Porsche sports car frozen over after being abandoned and washed onto a flooded golf course in south Manchester.
Images show the car, which became stranded in the floods at Northenden Golf Club on New Year’s Day. Nearby Didsbury was one of the worst-hit areas after the River Mersey burst its banks and caused widespread flooding, with over 400 people rescued on boats from their homes and a nearby hotel.
The vehicle was spotted by a shocked dog walker on Thursday (January 2), with the freezing overnight temperatures seeing it coated in ice and surrounded by water after it was ‘dragged’ across the flooded golf course.
Northenden Golf Club was among the many locations across Greater Manchester to be hit by severe floods on New Year’s Day. It was likened to a lake after becoming almost completely submerged.
Russell Miller had been taking his dog out for a walk when he saw the aftermath of the floods. He told the Manchester Evening News: “We have a dog, and she’s only a puppy, and I took her out for a walk this morning. There’s trees blocking the road.
Overnight cold had left the car covered in ice
(Image: Russell Miller (submitted))
“I went down the river towards West Didsbury. We carried on walking and I climbed over the bank and looked at the golf course, and the whole place was like a lake.”
Russell then spotted the Porsche, with the car having been covered in ice after the freezing overnight temperatures. It was covered in debris.
“I saw the Porsche,” Russel added. “It had been dragged across the course by the floods. The floods must have taken it halfway along the fairway.
“I think the first hole is 300 yards, so about 150 yards. It’s really far. I can’t imagine it got there any other way, it’s impossible for it to drive there.”
The car was not the only thing affected either, with much of the golf course left completely submerged and flood water seen reaching the windows of the ground floor of a building on site.
“I can see that it’s completely submerged, the entire golf club house was surrounded by water,” he said. “There were beer barrels floating on the golf course.
“It was horrible, it’s going to take them ages to repair and rebuild it. I was shocked that there was a car there.”
The River Mersey burst its banks at Northenden
(Image: Neil Provost)
Russell added: “It was really weird. It looked beautiful in a way because it was all calm, it just looked like a lake. It’s not just the water they have to deal with, there’s lots of debris.”
Emergency services declared a major incident on New Year’s Day, with rescuers scrambling to evacuate people across Greater Manchester. Around 400 people were evacuated from Meadow Mill in Stockport, while 445 were evacuated from the Britannia Hotel.
Authorities later confirmed that the major incident had been stood down on January 2. Responders have now pivoted to focus on clean up and getting displaced people back into their homes.