MESSING about on boats is usually fun - but not for these Skipton townsfolk trying to get around in the horrendous floods which hit the town in 1979. In this picture, another supplied by Skipton’s ‘Mr Sport’ Roger Ingham, Skipton rugby player Mick Jaunzem is helping to ferry young and old to drier ground at the junction of Newmarket Street and Shortbank Road. Roger recalls that Mick was one of several people who worked tirelessly to rescue elderly folk.

Sadly, one 90-year-old pensioner drowned in her home. The floods, waist deep in some parts of the town centre, happened after a torrential downpour in June which only lasted two hours. Cars were swept along the streets like matchsticks, walls were ripped down and homes, shops and offices inundated.