Photographic record of the Library of Avalon Flood on 22nd June 2026
LATEST UPDATE:
Our MP, Sarah Dyke, visited the library on Thursday 2nd July to view the devastation and hear our requests for action on the deteriorating drainage system.
Richard, Ishtara (Chairman), Jackie (Secretary), Sarah Dyke and Robert (Treasurer)
Ishtara, Jackie and Sarah Dyke discuss the situation in the partially emptied annexe
We received a shipment of 200 archive boxes Tuesday the 7th so we can continue packing the collection.
thirty six filled boxes – another 200 to join them soon.
150 archive boxes and 50 odd plastic boxes are already in storage. 250 more to be added shortly.
THE DAY OF THE FLOOD
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1370141358341752
Click on the Link above to see BBC Video with our Chairman Ishtara Veen describing the flood.
BELOW ARE LINKS TO VIDEOS I SHOT DURING THE FLOOD. Apologies for the emotional soundtrack. You can hear the thunder rolling in the background.
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The water rose three feet to the very sill of the window in just ten minutes.
Up to six inches of Black Water covering the floor and contaminating all it touches.
The Drain covers were blown off by the force of the water.
THE FOLLOWING DAY
The plastic boxes couldn’t protect hundreds of Cousins Booklets from being destroyed.
EVERYTHING was left covered in evil smelling sludge.
Four really very precious 19th century volumes were unfortunately amongst the losses.
As well as hundreds of special periodicals and pamphlets. We were in the process of building new watertight boxes as these plastic boxes were beginning to deteriorate.
We have lost all our books on Eastern Masters chronologically from Babaji to Maharaj Charan Singh! A terrible loss we must replace!
38 “rubble bags” of destroyed books. 🙁
The industrial dehumidifier we hired just dribbled water onto the floor. Fortunately our dehumidifiers still work! We returned this one the next day and hope we might get a refund?!
Saving as many books as we can.
A really sad moment, having to cut up and throw away our very beautiful 4 week old Turkish Rug!
The Chairman amidst the chaos, calmly emailing the insurers and messaging volunteers .
Unfortunately the TV did not survive, with water behind the screen, as you can see. All the electrics of our four heaters were submerged too and the interiors are now filled with sludge.
Ruined Books and Rugs awaiting collection.
The annex floor (and carpet) will need to be lifted and replaced.
You can see where water and debris were forced up through the annexe floor’s air vents. Evidence suggests there was a two foot fountain issuing from these vents.
Fortunately we had lifted the hight of our wall bookshelves so 90% of our book collection survived.
Unfortunately the lower shelf of our Bespoke bookcase built by Baker Trenchard was 2 cm too low and we lost the books there.
We have successfully reduced the humidity down to 5o% after two days but it was 75% following the flood. This is one reason we have to remove the books and bookcases and sodden carpets ASAP.
You can see Shepton Mallet to the right of the freak storm. Glastonbury is under its centre. This image from Netweather.tv live rainfall monitoring at 17.36 on Monday 22nd June 2026.
Saturday 27th June – volunteers have been boxing the books from the central annexe bookcase. 40 boxes in all. It will take another 120 boxes to empty the annexe of all the books so that the carpet and floor can be removed and replaced.
The container where all the boxes of books will be stored while we renovate. The first of hundreds that will fill this completely.
Remembering how it was before the flood…. and how it will be again.
