Next to speak at the Flood Thanksgiving Party was a twenty year old man, “Buttercup Joe” Lee, and he told how he nearly didn’t survive.

“I had been working with my grandfather on his small holding up the Langham Road at Wiveton. It had been quite a windy day, there were squalls of rain and mixed in with it some sleet. The wind was blowing from a northerly direction but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, as you can guess January can be a very unsettled month on the north Norfolk coast.

“We came home about our usual time somewhere just after 4 p.m. as the nights got dark quite early still. My grandfather came round from next door and said that the little girl from the Swallows had come round and said, “The sea is in the street.”

“We went out to check. We started to get the pigs out of the bays and tried to get them to go on to higher ground. I met my Grandfather and Dad carrying a number of pigs in a sack which were put up in the spare bedroom at my Granny’s.

“Previous to this I had walked towards Cley and the wind was as strong as I have ever known the wind to be, I could virtually lay on the wind. I have heard people talk about laying on the wind but this was my first experience of it happening to me.

“Now we had taken some precautions. My Granny could remember the previous sea flood and said that it came down towards Glanford flooding the whole of the Glaven Valley and so she always urged us to take these precautions.

“I went back to the garages to have a look round to see if there was anything else that could be moved and to my horror in the big garage discovered they had left one old sow. When I went to try and smash the barricade down which grandfather had built I realised that this it was strong and securely fixed that the pigs couldn't budge it.

“By this time there was about a foot of water all around me halfway up my Wellington boots. I took a few steps back and ran at this barricade sideways on, luckily for me it gave way and I sprawled headlong into a foot of water and ended up near the dear old sow. I proceeded to go round her and guide her out of the part of the shed that was open. The doors of the garage were fixed back so I guided her through and out onto where the road would have been, had it not been covered in water. But she turned and went to the wrong direction and was going into deeper water. I could hardly run by now as the water was up top of my boots, but I managed to get round her and send her back. She swam and walked whenever she could and was going across The Green towards high ground so I knew she would be safe.

“By this time I was a bit exhausted through trying to run through the water, and also having to contend with the snow and rain coming down by now very fast. I had just purchased some pullets which were £1 each. They had been washed off the perches and were floating all around me. Now a chicken will float for quite a while but eventually it will drown as the water eventually wets the down under the feathers and will be pulled under by its own weight. I started to throw them up onto the top of the smallest garage which I discovered days later, to be 13 foot in height and it was made of wood and corrugated iron.

“To my dismay when the chickens landed on the roof some were being blown off again, back into the water. I continued my task trying to get these 20 - 30 chickens onto the roof. I had succeeded in getting most of them and was going after the last one when there was the most terrific roar I have ever heard in my life. All I could see when I turned round was water and it seemed to reach from the ground to the sky but of course in reality it didn’t. In that split second all I could see was water and the noise was unbelievable. I thought there’s nothing for it but to jump up on the garage.

“I gave one mighty leap catching the edge of the roof and pulled myself up and within a second of me being on the roof the water was half way up the garage. I sat on the roof and watched the water gradually coming up.

“I looked at my watch and it was about 6.30 p.m. To my horror the water was getting higher and higher and the volume of water was lifting the garage up and going down again with the current of the water, off and on the wooden posts it was built on. By this time the water had got well up to my legs and I saw a giant pigs’ trough coming along on the waves and I thought if I can get that and sink it that would give some weight.

“I wasn't sure if the pig trough was going to come in my direction and of course by this time I could move very little in the water as I was extremely cold and stiff. The trough came straight for me: I managed to get hold of it with my hands – quite a feat as it was a great big cast iron trough and having it there did seem to stabilize the garage.

“There were all kinds of things coming along in the water that night including railway sleepers. I had to force them around me. The next thing to come along was a large pole, I should imagine it was a scaffold pole. It was quite long I forced it down into the irons of the trough, and about a yard and a half away from the garage was a small sycamore tree. I fixed the pole across into the boughs of the tree. I thought this would give the garage a little more stability. Another problem I was going to have to face was that a few yards below there was an electrical transformer set up on some poles – I knew water and electricity didn’t mix well. But my fears were ended in a few minutes when the water went over the transformer. There were a few sparks and all the lights in the village went out.

“Well as you know Newgate hasn’t got any street lights nor Cley but of course you could see the lights in the houses and one of the most devastating things that happened to me was to witness the water going in the houses after this and putting the fires out. There was no lights and I could see clearly in the houses and in the Swallow’s Public House, they had 2 fires, one in the Bar the other in the Lounge. My Granny had one in her living room. You couldn’t see our house because it’s hidden by the wall. In the next house and the house nearest the church you could see glows in the rooms as the water went gradually up and up towards the church. All the fires went out and I began to think I wasn’t going to see tomorrow.

“The water was still rising and I thought I would have to make plans to get across into the tree as it was a little higher than the garage. I could perhaps cling on until someone could rescue me. My family knew roughly where I was but of course there was no way they could reach me. By this time lights had appeared up the Holt Road near Church Lane and a lot of activity seemed to be going on but I was too engrossed with surviving the night.

“I managed to crawl across this pole by dangling underneath of it and wrapped my legs around it and getting into this young sycamore tree. It was quite flimsy and rocked violently though I only weigh 10 stone, it was still an awful lot of weight for a little tree, but to my horror I discovered that the tree was full of rats. They were climbing up and hanging on the tree like a bunch of grapes. I tried to shake the tree so the rats would fall off, but the noise of their screams when they knew they were going back into the water was dreadful, something I can’t describe. Some of these rats had swum a considerable way and were exhausted and so as they desperately clung to these very young branches. They knew they were going to their deaths.

“I settled down in the tree, perched in the branches and looked around to take stock. The sea between me and the church and Holt Road was rough, large waves were coming across The Green being driven by the very high winds, the sleet and rain was still coming down very hard, but I could see a lot of activity more than previously up the Holt Road and lots of lights which seemed to be lots of cars. The rescue services had arrived by now and were turning down Church Lane and going towards Town Yard and the Fairstead and down the various little lokes running down into the main street at Cley to rescue people.

“Looking around again I thought the water was going down. I couldn't believe my eyes but being a good old country boy and living by the sea I made a little mark with my thumb nail on the tree and looked a few minutes later and lo and behold the water had gone down below my mark, so you can imagine how I felt. I can’t recall how long it was but it must have been getting late when it virtually left me in the tree, so I was able to get back across my pole onto the garage roof where I flopped down exhausted.

"Unbeknown to me, now was to come my worse time. It’s ironic to say this but when you are in the sea the salt water keeps you warm, but of course the sea water had left me and I was completely out of water laying on the garage roof, and hypothermia was setting in. I was aroused by some noise coming near to me and lifting up my head I saw an object in the darkness coming down the Holt Road, past the church and Fair View where my grandparents lived and moving very slowly; it turned out to be an army Matador. This was I believe diesel driven having an exhaust pipe out the back going up beyond its cab, it could go into deep water without anything happening to it. This came slowly down past the Swallows Pub around the end of The Green and along the bottom road and finally it stopped. I learnt later that the driver was standing on his seat driving with outstretched arms to his steering wheel, but the water had got too deep for him and he started to reverse.

“Soon after this an enormous light came and started to sweep the sea it came slowly towards me and I waved frantically. It went past me. Luckily for me the light came back again. I waved. It went past me, then came back and settled on me. I had been found at last. The lights I discovered later was the spot light on the back of Holt ambulance, but the light shining across the water and the water barely down under the roof was dazzling me and making me feel a bit woozy as the motion of the sea was giving me the same effect as being on a boat and I began to feel sea sick. However, the next thing to happen was some men appeared in a boat. The boat got nearer and I could see two men rowing for all they were worth All of a sudden a large wave came and took them back as quick as they had come, the boat tipped over, the men washed out, but luckily they were saved within minutes.

“The boat seemed to come again with a new crew. Steven Stephenson a young man who lodged with Mrs. Maud Felgate told me a few weeks later that the men were so terrified they dare not risk their lives again and he asked who wanted to go next time. From about 100 people standing there no one answered. Then a man came forward by the name of Billy Pilsop Bishop. They thought two wouldn’t be enough. Steven asked if anybody else was coming and Mr. Ian Causell came. They rowed across The Green towards me. The sea still rough, wind blowing. I had my fingers crossed hoping that another wave wouldn’t come towards me. Quite quickly they got to the garage and I can remember one man asking, “Are you going to row Buttercup?”

“I said, ‘No I think I will leave that to you tonight.’ I don't remember much more until I was going in somewhere with lights in the ceiling, it turned out to be Holt Ambulance and I thought I was going to be taken to Hospital but to my dismay I was taken out again.

Later I learnt from Mr. Graham Allen of Langham that they decided it wasn't worth taking me to Cromer Hospital as I would have been dead long before I got there. He also said that he had seen lots of dying and dead men in the war but had never seen anyone as near dead as I was and then to come round. I was taken to the little bungalow belongs to Mrs. Micklejohn. I was laid in front of a large roaring fire and a nurse was trying to get some brandy into my mouth with a feeding cup but my mouth was shut tight and I can remember thinking what a waste of good brandy. It was running down my chin and clothes, but I soon came round after two nurses massaged me for a considerable time and to everyone’s delight I seemed to be alright.

“Later they brought in a very elderly lady from the village, affectionately known as Gentle Annie. She had been rescued by the services from her bedroom in Cley Street and they said the water was just into her bedroom. They had got her out, floated across onto high ground and up to the Fairstead and brought her to the bungalow. By then I was fit enough to start to massage her body and she came round eventually and back to life. I can remember the time by now would be about 2.00 am in the morning and we sat in these lovely big armchairs in front of the fire until daylight.

“There are a lot of remarkable stories told about that night. I can remember one or two to tell you. About 2 - 3 days later I was walking with some friends along the tide mark which was along Mr. Harry Ramm’s field just past the Newgate council houses and the big white house going towards Glandford when we came across a chicken coop with a large white cockerel sitting on a perch straight upright dead as could be. He died of fright or the water came up and over him so quick he was frozen to the perch.

“That’s about all I can think of to say about it except to thank Mr. Bishop, Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Causell who saved my life.”

Applause broke out when Buttercup Joe finished his talk and there was a break for tea before the other speakers.

Martin and Mary wandered around greeting people they knew. Martin suddenly noticed the people from Heron House. He rushed up to them, “I can’t thank you enough – or your cousin actually, for rescuing my wife the night of the storm. I so much wanted her to tell everyone about it, but she thinks your cousin wouldn’t want the limelight.”

This was met with a blank stare. “Young man, I do not know who you are, or what you are talking about. I have no cousin in this area, shy or otherwise, and I do not wish to continue this conversation.”

Martin was astonished at the rudeness of the man, but Mary was bright red with embarrassment.

“Please don’t make a fuss,” she whispered to Martin, and with a great deal of effort, he pulled himself together and they sat down again for the second half of the evening.