Were you around in nineteen fifty six

For Mother Nature's conjuring tricks?

When they might have rung the warning bells

For what befell old Tunbridge Wells

That distant August bank holiday that saw

The likes of which wasn't recalled before.

And far beyond that Kentish city

The wrath of nature showed no pity;

In town and country - high and low

Piling up the heaps of hail and snow;

Three feet of cold and misery

Stretched as far as the eye could see,

Shocked inhabitants and visitors alike

Were victims of the sudden strike

Of Mother Nature's wayward fury -

Like some demented judge and jury.

Over fifty square miles of Lincolnshire loam

Became a place that flooding called home,

While home and business alike across the shires

Saw those that called it summer made liars;

West Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset too

Suffered thunderstorms that swept on through,

While, where they could, stuck drivers stayed

And strove for freedom with shovel and spade.

Just another of Mother Nature's odd tricks -

On an August bank holiday back in 'fifty six.

....................................................................................