Here is the last part of the timeline of Thatcham. At the beginning of 2000, there were 19,500 inhabitants in Thatcham. Here is the timeline from 2002 to 2007.
2002 Thatchams revived market started trading again.
2003 Cotswold Archaeology excavated a site at Harts Hill and found iron workings. These were carbon dated to 1,000BC – 250 years before the Iron Age was supposed to have started.
2004 West Berkshire Community Hospital opened at Henwick. Population is now over 24,500.
2005 Thatcham Park Primary School opened
2006 Thatcham Crematorium opened
In 2007 areas of Thatcham flooded after receiving 3 times the average July monthly rainfall in just 24 hours. The volume and speed of the water was so great, it couldn’t enter the town’ drainage system. The flood has a return rate of 1 in 169 years and caused damage to approximately 1100 houses. Many roads were impassable and hundreds of pupils were stranded at Kennet School on the last day of term. A rope was tied across Stoney Lane to enable pupils to cross through the floodwater to their parents.
The flood itself was actually classed as a flashflood, as it was caused by runoff from farmland to the North of Thatcham, including Ashmore Green, Upper Bucklebury and Cold Ash. A shop sign from Upper Bucklebury actually ended up outside Thatcham Station!
The houses in Kennet Heath were flooded by water from Station Road, when a Culverted Watercouse got overloaded by the sheer volume and speed of water, due to the run off from the North Thatcham. The houses at Kennet Heath stayed flooded for 24 hours, whereas the water in the rest of Thatcham subsided quickly after the rain stopped.
The Nature Discovery Centre and several buildings at the Sewage Works were also flooded.
It is now known that the extent and duration was made worse as parts of the town’s drainage system were blocked.
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