The 50th anniversary of the deadly east coast floods will be an occasion for mixed feelings for one Hadleigh couple.
Peggy and Charles Smith were married on Saturday, January 31, 1953, as the winds started gathering force across the country, building a huge tide which hours later took 58 people on Canvey to their deaths.
Those events overshadow the couple's golden anniversary preparations.
Looking back on what should have been the happiest day of her life Peggy, the mother of Castle Point mayor Charles Smith, said: "I would not like to repeat that day.
"It was frightening. The wind got really strong and it was whipping my veil and my dress around me.
"At one point my bouquet broke. It was a lovely bouquet as well, with great big chrysanthemums.
"It was absolutely freezing. We could not have any proper photographs taken as it was so cold and the bridesmaids were freezing."
Peggy, 69, and her husband Charles, 73, were married in Rayleigh Church, and they even had their wedding cake made on Canvey.
The mum-of-three said: "We had gone to collect our cake on the Friday and the next day the woman who made it was flooded out.
"The day after the wedding we saw the water had come up to the ruins of the old castle and it was frightening.
"But my husband's house was in Castle Road in Hadleigh and was fairly high up and we were not flooded, not like all those poor people living on Canvey."
Published Monday, January 27, 2003
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