28 July 2019

A deluge of rain for most of the day. Flood sirens in the evening. A horrible sound. Far more horrible for those living in the valley below.

The local moors will have been baked hard after the recent hot spell, meaning rainwater mostly rushes off, rather than sinking in, channelling into Hebden Bridge and other settlements downriver. Water-catchment is why Hebden Bridge is where it is. Milltowns were built for mills, and mills required reliable water supplies. But you occasionally get too much of a good thing. Fingers-crossed there’s no flooding.

Postscript: Online river-level graphs show it was a close call, but there seems to have been no major flooding.

Richard Carter

Richard Carter is a writer and photo­grapher living in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. He is currently working on a book about looking at the world through Darwin’s eyes.Website · Newsletter · Mastodon · Facebook

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