A 22-year-old man died in hospital and another, aged 23, was in a serious condition after they were rescued from the Irish Sea as bad weather caused disruption over the Bank Holiday weekend. The dead man, from Wirral, Cheshire, was thought to have fallen from a cliff in Anglesey and was airlifted to hospital. An auxiliary coastguard rescued the second man from the water.

A man in his sixties died when his dinghy capsized as he tried to retrieve a rucksack from the river Tamar, near Saltash, Cornwall, police said. Four boys who were fishing near by helped to save the man’s wife after they heard her shouting for help. The couple, who were said to live locally, had been returning to their moored yacht.

Elsewhere, the Hay Festival was deluged by rain and a fire crew had to be called after one of the marquees was flooded. Jimmy Carter, the former US President, who was due to speak at the festival, said: “I hope it’s raining as much as this on my farm in Plains, Georgia.”

In Bournemouth, only a sprinkling of visitors braved the wet conditions. In southern England some places had 35mm (almost 1½ inches) of rainfall.