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Flooded church yard of St Andrews church Leasingham
Stone masonry
Tending and Curating

Our inheritance and legacy

Focus on Flooding

The Revd Al Jenkins , Priest in Charge of The North Lafford Group of Parishes, writes to share wisdom learnt from his experience during flooding at St Andrews church in Leasingham.

‘The rains came down and the floods came up. But the house on the Rock stood firm’

Many of our villages, homes and churches were seriously affected by Storm Babet in October 2023, the rain was so heavy that the village waterways could not contain it. Widespreadflooding caused damage across the Benefice.

St Andrew’s Church, Leasingham was particularly affected. The PCC and some very kind parishioners arrived quickly and began to try and mitigate the damage.

Outside of the church building bund floats were put in place alongside sandbags to mitigate the water ingress. As you can see from the photographs there was a great deal of water which cascaded down Captains Hill.

The damage to the church fittings was extensive and the resultant building of a good relationship with the Insurance Assessor helped immensely.


Several meetings of the PCC and contractors brought a few things to light which we feel would be useful lessons learned. Amongst these are:

  • Ensure you have a PCC call out list. This could be on WhatsApp or other social media.
  • Ensure you follow your architect’s advice at your Quinquennial. This helped us in some areas.
  • Check your soakaways are clear (if you have them).
  • Ensuring your guttering and downpipes are in good repair and cleaned regularly.
  • Ensure the curtilage of the church is cleared of weeds and, if cracks or breaks appear have them repaired. Purchase some absorbent flood barriers, readily available they will soak up water and provide a barrier quite quickly.

We had some of this in place and some we have had to set up with hindsight. We are seeking to put a drop in flood barrier at the church gate, similar to this one at a neighbouring property. This is a simple affair which will allow us to stop the water at the gate should we need to.

The church was out of use for nearly 8 months. We feel that this would, in all likelihood, have been a shorter period if some early interventions had been implemented. Finally, thank you to everyone who helped to reopen the church in June 2024.