Walham is a hamlet in

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It had a population of 10,952 at the 2022 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meeting of ...

parish, north of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

, England. It lies on the banks of the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

and north of the

A40 road The A40 is a trunk road which runs between London and Goodwick (Fishguard), Wales, and officially called The London to Fishguard Trunk Road (A40) in all legal documents and Acts. Much of its length within England has been superseded by motorw ...

. It is a suburb of

, which is to its south. A National Grid substation, providing power to half a million homes and the

Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primari ...

(GCHQ), is situated at Walham. The substation came to national prominence in July 2007, when it was threatened by a major

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

. The

fire service A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organi ...

and military stopped the flood waters two inches below the height at which the plant would flood. This struggle with nature was dubbed the "Battle for Walham" in national newspapers.

Battle for Walham

The Battle for Walham was the fight by emergency services and the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

to save the National Grid 400 kV substation at Walham. When the

burst its banks during the Gloucestershire floods of 2007, the fire brigade, Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and the Environment Agency joined forces to save the threatened substation. The water came within two inches of overtopping (flooding) the substation controls before receding. The Environment Agency's Rivers and Coastal Group committee were unanimous in their decision to award the Chairman's Award prize jointly to the Environment Agency and Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue teams for their work to save Walham.

References

Hamlets in Gloucestershire {{Gloucestershire-geo-stub

Battle for Walham

See also

References