Leeds floods a month on: '˜We knew a flood could come one day, but not as bad as this'

Newlay lies between Horsforth and Bramley and is a few miles upstream from Kirkstall Abbey, straddling the valley bottom.

The effects of the flood are all too clear to see - a large bungalow sits in a hollow at the side of the river.

A dirty mark on the house indicates the waters went more than half way up the front door and outside in the yard, next to an overflowing skip, are what looks like the entire contents of the house.

Martin Hughes and wife Fiona were hit as hard as anyone when the waters began to rise on Boxing Day.

The couple’s house - known affectionately as Aire Cottage - stands right next to the river and bore the full brunt of its anger.

They even took precautions to mitigate such an eventuality, installing flood panels on their home. It’s just that, no-one expected the river to rise quite as high as it did.

Martin said: “We’ve lived here since 1999. We always knew the river would come and visit us, we just didn’t realise it would be quite so bad.”

The couple actually own two houses - one was inhabited by Fiona’s mother, who died recently, and stands next to their own house. Both were overrun.

“On the day itself, while it was happening, you live with this strange level of hope that it’s not going to get any higher. We went through so many of those moments during the day and then watching it go higher. And higher.”

The couple managed to move many of their belongings out of their home and into a higher room but as the waters rose, they had to move them again.

“We moved some stuff but there was no way we could shift things like couches and fridges with just the two of us.”

The inside of their home was pretty much destroyed. They lost carpets, skirting boards, kitchen cupboards, everything below a certain level but they also suffered personally. Fiona is still wearing a sling after slipping on the inches of mud the river deposited inside their home, while Martin was almost swept away in the swell after stepping out of his back door expecting to feel his patio beneath his feet, when in reality, it had already been washed away.

Martin, who is also a town councillor in Horsforth, actually has more knowledge than most when it comes to floods - together with Fiona, they run Yorkshire Dampcourse and Wall Ties, which, amongst other things, specialises in dealing with the aftermath of flooding.

For Fiona, there was a real fear with the river in full swell.

She explains: “It was just the sound it made as the water was crashing against our house. This was the full force of the river against our house.

“At that point, you could not stand on our back step and not be washed away. It was a really frightening noise, you just want to get out.”

Martin adds: “We will get cleaned up. In a way, we’re in a good position, because this is almost what we do for a living and we’ve experience in dealing with events like this but I really pity the people who have nothing to fall back on and have to wait.

“In the past it’s been the case that we are not York, we don’t flood, no-one ever thought this would happen in Leeds.

“Well, we are York now. It does happen and it’s only going to get worse.”