TODAY, July 20, marks the 10th anniversary of the worst floods to have hit Gloucestershire for nearly 250 years.

It started as a normal summer Friday with the schools breaking up for the summer and workers looking forward to the weekend barbecues - until it started to rain.

The county was pelted with more than a month’s rainfall in just a few hours until by lunchtime it was obvious that a meteorological disaster of near biblical proportions was in progress.

The summer of 2007 in England and Wales was the wettest since record began in 1766, which meant that the ground was already saturated by the tail end of July.

When the rain started in earnest that fateful Friday, there was nowhere for the excess water to go.

Forest office workers in Gloucester who decided to cut their losses and head home mid-afternoon were faced with main roads out of the city gridlocked with traffic.

Some reported a six hour nightmare journey to get through to Cinderford and Coleford.?

One Cinderford resident who worked in Gloucester at the time recalls: “At first it was just another really wet day until just after lunch someone came into the office and told us cars were floating past the prison on the quayside.

“I decided to try to get home and left the office at about three in the afternoon.

“When I got to the bus station it was in utter chaos. There were hundreds of people milling about and no buses.

“Eventually a Coleford bus turned up and somehow everyone managed to get on board. The driver didn’t even bother trying to collect fares.

“But that was just the start of our troubles.

The roads were jam packed and the Over causeway was flooding badly and thee was so much water coming out of the ledge gates at Highnam House it was foaming white like river.

I arrived back in Cinderford at around 9pm, six hours after leaving work.

“We put the hat round for the driver and people were so grateful just to get home they were chucking in fivers and tenner. But he deserved every penny.”

Stretches of the A48 and A40 and adjoining lanes were under water and the Forest of Dean was virtually cut off from Gloucester for the best part of a week.

The army was called out and, working with the emergency services, worked round the clock to keep the rising waters at bay at the Walham electricity substation, near the Over roundabout.

Although the main part of the Forest was not flooded and water and electricity were not affected, commuters into Gloucester were forced to stay at home and of course that year’s agricultural crops were a write-off.

Without mains water supply, pubs, restaurants and shops in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury were forced to close.

With no running water, residents in affected areas flocked to the Forest of Dean to use our services.

Laundrettes did a roaring trade and it was virtually impossible to get a Saturday or Sunday pub lunch without an advance booking.

Of course the emergency brought out the best in us as the ‘Dunkirk Sprit’ resurfaced as it usually does.

Heywood School and the Dilke Hospital in Cinderford became ‘evacuee centres’ for families rendered homeless with local people donating food and blankets to help.

Retained firefighters from the Forest turned out to help in areas devastated by the floods and farmers pressed tractors and trailers into service to ferry people through flooded roads.

Of course in the aftermath there had to be some sort of inquiry and the experts, after a mammoth brainstorming session, came up with the shock revelation that the floods were the result of the rain.