Stories From Round Our Way

Rev. Andrew Wilkinson is vicar of Churchtown, Garstang, St Helen’s, St Michael's on Wyre. He talked to me about his experience of the night of the floods, and their impact on his congregation. This is the final episode in a six-part series we’ve been making telling the stories of members of the Churchtown flood defence group.

Andy Walmsley told me his story about the night of the flood and how it affected the community and his relationship to rain. He’s a commercial artist and filmmaker living in Churchtown who made a film about the floods as part of the flood action scheme’s campaign to raise money to construct the defence. Watch it below.This is the fifth episode in a series telling the stories of members of the Churchtown flood defence group. Churchtown is a village in Lancashire which was flooded from river overflow

Roger Weatherell introduced me to David and Barbara Horne, residents of Churchtown and victims of the 2015 and 2016 floods. The floods destroyed £70,000 worth of David’s joinery workshop equipment and took his business from him. Barbara is anxious now every time it rains. The flood defenses that have been built in Churchtown actually won’t protect the Horne’s home from the river the way it will much of the town, so they are still in a vulnerable position. David also opened up to me about his poor

Wendy Grisdale and William Robinson - Jim Kippax’s neighbours - invited me into their home to describe the flooding to me. They had to move out after the first floods, and again 9 months later when they had just moved back in after refurbishment. This is the third episode in a series telling the stories of members of the Churchtown flood defence group. Churchtown is a village in Lancashire which was flooded from river overflow twice in the space of 8 months in 2015 and 2016. Note for listeners:

Retired engineer Roger Weatherell had just moved to Churchtown in 2015 when the first major flood happened. In these interviews he described to me how he helped build the first community-led construction of a significant flood defence scheme in the UK. He did it while recovering from illness, which he touches on too. I also had a chat with John Bracken, who’s the head flood warden for Churchtown. John runs a local pest control business. This is the second episode in a series telling the stories of

Jim Kippax is a farmer and resident of Churchtown, a village in Lancashire which was flooded from river overflow twice in the space of 8 months in 2015 and 2016. The floods damaged 58 of around 100 houses in the village, so the victims came together and developed the first community flood defence scheme in the country. The people of Churchtown raised £100,000 from charities to build a clay and brick embankment that will defend the village from further floods. The defence was built partly on Jim’s

Craig Hope has been a firefighter in the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service for the last 30 years. He is the group manager for training and development for the service and an expert on wildfires. He told me how things have changed over his time as a firefighter: how the changes in weather impacts flooding, landslides and fire seasons, and how they’re all linked. He showed me around the Rhondda Valley, and explained the reasons we are seeing more wildfires, especially in South Wales.

Debbie Wilkins runs the Norton Court Farm in the Severn Vale in Gloucestershire. It’s a mixed dairy, beef and arable farm. She grew up there, inherited it from her father, and floods have always been part of her life, but the changes in weather over the last decade or so have made things a little more complicated. Some neighbours have stopped farming altogether because large amounts of their land was underwater for too much of the year. When I went to visit her she showed me around and explained how