England rugby stars wrestle cars Two England rugby stars - Ben Kay and Martin Corry - spent several hours on Saturday night carrying motorists and residents to safety and pushing cars out of the way in the Gloucestershire village of Weston Subedge after being trapped there as the flood waters rose. The two Leicester Tiger players then had to spend the night in their car.

Postman's special Harry Potter delivery Richard Yates, a postman based at the Evesham sorting office in Worcestershire, used his own car to carry out a special delivery of the new Harry Potter book to a village cut off by floods at the weekend, after delivery rounds were cancelled for the day because of widespread flooding.

Stratford submerged The Royal Shakespeare Company has been forced to cancel screenings of Shakespeare In Love and Throne Of Blood - a version of Macbeth set in feudal Japan - on August 11 after the Recreation Ground in Stratford-upon-Avon became submerged.

Search for missing teenager A search has been launched for Mitchell Taylor, 19, from Tewkesbury, who has not been seen since he left a bar in the deluged Gloucestershire town in at 1.30am on Saturday, three hours after flash flooding hit the town.

Shocking news: Britain’s a wet country

British summers weren’t always as wet as this year’s, but some were worse. 1912 was the wettest and dullest on record

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• Pictures: 2007 floods

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BACKGROUND

• Water company ‘cleans up’ as customers clear up

• How to clean up after your home has flooded

• A disaster with mankind's footprints stamped on it

Related Internet Links

• The Times forecast

• Government flood warnings

Related Links

• 350,000 without clean water after floods

• How to clean up after your home has flooded

• Keeping your family healthy during the floods

Multimedia

• The floods in pictures

Thiefs target flood defences The Environment Agency said that it had been forced to post officials to act as security guards after opportunist thieves in Worcestershire tried to make off with the interlocking, high-grade steel panels of flood defences.

Non-swimming jet skier, 60, saved The man was saved as he clung to the top of a 40ft (12 metre) tree in a flooded field. The 60-year-old jet skier, who could not swim, had been there for nearly an hour before he was rescued by an RAF helicopter.

Fire engine, retired, saves home David Middleton’s passion for restoring old fire engines saved his family’s home when his 1972 Thorneycroft Nubian Major engine shifted 675,000 gallons (3 million litres) of water.

Courts closed The legal system ground to a halt when the courts closed. Cheltenham magistrates opened briefly to deal with overnight custody cases.

£2.50 water salesman run out of town Furious shoppers forced an opportunist salesman to leave town after he began selling two-litre containers of water for £2.50 from the back of his van.

Boat auction goes swimmingly A Henley-on-Thames boat auction went ahead despite more than 80 per cent of the marquee being under water. Bonhams sales staff demonstrated a canoe by paddling it up and down the aisles.

Branson estate flooded Sir Richard Branson’s 200-acre Oxfordshire country estate was flooded after the River Cherwell breached its banks. A neighbour said: “Apparently his sitting room is under water”.

Football stadium becomes rescue centre Oxford United Football Club’s 12,500-seater stadium was transformed into an emergency rescue centre by the council just weeks before the new football season kicks off.

Atomic weapons HQ under water The Berkshire headquarters of the Atomic Weapons Establishment was severely flooded. Staff at the establishment said that there had been no escape of radioactive materials.

Wellingtons sold out Shops sold out of Wellington boots and waterproofs. Dean Silence, from the Go Outdoors store, said: “In your average weekend in July we might sell the odd pair of wellies to a festival-goer, but certainly nothing like this”.

Rowing down the aisle The 12th-century Tewkesbury Abbey was flooded for the first time in memory. Canon Paul Williams said: “I am told that in 1760 the vicar had to row down the aisle to perform his service”.

Summertime blues The Blues Festival in Upton-on-Severn was not a total washout despite most of the musicians being unable to reach the town. Those who did hosted an impromptu street party.

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