A river runs through it
Designers are adapting to the risks of flood-plain living, says Robert Booth
On a summer’s day, the dragonflies hover and the swans glide across the River Avon as it flows through south Warwickshire past the Elizabethan country house of Charlecote Manor.
Less than half a mile upstream from the tourist crowds of Shakespeare’s Stratford, the tranquil water runs beside a stretch of houses known as “Millionaires’ Row”, with its grand Edwardian and mock-Tudor piles.
The scene was very different during Easter 1998, however, when the Avon burst its banks, and houses up and down the river were inundated by the worst floods in the area for 150 years. As the flooding season approaches again, those uncomfortable memories return.
The government estimates 1.6m people in Britain are at high risk of flooding; the number is forecast to grow to 2.3m-3.6m by the 2080s as the climate changes. But does living by the water really have to mean living in fear? On Stratford-upon-Avon’s coveted