sections needed new walls, and some of the banks were protected by limestone blocks. of buttressing and of new walls were required to complete the scheme. Jennings Yard footbridge had to be replaced because the river was so much wider at that point, and in order to prevent the river drying out when flows were low, a series of low weirs were built through the town. Earth embankments were constructed to protect Mintsfeet and Helsington, where an automatic flood gate was also required, to prevent floodwater breaching the defences through the leat to Helsington Mill. During times of high flow, the river moves large volumes of gravel downstream, which is then deposited as the river slows. In order to prevent this clogging the town section, a large lagoon was built just below the confluence of the River Kent and the River Mint. This acts as a gravel trap, enabling the gravel to be removed at regular intervals more easily than if it was spread throughout the town section. The effectiveness of the new defences were tested in 1985, when a flood of the same magnitude as that in 1954 passed through the town without overtopping any of the defences. Parts of Mintsfeet were affected by flooding from the river in February 2004 and January 2005. As well as houses being inundated, business properties on the Lake District Business Park and the Mintsfeet Industrial Estate were also flooded. Flood embankments had been built to protect the industrial areas from the two rivers in the 1980s, and these were improved after they failed to stop flooding in 2004 and 2005. In December 2015, much of Cumbria and north-west England experienced extreme levels of rainfall, caused by Storm Desmond. The Kent catchment was already saturated, and so the rain quickly made its way into the river systems. In Kendal, the Kent and the River Mint both overtopped their east banks. Flows on the River Kent are measured by gauging stations at Bowston, Victoria Bridge in Kendal, and Sedgwick. The peak flow recorded at Victoria Bridge during the flood event of 5 December and 6 December was per second, far in excess of the design flow of per second for the river channel through Kendal. However, this was not an accurate measurement, since water which flowed over the bank in the Mintsfeet area was constrained by the Oxenhope to Windermere railway embankment, and combined