When Leeds sweltered as temperatures soared and river levels ran low

It was a month when Leeds like the rest of the country was feeling hot, hot, hot.
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Pictured in July 1976 is young Julie Greensmith at a standpipe which was being tested outside her home in Moortown.

The UK was in the grip of a heatwave. In early July your Yorkshire Evening Post reported how the River Wharfe had “been reduced to a trickle”.

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Julie Greensmith at a standpipe.Julie Greensmith at a standpipe.
Julie Greensmith at a standpipe.
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The river, which was used as a temporary water supply for Leeds, had dropped to just three inches in places - that was according to Harold Brady, subpostmaster at Arthington, near Otley.

He said: “The level of water in the mile section at Arthington is the lowest in living memory. I think you have to go back about 100 years to find the river so low.”

A spokesman for Yorkshire Water in Leeds said only when reservoir levels dropped below 40 per cent would “selective pressure reductions” be introduced.

There was already a hosepipe ban in place, not that it stopped garden staff in Harrogate from using one to water some flowers on the Prince of Wales roundabout.

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It was an incident which caused Coun Deidre Davies to rant: “I know we are entering a Britain in Bloom but it is a little hard when householders are told not to use hosepipes but the council can.”

DO YOUR REMEMBER THE HEATWAVE OF 1976? Share your memories with Andrew Hutchinson via email at: [email protected] or tweet him - @AndyHutchYPN********************

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