Before long the Slough Road running through the centre of the village was a stream. We knew it was a matter of time before the water came down our road and inevitably ran down hill towards the town houses. There began an urgent clamour to get sandbags.

Our first priority was to place a sandbag wall at the top of the slope running down to the town houses. Then we began a wall of sandbags across the road from the point where the road begins to slope down hill. This would block our way out but the road was already impassable. Churchmead School who were brilliant throughout had allowed us to take our cars into the school through their back entrance and park in their grounds.

Sandbags were being delivered to the garage forecourt near the entrance to our road but such was the clamour for sandbags throughout the village they disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived and the water between us and the sandbags was beginning to get deeper. We called the Council's customer services begging for sandbags to be delivered to our road but they wanted to know how far we were from the floodwater. That really wasn't the point. Water runs down hill and it would only be a matter of time but they were inundated with calls and seven miles away from us in Maidenhead. They didn't get what was obvious to us. It was only a matter of time. We were advised sandbags were being delivered to the Parish Council offices but that was the other end of the village and it was getting increasingly difficult for us to get there.

We were similarly unsuccessful in pleading with a community warden. The focus was first on the river side then on the village centre. We hadn't flooded before so weren't on the risk list. We knew we were down hill and vulnerable but no one else could see it. No doubt he reported back to the Parish Council who were coordinating everything but we weren't considered a priority.
We hadn't been fans of the local garage. We'd experienced too many problems with their car wash, that they insisted in operating from the end of our garden, but they were a god send that day using their four wheel drives to bring much needed sandbags.

The crisis bought neighbours who had barely communicated before together. Suddenly, from being separated in our individual homes, we were out quite literally manning the barricades, building a wall across the road to protect our houses. The barriers were holding the water back for now but for how long and we could only stop it coming down the road. Inevitably it would find another course as it did flowing round the bags and into our back gardens.

We had sandbagged the front of the house but when it came to the back there was a problem. The doors opened outwards and the only way into the garden is through the house.

To our frustration the sandbags were delivered to the centre of the village to get them we had to cross the barrier we had built across our road, paddle to the Slough Road, keeping close to the wall for the less deep water and a couple of hundred yards to the post office in the village centre. We needed sand bags to be delivered from the other side of the village and brought in through the school but no one would listen to us.

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