Boscastle Flooding Featured

boscastle flooding app Audience: KS3/KS4

Subject: Geography

Topic: Flooding, Society, Economy, Nature, Environment, Climate, Causes

Question: Why is Colin facing his worst fears?

Author: Paul Lawrence




The mystery surrounds the flooding in Boscastle in 2004. This involves solving the mystery of why Colin is facing his worst fears. It can be used at Key Stage 3 to look at the causes and effects of flooding and as a detailed case study at GCSE (flooding in an MEDC).

There are additional sub-questions suggested that can be asked throughout the session such as 'what caused the flood that led Colin to be facing his worst fears?'


• Be able to identify and explain the key causes and effects of the flood
• Causes can be split into physical, climatic, human causes
• Effects can be split into social, economic and environmental effects
• A time line can be created and the response of the emergency services considered

Advanced groups can rank the causes in order to explain which they think were the most important – a diamond nine template could be used for this. The mystery can then lead onto how flooding can be reduced/managed in the future.