TORRENTIAL rain is playing havoc with the region's tourist industry, as well as hard-pressed farmers, ahead of the crucial bank holiday weekend.

It has already been the wettest-ever August, with twice as much rain as normal, and yesterday there were more tropical downpours.

And the forecast last night was for a very wet end to the month, with heavy rain and gales sweeping the country.

For the first time in its 25-year history, Stockton Summer Show has been cancelled because the showground at Preston Park, Eaglescliffe, is waterlogged.

The four-day event was due to have started on Friday but now limited events will go ahead elsewhere in the area.

Bank Holiday Monday's Blanchland and Hunstanworth Show, on the County Durham-Northumberland border, has also been cancelled.

It would have been the first time the show had been held since the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001.

Darlington's annual Fun Fair Spectacular, scheduled to take place from tomorrow, will not be held in the town's South Park because of the rain. Organisers will find out today whether it can be relocated.

A charity pro-am golf tournament, organised by Cleveland Police and the North-East Golfers Association, due to be held today has been called off.

Beamish Museum, near Stanley, County Durham, has seen visitor numbers slump.

In the Yorkshire Dales, what should be the busiest time of the year for the tourist trade is fast becoming a wash-out.

Chris and Joyce Best run the Chapel Farm bed and breakfast and tea-room, in Whaw, Arkengarthdale.

Mr Best said: "On Friday we didn't have anyone in at all - this is worse than during the foot-and-mouth."

Two weeks ago the Bainbridge Ings caravan and camp site, near Hawes, in Wensleydale, closed to new bookings after rain left the site a potential quagmire.

But despite boggy showgrounds, Reeth Show and the Wensleydale Show on Saturday will go ahead.

Gerald Hodgson, spokesman for the Wensleydale show, said: "We're determined the show will go on, and we will do everything possible to minimise the problems of the bad weather."

Organisers of Muker Show, in Swaledale, also say the event will go ahead, unless more heavy rain falls on the showground before next Wednesday.

The only people happy with the weather were mainly indoor venues, such as Durham's DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery, which have enjoyed bumper attendances.

The new Weardale Railway line kept running through the storms. A spokesman said: "People are happy to sit in a dry carriage for 40 minutes."

A tiny weather station in Hunstanworth, County Durham, used by farmers to record conditions, has shown that an astonishing seven inches of rain fell from August 8 until yesterday.

The Darlington area was hit by a massive downpour at lunchtime yesterday. The town centre emptied as shoppers took cover.

A mini tornado was spotted by residents in the Hunden Lane area as the borough council put an emergency plan into operation to help residents affected by the massive amount of rain.

As river levels rose, flooding threatened businesses and homes with premises across the region being pumped out by fire engines.

Thousands of pounds worth of stock was lost when a torrential downpour flooded the Woodbridge Furniture and Bedroom Superstore at St Helen Auckland, County Durham,

There was flooding in the Scarborough area and the main road into Newton Aycliffe town centre was closed.

At Brompton, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, a sudden downpour caused flooding in the Church View area and the Three Tuns pub and the Winton Bank to Brompton road was also affected