IT rains a lot in Lancashire - its persistently damp atmosphere was the reason King Cotton ruled here for many a decade.

The climate ensured the cotton fibres were less likely to snap during spinning, though, of course, it was also handy that the Lancashire coalfield provided the vital fuel to supply the boilers to fire the mill engines.

There were also many engineering works making spinning and weaving machinery.

But we digress. Lancashire folk are used to wet weather, though there has been rather a lot of it this week.

As storms flooded parts of East Lancashire, after dumping several inches across the country, too, Bygones is today turning back the clock to the very many times our streets and roads have been under several inches of very dirty water.

No-one who lived in Barrowford in the sixties will ever forget the day when something akin to a tidal wave swept through the village, carrying cars, pavement slabs and tons of rubble before it.

The Waterfall area of Blackburn was also badly hit by heavy rain and again, in the sixties, families came home from their summer holidays ... to find their terraced homes inundated and furniture floating.

Blackburn Corporation offered them compensation to replace their soggy possessions.

Blackburn Road in Darwen, has also been been under water on many occasions and traffic has made bow waves similar to a ship as it negotiated its way through.

Do you have any stories of flooding through the years?