of the River Wallington, Fareham has been prone to flooding for a long time. High tides in Portsmouth Harbour have been known to mix with heavy rain from a few days previous, causing the tidal section of the River Wallington to burst its banks.

Although the flooding has always been a problem, it used to be easy to predict which fields would flood. The construction of the M27 in 1976 and, in particular, Wallington Way in 1981 caused the path of the river to be altered significantly from its natural course. In addition, the Fareham Industrial Park around Standard Way (1980s) and more recent housing developments have dramatically reduced the size of the floodplain available.

Fareham's flooding used to be a local secret. There was some media coverage of the floods of 21 November 1986, but generally national media has always been more interested in elsewhere, partly because Wallington has a long lag-time which means it tends to flood a few days after everywhere else. The fact that it's mostly tidal meant that by the time photographers arrived the water had usually gone, so they tended to focus on more dramatic places.

One of the most famous floods was on the night of 5 November 2000. Around 65 properties were flooded by a surge of 4ft of water and residents complained that the severe warning only gave them 45 minutes to act; sandbags didn't arrive until days later. A subsequent study blamed a number of issues including blocked drains, low bridges and poor river flow management; major changes to the river and the flood action plan were made over the following 20 years.

Despite this, there is very little record from the day in question. Media had mostly ignored it again. Things only changed in December 2012, when rumours surfaced that the wall by the White Horse could collapse. Residents were asked to evacuate to Fareham Leisure Centre (although most said they'd rather just go to the pub) and another severe warning was issued. Despite that anti-climax and the fact that very few properties were flooded that day, Sky, ITV and the BBC all broadcast live from Wallington Bridge for several hours, with Wallington being named in BBC News's top story for that day. Wallington's flooding was no longer a secret, and there was more media coverage in January 2014.

As of 2016, work to study the flow of the river seems to have been successful in diverting the flooding away from properties, but even so heavy rain continues to make for a nervous time for residents. In October 2023, drains by the cottages began to overflow again, but nothing like it used to be.

Flooding in Fareham is not a new thing though. This map from 1898 has what is now part of Wallington village marked as "liable to floods" - and all the neighbours knew. Unfortunately, despite the Ordance Survey maps being in the public domain, this information was not passed to future residents, and they often found out the hard way. It will be interesting to see whether social media changes this.

It's also not just about Wallington. The Fareham flood zone also covers Deanes Park Road, Upper Wharf (the aggregates terminal), the length of the stream up to The Gillies, and Lower Quay/Eastern Parade, the whole of the shore to Portchester, Port Solent and the Portchester industrial estate. Some problems can occur in specific places. Titchfield can also get it pretty bad, as well as places further west that are outside the scope of this website. But Wallington always tends to get the brunt of it.