Luckily Coldstream still has local Bakers, a Butcher and a Hardware store. Supplies of bread, milk and meat are still strong in these essential local shops, the milkmen keep delivering to the doorstep, whilst the larger concerns run out.  (Not that I’m crowing about that as a Co-op member!)

More emphasis is starting to gain momentum for supporting the dwindling local shops as they fall to the larger supermarkets. And with extremes of weather comes an even greater need to support and sustain what is finally seen as  important services to a local town,the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker.  Luckily he hasn’t been needed yet as the electricity has held out. 

Also useful as our dispersed electronically dependent business model has continued to function through days when the main roads were shut, it went down to -11 centigrade, the buses and trains were cancelled and the world became silent beautiful and potentially deadly.  We’ve all been able to communicate with each other, clients and the media; written parliamentary briefings and lead articles for the papers; arranged broadcast interviews; and researched and promoted policy papers.  Rural based doesn’t mean we’re other than resilient, reliable and ready!

All around local people pull together to keep us all open for business and supplied.  Special thanks to Henry Wallace and the Scottish Borders Council team and to Colin Macgregor (and Richard who dug us out, especially!) at Coldstream Mains for their tireless efforts.

The floods hit Coldstream in the evening but thankfully no major issues were reported.

However there is a crucial sustainability issue that also needs to be considered.

On the Tweed, Ghillies cover the river beats, and speaking to one  Ghillie who covers the Tweed between Coldstream and Cornhill, he was matter-of-fact when it came to the flooding and the inability to fish the river during the floods:  “You just can’t fish!” and this is the recognition of many fishermen during the floods. We know of certainly one Welshman who travelled up for a day’s fishing on the Tweed, only to be greeted by a river that was 1/2 a mile wide in areas.

Needless to say that Fishing day was a “wash out”.

The flooding of Leet Water was high, not the highest, but enough to make cars, buses and people stop to look.

The area in the photos is a natural nursery for the Salmon and Trout:  many parr are seen here. And the Leet Water is usually only 5ft wide,.  But what is of concern to the Ghillies is the affect that this huge volume of water will have on the redds of the Salmon and the impact of it will only become apparent in 3-6 years time. The Tweed generates a lot of business and is one of the few places in Britain that the Atlantic Salmon can be caught reliably.