THOSE alive at the time would have told time and time again the story of the day Blackburn suffered one of its worst floods.

A 16-hour downpour turned the River Blackwater on November 12, 1901, normally a trickle, into a torrent that spilled over Blackburn's town centre Salford Bridge.

Looking from Church Street, past the ivy-clad home of Rural District medical officer Dr William Pollard on the left corner, down Home Street to the aptly-named New Water Street, we can see the frontage of the Theatre Royal in Ainsworth Street.

Inside the flood water reached the height of the stage.

People whose homes and shops were flooded blamed Blackburn Corporation which had built a dam downstream near the town's electricity works.

It cost the council £3,500 in compensation.

If you look closely you can see a beer barrel washed up against the tramways cable post.

The flooding in 1901 hit the town and other areas of East Lancashire badly, with people left to pick up the pieces after their homes were ruined by flood water.

As with the 2015 Boxing Day floods which damaged large areas of the Whalley and Padiham, the community relied on togetherness and helping each other out to dig themselves out of a very difficult situation.