WHILE Herefordshire and the majority of the UK is currently covered in drought warnings, members of Hereford Times' Facebook group We Grew Up in Hereford have recalled times when a lack of water certainly wasn't the issue.

Before the flood defences were brought in to protect the area, people in Putson, Hunderton, Belmont, and Newton Farm of Hereford would regularly be completely cut off from the north side of the city due to flooding.

Keith Bishop remembers one such occasion in the 1960's.

He said: "In the worst ever flood on December 6 1960 the water reached down Rotherwas as far as Fir Tree Lane.

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"The whole of the Thorn ligting shop was flooded and the apprentice got in by lying flat in a canoe to get under the railway bridge it was so deep."

Norman Preece remembers people using the Great Western Way to navigate through the floods and into the city.

The original line was constructed in the 1850s and closed over 100 years later in 1964.

Bought by the Hereford City Council for just £1, the track was landscaped in 1983 as a five metre wide traffic free tarmac footpath and cycle way, which is still used to this day.

He said: "A lot of people got into Hereford by using the disused railway lines now known as the Great Western Way, It was so useful in the floods we used to have back then."

Others remember unconventional methods of navigating around the city during big floods.

Wendy Fortey worked at the hospital and remembers several occasions when hospital workers were transported through the floods by the SAS so they could get to work on time.

Further back, she recalls the building of a makeshift wooden bridge by the old Quinsey's greengrocers on Belmont Road, when the flooding wasn't quite so severe.

Richard Sockett said: "The Asda roundabout used to get flooded very regularly.

"I remember a time when the A49 through Hereford was completely cut off.

"Think they’ve improved drainage a bit, since then. They certainly needed to."