Following last year's deluge in the Lake District, Cockermouth is now firmly back in business, finds BRIAN PEDLEY

FROM almost every corner of Cockermouth comes the satisfying buzz, not of bees but of power drills and sanders.

Mingled with the birdsong and the babble of the rivers Derwent and Cocker, this is the sound of a Georgian tourist town being put back together.

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Strolling tree-lined Main Street, I pick up the waft of freshly baked meat and potato pies from Tony Harrison's butcher's shop. Once more there are the comforting aromas of mashed barley, yeast and hops from Jennings Brewery in its 19th-century home at the confluence of the two rivers.

Cockermouth residents take pride in their pies and pints.

Now, both have returned. From the shops and homes made good, to children's posters in shop windows, the message is the same: Cockermouth, designated one of Britain's 51 historic "gem towns" by the Council for British Archaeology in the Sixties, is back in business.

Even Wordsworth House, where William Wordsworth was born in 1770, is now open again to visitors. On a winter afternoon in 2009 its two 10ft-high, solid oak gates were wrenched from their hinges by floodwater that surged at a terrifying 30mph through the town. "We eventually found one of the big gates three miles down river, " says custodian Alexandra Morgan.

The English Romantic poet wrote of "a host of golden daffodils. . . fluttering and dancing in the breeze." As Cockermouth blooms again, the National Trust property is the first stop on a newly published trail that is unlike any other.

Locals have produced a self-guided Cockermouth Flood Trail to help visitors appreciate the "scale and impact" of what came through their doors on November 19 and 20. From the early 1800s this town at the north-western edge of the Lake District grew rich as mill owners and brewers harnessed the limitless fast-flowing water.

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For 24 hours last year the record 12in of rain that pounded Cumbria's central fells was Cockermouth's undoing. The run-off into the River Cocker became "almost a tidal wave", crashing through protective walls, ripping up roads and powering its way down Main Street. When the Cocker joined the already swollen Derwent, the town was engulfed. By nightfall the floodwater had risen to 10ft and the community was leading TV bulletins worldwide.

Now townspeople are proud to show off their muddied "tidemarks". At 73in above floor level, the mark on the wall of the ground floor of Jennings Brewery was an inch above the top of my head. Close by was a set of newly installed stainless steel yeast vats.

"They replace the ones that were ripped from the walls and floor by the sheer force of the water, " says head brewer Jeremy Pettman. "We were left with this twisted mass of metal."

Reopened in the past month, 17th-century The Trout Hotel in Crown Street also took the full force of the two rivers. The ground floor was scoured into a damp, disorderly heap while staff and guests huddled together upstairs by candlelight before being rescued by boats in the morning.

Cockermouth remains a traditional base for touring the Lakes. Driving east through the Lorton Valley, people rapidly become outnumbered by grazing sheep. I rest at the twisting Whinlatter Pass in its canopy of green. At the height of the November deluge no one would have dared venture here.

Now, cloud-capped Grisedale Pike looms benignly from 2,600ft. Beyond Keswick, youngsters in a fleet of red canoes glide sedately across three-mile-long Derwentwater which glistens black like polished slate. Driving back into Cockermouth, tourists stand intrigued by ironmongers JB Banks & Son Ltd, with its frontage almost unchanged from when the first Mr Banks began trading in 1836.

Inside lanterns, tools and gauges hang in festoons from the ceilings. Behind the counter 173 drawers bulge with all of those glorious things that stop Englishmen's homes and castles from falling apart.

As repairs are completed, some shops continue trading in the Tithe House where a relocated pharmacy has its stock laid out on a table like a bring-and-buy sale. "Everyone in Cockermouth has a story to tell, " says the flood trail leaflet.

Back at Wordsworth House, "costumed servant" Rachael Marrs mixes a cake in the preserved kitchen and looks forward to being back in her own home.

"When our house was flooded all I was worried about was losing our family's old Christmas cake recipe, " Rachael says, "but it was there in its book on the top of the kitchen cupboard. So Christmas was saved."

THE KNOWLEDGE:
Graysonside (01900 822351/www.graysonside.co.uk) offers doubles from £80 per night (two sharing), B&B. Flood Trail leaflets from Cockermouth Tourist Information (01900 822634/www.cockermouth.org.uk), £1. Jennings Brewery (0845 129 7185/www.jenningsbrewery.co.uk) offers tours from £6 per adult, £3 per child (over 12).

Cumbria Tourism: 01539 822222/www.golakes.co.uk