Worsthorne Floods

As most of England are probably aware at this point, it’s been a tough few days for The North. Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria have all been hit by some of the worst flooding in living memory, with homes, businesses and infrastructure destroyed or at a complete standstill.

Obviously we didn’t want to add to anybody’s woes by heading out in our cars to engage in some kind of sadistic sightseeing, however we heard news that our village square had flooded, and so grabbed our coats and walked on down to assess the damage and see if we could help out in any way.

Thankfully when we arrived the water was flowing away and very much under control. Residents had come together to open all the drain covers to encourage water flow, and also to construct a makeshift flood defence across one of the roads to stave off the flooding of some of the oldest, most at-risk cottages and homes.

The water was flowing very quickly, however, and of cause for great concern, as my village sits in one of the least at-risk areas for flooding in the region – our neighbours have all said they’d never thought they’d see the day when Worsthorne flooded. As my mum and dad headed back up to the house to continue with our boxing-day meal preparations, I hung around for a bit longer to try and find the source of all this running water.

With my shoes already ruined from our Christmas Eve wanderings over the countryside, I headed around the back of the village church to find out where all this water was rushing in from. Turns out that most of it had flown down from the fields, overwhelming the drainage system and accumulating at the rear of the churchyard, from where it was being funnelled down a tiny angled alleyway which was giving it the powerful speed which made it seem so dangerous.

The scene was awful, with the old stone walls bowing under the pressure of the fast-moving water, and jets of water spouting from holes in the churchyard pavement and the road behind.

Thankfully the water has since subsided, and nobody was hurt during our wettest Boxing Day (or any day in fact) on record. We have since been through the village and everyone has done a fantastic job of clearing away the silt, removing the flood barriers and getting life just back to it’s normal, sleepy little village rhythm.