A multiproxy approach has been used to investigate environmental change within a palaeochannel of the River Trent. The river floodplain and its palaeochannels provide palaeoecological and sedimentological archives of environmental changes. This study draws on information obtained from the analysis of the sediments contained within a palaeochannel at Aston-on-Trent, Derbyshire, and from a contemporary comparative taphonomic study of a reach of the River Soar, Leicestershire. Three insect proxies (Coleoptera, Trichoptera and Chironomidae) have been used within the palaeochannel sediments to reconstruct palaeoflow conditions by adapting a contemporary index based on the species level flow requirements of aquatic invertebrates (Lotic invertebrate Index for Flow Evaluation, LIFE). The comparative study in the River Soar used one insect proxy (Trichoptera) to establish the nature of the current processes of taphonomic distribution, in order to validate the use of the contemporary flow index in the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.