Meet the survivors of the 2004 Boscastle floods who cannot believe nobody died

Twenty years ago today Boscastle and Crackington Haven faced some of the most extreme flash flooding in the British Isles in recent memory.

Nearly a month's worth of rain fell in a single afternoon and led to a major life-saving response from the emergency services.

Nobody lost their lives in the floods that day that is something everyone in this community still cannot believe to this day.

Carole Talboys worked in Boscastle's Witchcraft museum and was working a busy Monday shift when tourists piled in at lunchtime to avoid the rain.

As it started to build, Carole says the noise coming from the river sounded like a "boiling kettle" or "machinery". The rising tides scared her so she decided she needed to close the museum but people did not want to leave.

"Twice I went round but I needed to go a third time and there's still people there and they're saying 'Oh, I thought you were joking, do you really want us to go?' I said 'Yes, you really have to go'. 'Can we have a refund on the way out?' 'Yes, you can have a refund on the way, but you really need to go.' "

Those who left first managed to escape the natural disaster in their own cars while those who delayed saw their own cars join the hundred or so washed out to sea.

The power and scale water rushing down and the smell are two distinct memories for eyewitness Hedley Venning.

Watching from the opposite side of the river, Hedley says at its peak the water was touching the guttering of the youth hostel.

"The rain kept coming down. I've measured since then and from the gutter to the riverbed is 17ft.

"I can still smell it now, the smell of the sewer which ruptured and also the oil tanks all came down. That and the noise of the rain, that was tremendous. Also when the helicopters come, the noise of the helicopters everywhere, it was it was surreal, to be quite honest."

Working at the time as a tradesman, Mr Venning witnessed 30 cars cascade past him colliding with his fishing vessel moored in the harbour.

"The boats got hit by all the vehicles going down there. And on the insurance form of mine, they said, what you're in collision with? And I just put Ford Escort," he said.

Carole remembers seeing the old Pixie shop get pummelled by floating vehicles - but as she and her friend counted them drifting past she had a dreaded feeling of what she might see.

"The cars were upside down with no way of getting out," she said. "Wipers going, flashes going, all the electrics, you couldn't get out. And I could not speak that I was waiting to see a face."

Thankfully no person was washed out to sea in a vehicle but there were reports of two dogs who were trapped in a car and sank at sea.

Around 100 people who became trapped on rooftops were airlifted to safety during the emergency rescue operation.

Some of the first people to be winched to safety were Margaret Templer and her grandson Kieron.

"The heavens absolutely opened, I'd never seen rain like it," she said.

When they were dropped into the village playing fields people in the village were anxious for news of their own relatives.

She said: "People were coming to us saying 'Have you seen so-and-so?' 'Where's so-and-so?' Nobody knew where anybody was."

A photograph was taken of the pair being pulled up to safety and it was their rescue splashed across the national newspapers and magazines.

"I bought Hello! magazine I opened it up and there I was next to Madonna. I bet she got paid a lot more than I did because I got nothing. But that's a good picture."

Margaret and and her husband Peter Templer are the retired owners of the Riverside Hotel. That day they were responsible for evacuating the waterlogged hotel when visitors were trying to take shelter from the rain.

Peter says his standout memory of the day was watching the professional way the helicopter crews navigated in the torrential rain and undoubtably saved lives

Recalling a particularly dangerous moment with the families stuck on the tourist information centre, he says moments later tragedy could have struck when the "whole building collapsed".

"If they'd had gone in the water, there's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that those people would have perished."

"You can rebuild houses, the whole place can be rebuilt, but you can't accept the loss of life."

However rebuilding and repairs have been drawn out for many decades for people like Carole.

She says her life is defined by "before and after" the flood, as her cottage in the Marshgate hamlet had been submerged in four feet of flood water.

While still trapped in Boscastle's lockdown she had friends calling her saying "Don't come back, you haven't got home to go to."

"It were for days before we were allowed out to the village, so I never actually saw the total aftermath before anything had been done."

Friends stepped up rescuing what belongings were worth saving.

"They washed and saved what they could,bI got gifted money by people to help me recover. Once they knew that I didn't have an insurance and there was funds set up, and people donated. And I'm still living with three different people's kitchens that came after the the flood."

It is a subject some people find too uncomfortable to talk about, but many say the floods actually pulled the community closer together.

Carole says she believes the way the community coped was because there was no one to mourn.

"We were so upbeat as community and everybody rallied round. We didn't have to walk down the harbour past banks of flowers.

"We didn't need all the body bags that had been ordered which I discovered later on."

• On Friday 16 August, for the 20th anniversary the Boscastle Buoys sea shanty group are commemorating 20 years since the flood in the village by performing at The Napoleon Inn. They have invited members of the emergency services who were there on the night to attend, as well as raising money for Cornwall Hospice Care.