THE floods that caused chaos around the city in February this year have been marked on Worcester's water gate on the banks of the River Severn.

Worcester Cathedral’s apprentice stone mason, Emily Draper, has installed a new marker stone in the wall by the water gate, under Lower Ferry Cottage on the riverside.

The new stone will mark the flood of February 12 which sits alongside other flood makers, some of which have been there since the Victorian period, and one which remember two of the floods in Worcester dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries.

This year's flooding saw continuous downpours of torrential rain close off the main Worcester bridge to traffic for several days and a number of people had to be evacuated from their homes.

Ms Draper, who is a third year apprentice stone mason, said she was "honoured" to carry out the work.

She said: "It has been a real pleasure to look at the previous letter styles and to put my own twist on it and put it up into the wall.”

The cathedral was approached to carve a stone marker back in March of this year by a representative of the Environment Agency.

The new marker is made from a new piece of Forest of Dean sandstone — the same type of stone that is used in the Cathedral restoration.

Master mason, Darren Steele, who is head of the Cathedral stone masons, said: “We tend to use this type of work as a learning objective to utilise new skills for the apprentice. It has taken until now to get the stone made as we have been committed to the restoration of the north Nave outside wall of the Cathedral which is now finished and we had a window of opportunity before we start work soon on Edgar tower.”

The water gate is historically important for Worcester as along with Edgar Tower it is one of the few remaining stone gates in the city.

The present Watergate dates from 1378 and excavations in 1993 suggest that it was the first structure on that site.