Hovingham villagers celebrate as home-made defences hold (From Gazette & Herald)

Hovingham villagers celebrate as home-made defences hold

THERE were smiles all round at Hovingham on Tuesday morning when flooding, which has been a regular feature of life for the residents of Brookside properties for so long, never happened in spite of heavy rain and melting snow over the weekend.

As a result of the last big flood, just before Christmas when the village suffered its worst flood since 1947, the Worsley estate and the property owners from along Brookside got together and dug a flood channel to divert the water, rather like the sea cut at the head of the River Derwent.

In Hovingham's case, this is a very simple relief channel which operates as the water level in the beck rises to danger level, and works by gravity, taking water out of the beck before it reaches the village, channelling it into Mars Beck, about half a mile away. The effect is that a dry canal has been created which only runs when the water level of the village beck rises to danger level.

This has been a fantastic community effort, with considerable help and support from everyone concerned. The money to pay for the project was raised by the committee which instigated the scheme; the plans were drawn up by one of village's resident civil engineers; many of the villagers helped to build the bridge over the footpath which the channel crosses on its way round the back of the village.

On Tuesday morning as daylight broke, in earlier times there would have been anxious faces. Instead, as word spread around the village that the flood channel was taking a lot of water away, there were some very happy faces, and locals taking pictures with their cameras.

We in the village believe our simple scheme is working but, in spite of this, we all wish that people in other areas could also have been helped to solve their problems too.

We were lucky in that everyone concerned was prepared to do something and, more importantly, got on with the work instead of looking for problems. The cash was forthcoming because all the property owners could see that this was money well spent.

One or two minor improvements will no doubt still need doing but they will be done now we all know that the water will flow in the direction we want it to rather than in to our homes.

The villagers would like to express our very heartfelt thanks to everyone who has made the scheme a success.

Updated: 15:06 Thursday, February 08, 2001