Marsh Farm in Wolferton, which is two miles west of the Monarch’s Sandringham House, is below sea-level and on a flood plain, according to a flood map produced by the Environment Agency. Residents in the village, which is near Dersingham Bog, are advised to register to receive flood warnings from the Environment Agency in the event that local flood preventative measures suddenly fail.
The farmland surrounding Marsh Farm drains by gravity to nearby Wolferton Pumping Station, which has three pumps, each capable of pumping 1,600 litres of water per second or 96,000 litres per minute. The pumping station was originally opened on the Sandringham estate in 1948, shortly after the Second World War, by the Queen’s Father, King George VI, to allow the surrounding marshland to be brought into full production.
It enables the 7,000 acres of marshland, which sits below sea level, to be drained, dried out and farmed. A new more-environmentally friendly pumping station was opened at Wolferton by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2020 – and is regularly serviced But a flood risk assessment produced last year for Wolferton Barns – metres away from Marsh Farm - said it would be prudent for the owner to be added to the flood warning system in case the pumping station had a mechanical breakdown.
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