Ottery St. Mary??

You could probably be forgiven if you haven't heard of Ottery St Mary - but this Devon town made the national news today after freak hailstorms caused "absolute chaos"...

Rather scary video and In Pictures from the BBC and an interesting set of photos and links on Great Geography (thanks Jo!).

And on a a related note, an interesting article from the BBC about the success (or otherwise of you read the whole article) of the new Boscastle flood defences.

Boscastle flooding

The Cornish village of Boscastle, made famous by the devastating flood it experienced in August 2004, is under water again this evening.

Things are not as bad as they were in 2004, due to the new flood defences that have been built since then, but it's brought back unhappy memories for many in the village.

Video coverage from the BBC here and the full story here.

Year 10 - Boscastle

A few links to help you with your homework...

Boscastle Cornwall - Boscastle Village website, with various flood photos, information about the rebuilding/regeneration, and about the area in general.

TintagelWeb - loads of pohtos, taken during and after the flood.

Museum of Witchcraft - the Boscastle Witchcraft Museum, and lots of its artefacts were badly damaged in the flood, and they kept an interesting and comprehensive diary of the clean-up.

Geobytes GCSE - a useful summary and lots of links on Rob Chambers' blog.

GeographyPages - lots of useful links about Boscastle and other floods (and everything else geographical!)

And loads of articles on the BBC website... type Boscastle into a BBC search!