This is the first of three Stonehaven stories from a recent trip to the east coast of Scotland. Wes Lewis has been fishing all his life. A commercial fisherman for 20 years, he used to fish for bass and pollock on the south coast of England, and for the past five years he’s been catching crab, lobster and mackerel in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire. He and his wife Maria run a local business called Seafood Bothy. With the relentlessness and intensity of the storms that hit Aberdeenshire most years now, things are difficult for them: Wes struggles to get out, especially in the winter, and when he does, a lot of his gear gets destroyed and fish don’t turn up where they used to.

Siriol Hogg has moved away from Churchtown now, and after hearing some of the other stories, she reached out, so we went to talk to her. She was flooded badly in the 2015 flood, and has been active in flood action since long before that: she’s the original creator and chairman of Churchtown Flood Action Group. This is a bonus part of our series about Churchtown.

Rev. Andrew Wilkinson is vicar of Churchtown, Garstang, St Helen’s, St Michael's on Wyre. He talked to us 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 us 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 twice in the space of 8 months in 2015 and 2016.

Roger Weatherell introduced us 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. Now Barbara is anxious 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 us about his poor physical health, which is related to working in damp conditions for years.

This is the fourth 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.

Wendy Grisdale and William Robinson - Jim Kippax’s neighbours - invited us into their home to describe their experience of the flooding. 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:

• William mentions 55 dwellings being flooded - the official number of houses flooded above floor level was 58.

Retired engineer Roger Weatherell had just moved to Churchtown in 2015 when the first major flood happened. In these interviews he described 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. We 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 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.

Notes for listeners:

• When Roger refers to the “EA”, he means the Environment Agency.

• John mentions 'Siriol Hogg' - Siriol kickstarted the defence scheme group in Churchtown, but no longer lives there.

Edit: The original version of this post claimed Roger Weatherell helped to form the first flood action group in the country. Churchtown FLAG is not the first FLAG. He helped build the first community-led construction of a significant flood defence scheme in the UK.

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 land, where his childhood home was flooded and was so damaged he had to pull it down.

This is the first 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.

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 us 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 us around the Rhondda Valley, and explained the reasons we are seeing more wildfires, especially in South Wales.

Debbie Wilkins is a British farmer. Her farm, the Norton Court Farm in the Severn Vale in Gloucestershire, is a mixed dairy, beef and arable farm.

Debbie grew up on the farm and later 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 we went to visit, she showed us around and explained how she’s farming in ways that build resilience against the increasing frequency and intensity of floods and how changes in weather have impacted her, her farm and her life.