The performance and submersion of boundaries in the Somerset Levels

The Somerset Levels and Moors comprise low-lying farmland in south-west England, prone to seasonal flooding. The area suffered uncommonly severe floods in 2012 and 2013/2014, triggering high-profile debates about the area’s long-term future. The article focuses on the experiences of the floods in one village, Muchelney. Drawing on mixed methods, this interdisciplinary study examines physical and social routines, and how these were disrupted, adapted or reinforced. Indications of adaptability, resourcefulness and hierarchy emerge. The examination of routines draws on modest material representations sought out after the events took place, to illustrate how the floods submerged the landscape’s physical geometry and disrupted mobility, but also presented new conduits. Within the trauma of isolation and inundation, prolonged media scrutiny revealed a range of gendered, hierarchical and uncomfortable social experiences that complement evidence of a resilient community pulling together and learning to cope among the upending of normal life.