Phew, what a scorcher!

It seems an age since your average Briton could be assured of a good summer, where the woollies were cast aside from April to October, where hankies were duly knotted to protect the dome and the gardeners twittered like birds about the lack of water for their hydrangeas.

It seems like an age because it was one. Ask anyone for the date of the last heatwave and they are likely to answer 1976 - that's 25 years ago - and no thought is given to the long hot days of '89, '90, '91, not to mention '95.

The current heatwave hasn't approached anywhere near the highs of '76 yet the warm weather has sparked talk of those halcyon days.

Twenty five years ago, the autumn, winter and spring had been dry with below average rainfall. Then, in June, the jet stream, that strange high-speed wind that encircles the Earth, shifted. The phenomenon normally sits over the Mediterranean but, in 1976, it moved between Iceland and Norway. It kept the Atlantic weather systems, which normally plague these isles, at bay, and it fixed a ridge of high pressure over Britain, the like of which has not been seen since records began.

"The 1976 heatwave was by far on its own," recalls weather expert Michael Dukes. "From June 22, we had 15 days when the temperature somewhere in the UK was 90F+. That is absolutely stunning and we have never come anywhere near that again." In fact, you wouldn't even get that in the Greek islands.

Rainfall for June, July, and August amounted to a paltry 73.9mm, not quite the lowest on record as 1995 had only seen 67mm, but certainly the second lowest since records began in 1659, the next being 1800 which had 91.5mm in the same months.

The annual average temperatures fail to reflect the sweltering heat, but 1976 tops the tables again with 17.8C, with 1826 coming in second at 17.6, and 1995 third with 17.4. None of those years boast the highest single temperature ever recorded, which was actually in 1990 when the figure of 37.1C, or 98.9F, was recorded at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire.

But in terms of sunshine, 1976 again far outshines other years, with 1995 second and 1947 third.

The British are notorious for watching the weather and equally renowned for complaining about it. Yet, in the past 20 years, we have had more good summers than in the previous 50. And with global warming, the chances of having good summers are increasing all the time.

But as the sun baked the country and The Sun newspaper gave its readers "Phew what a scorcher!" pens, not everything in the garden remained rosy.

"It was a brilliant summer, it seemed to last forever," recalls Environment Agency fish and conservation manager Steve Bailey. "But the impact on our work was serious."

Rivers became trickles, streams dried up and reservoirs became huge expanses of cracked mud flats. Poachers had a field day as stranded fish had nowhere to run or hide. "You could walk across rivers in your shoes, were the types of comments people were making," says Mr Bailey. "The fish were in distress and we had to make many rescues where they were caught in pools. One of the Yorkshire reservoirs was so low, the ruins of a village which had been flooded, were revealed again.

"There were standpipes and, every morning when I went to work, there was hazy sunshine, which burnt off about 10am, when it became really hot. It was not a very healthy atmosphere, you could taste the car fumes."

Blue Peter told viewers to shower instead of bathe and the Government urged the country to use dirty water on the gardens.

Mr Bailey had started work just two years earlier and the drought of 1976 was his first taste of a crisis. "It stimulated Yorkshire Water to have much wider planning for supply and treatment. The Yorkshire Grid emergency plan was born. It was the first time that water conservation - such as bricks in the cistern etc - became an issue. It was remarkable in its extent and affect."

Crops failed, fires took hold and firefighters had to resort to extinguishing them with sewage. Gardeners risked fines of £5 trying to keep their blooms alive by breaching the hosepipe ban. One horse owner in North Yorkshire even considered culling his stock because they relied for water on an isolated well which was running dry.

And, while the nation was inconvenienced, nature really suffered. "I remember seeing hedgerows on fire," says botanist Dr Phil Gates, of Durham University. "The grass was brown and there were major wood and moorland fires. A lot of trees suffered, the shallow-rooted trees in sandy soil in particular, such as birch, and it takes a lot to kill a tree.

"I remember the east coast. There were vast numbers of hover flies because of an aphid population explosion. They came across the sea from Holland on the prevailing wind because there was no food there. There was a plague of ladybirds too, swarms of them, and when the aphids ran out they became so desperate, they started biting people. I remember people having to sweep them up with brooms in Cleethorpes."

And the British public, well-versed in moaning about the bad weather, complained bitterly about the good.

Then the heatwave finally broke - and it was down to the Government. Denis Howell was appointed minister of drought in August with all manner of emergency powers to conserve water and manage the crisis. Two days later, on August 31 - in typical British bank holiday fashion - the heavens opened and the rain didn't stop for weeks.

* Have you any memories of the summer of '76? Write to Hear All Sides, The Northern Echo, PO Box 13, Priestgate, Darlington, Co Durham, DL1 1NF.