WEST Devon did not escape the spate of bad weather at the end of last week and over the weekend, that left many areas in the county under water.

Although not as serious as other parts of the county, across West Devon reports were made to the fire service of flooding in Grenville Drive, Tavistock; Grange Road, Yelverton; Moretonhampstead and Inwardleigh.

On Thursday, crews removed a roof from a shed at Tongue End Cross, Okehampton, due to the weather having made it unsafe, and rescued someone from water on the A382 from Moretonhampstead to Newton Abbot in the early hours of Sunday.

The A382 was closed at Whiddon Down due to flooding, to allow water levels to subside. Two crews from Tavistock were also called to pump water out of the basement of a building in Lydford on Sunday evening.

Dolvin Road and Crowndale Road in Tavistock were closed during the storm period due to safety reasons.

Provisional figures from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue service revealed that in the five days from November 21 to 25, crews were called to deal with 869 flooding incidents.

Crews carried out 85 rescues from flooding over that period, from properties and vehicles, involving 218 people.

Chief fire officer Lee Howell said: 'Our fire control staff and operational crews have worked extremely hard over the last five days and are a credit to the service. We have also received excellent support from our colleagues in other fire and rescue services, the police and partner agencies.'

Flood warnings were put out in areas of West Devon by the Environment Agency (EA), warning commuters and residents of potential flooding across the area.

Among areas particularly raising concern for the EA were riverside locations and roads between Taw Bridge and Newnham Bridge on the River Taw, the River Lew at Hatherleigh, and the West and East Okement rivers and their tributaries.

The EA flood alerts on the upper Taw, Okement and Lew remained in force on Monday as showers continued.

Flood alerts were also in force for the Lower River Tamar, particularly Gunnislake, Calstock, Cargreen, Bere Alston, Morwellham and Cotehele, and the middle of the Tamar at Polson Bridge, Horsebridge, Lifton and Sydenham Damerel.

Tourist attraction Morwellham Quay was hit by flooding, trapping residents in their homes and having to close the attraction to visitors.

Morwellham Quay archivist Jasen Quick said: 'The flooding started on Sunday morning and by low tide it was already at the buildings. The new synthetic ice-rink installed for the Christmas season was almost two feet under water.

'It means we have not been operational since Sunday because the cottages are full of silt. During the flood, none of the residents could get vehicles out of Morwellham. The water level started to drop by late afternoon which was when we had high tide — we thought high tide might make it worse but it did the opposite.'

Owner Simon Lister said thanks to the hard work of the staff, Morwellham Quay should be open for visitors again by Saturday morning: 'We're busy clearing up after the flood and hopefully should be open again for the weekend, and in time for our Christmas extravaganza, starting on December 15.

'We'll be cleaning up the new ice-rink ready for people to use, hopefully on the weekend of December 8 and will be open throughout the Christmas holiday. Everyone has been brilliant and it has been all hands to the pumps.'

The South West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) was busy over the period of rain, receiving 6,455 calls, an influx of 552 more that the trust would normally expect to receive at this time of year.

Throughout the incidents of flooding, the trust's Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) responded to several incidents and provided specialist equipment and medical support.