Anyone venturing unknowing into Askwith village this week had a major shock waiting for them. Firstly, there was a hint of something wrong with lot of dirt debris on the main Denton Road leading into the village from the Ilkley direction. The next indication that all was not well were the big lumps of mud in the carriageway interspersed with large holes where the Tarmac had been lifted by the force of the water.

In the village itself the devastation immediately became apparent with demolished buildings, cars in streams and gaping holes where gardens and grass verges used to be.

If the villagers weren’t too busy with the clean-up – including retrieving a car from the branches of a tree where the floodwaters had left it – they might have found the loose-jawed expressions on the faces of those passing through in cars and on bicycles amusing enough to lift the gloom from the hearts of those immediately affected by the deluge.

On a miniature scale, Askwith experienced a flood of almost Biblical proportions but in such a localised area that many people would find it difficult to comprehend.

As in any tight-knit community, villagers soon rallied round and the presence of so many farmers in the hamlet ensured that those affected did not have to rely on the authorities to provide heavy lifting equipment.

But now the immediate crisis is over and the village is once again presenting its usual pleasant visage to visitors and locals alike, it would be easy to forget those families who have been left with an expensive and demoralising legacy of ruined homes.

The clean-up is far from over and it will be a long time before those houses worst affected will be rendered fit to become homes again. We can only hope that the route back to normality flows as swiftly as possible.