As prolonged rainfall hit Cockermouth over the weekend, residents of Challoner Street faced an anxious wait.

Just days away from the sixth anniversary of the 2009 floods, people whose homes were flooded then faced an all-to-clear reminder of the hours that preceded that event.

For joiner Steve Stainton and his wife Sandra, there was little sleep to be had over the weekend, as the sound of the rain brought fears of what might happen.

For the first time, the couple set in place floodgates on their front and back doors - a measure brought in after 2009 to help protect the house in future.

Every couple of hours they made the trip to the confluence of the rivers Cocker and Derwent to check the water levels.

While the rivers were not as high as they had been in 2009 and the new flood barriers on Rubby Banks Road rose about 75mm, Steve said it was not a total reassurance.

He added: "When you have been through that and the consequences you can't sleep. You're in and out of bed. My wife and I didn't sleep. 

"Neighbours are the same. You could see on Sunday morning everybody looked like they'd had no sleep."

In the end, water levels did not get high enough this weekend to cause a risk of flooding and Steve things improved river maintenance has helped keep them lower.

He said: "I think the dredging and clearing out the rivers has helped and it's contributed to helping the water clear quickly.

"It seems to me that the water is all moving more quickly.

"That's down to the Environment Agency keeping the rivers clear like they said they would."

Steve and Sandra live with their children Holly, 19, and Tom, 17.

They were the first Challoner Street residents to move back home after the 2009 floods and Steve, a joiner, then helped neighbours make their homes habitable again.

Nothing can take away the fear of flooding for Steve, though.

He said: "In 2009 we didn't know what was going to happen. Now we know the sequence of events so you're monitoring the weather. You're so in tune with in now.

"I guarantee anybody who's gone through the 2009 floods will feel the same.

"We'll never forget that. It's impossible. It's not so much the flooding, it's the stress afterwards with the insurance and everything else."