FLOODS AT ALKHAM: THE DRELLINGORE STREAM.
The romantic name comes from the old Norman-French “Drelincourt,” the name of an extinct manorial family once holding land in these parts. The watercourse is often dry for years, and the filling of it is thus a local event, long ago made the subject of legends of dread and prophecies of scarcity. Thus the old saying:
When Drellingore stream flows to Dover town,
Wheat shall be forty shillings and barley a pound.
So much a quarter is understood by that.
Well, then, Drellingore stream burst out with exceptional floods in April, 1914, and flowed to Dover town, and flooded the valley at Alkham. Wheat was then round about 37s. 10½d. a quarter, and barley was 20s. 4½d.
Wheat had been steadily rising from its lowest, at 22s. 10d. in 1894; and barley from 21s. 11d. in 1895. Barley was never so low as 20s. What, therefore, is the implication of the ominous legend, in respect of barley?
In less than four months the Great War, 1914-18, broke out, and wheat in 1915 was up to 52s. 10d., and barley 34s. 7d. The course of prices, 1916-1921, was:
| Wheat. | Barley. | |||
| 1916 | 58/5 | 53/6 | ||
| 1917 | 75/9 | 64/9 | ||
| 1918 | 72/10 | 59/0 | ||
| 1919 | 72/11 | 75/9 | ||
| 1920 | 80/10 | 108/11 | ||
| 1921 | 85/4 | 73/7 |
Prices during the Great War very reasonably agitated the community, but in the period of the Napoleonic wars wheat rose to its highest recorded price: 126s. 6d. in 1812; that is, thirty-one shillings and twopence a quarter dearer than ever it has been in our own times. Barley, on the contrary, was very much dearer in 1920 than ever it had been; for the top price then was 40s. 5d. above the former highest: 68s. 6d. in 1801.