A PEACEFUL night in front of the fire to await the dawning of 2001 turned into a watery nightmare for a Tavistock couple last weekend.

Tony and Mavis Richards were forced from their home on New Year's Eve — the wettest day of a very wet year — by a sudden barrage of water pouring into the house.

The couple live in the Toll House on Parkwood Road, up past Kelly College. The house lies alongside Wallabrook, a small tributary of the River Tavy.

The brook usually flows into the river after negotiating a small bridge at the bottom of the Richards' garden, but on Sunday evening huge tree trunks, cast into the stream by the torrential rain and gale force winds, ran up against the pipe which runs across the mouth of the bridge.

Tons of debris quickly blocked the bridge causing the torrent to divert through the Richards' garden and into the house, though the doors and windows.

The police and fire services were called and ordered an immediate evacuation of the property.

'I just about rescued the chickens in time, and the goat, but didn't have time to rescue anything else apart from the television,' said Mr Richards.

It was a close thing too for Mrs Richards who has rheumatoid arthritis. She has difficulty moving quickly and struggled to get out of the house.

Mr Richards added: 'I've never seen the brook running that quickly before. It was pretty frightening really and it all happened so quickly we just had to get out.'

The entire downstairs of the house was up to two foot under water, ruining carpets, a piano, the fridge and cooker.

Even the Christmas tree was set adrift floating around the lounge.

The electricity also fused, though luckily after Mr and Mrs Richards made their escape.

Fire appliances from Princetown and Tavistock attended — with the Princetown crew having to drive through three feet of water to get there.

The firefighters knocked a hole in the Richards' garden wall and the hedge bank over the road to allow the water to flow away. They then bailed out the house.

With the pressure relieved, the debris under the bridge was cleared by men from the Environment Agency who turned out in dry-suits and got into the stream to release the trunks, which a family friend, John Vanstone, lifted out with his mechanical grab.

'Everything has been ruined,' said Mr Richards. 'But it's a good job it wasn't in the middle of the night — it could have been a lot worse.

'At the end of the day it's only material things. You've got to look at it like that, no one lost their life.'

Mr Richards was full of praise for everyone who helped out.

He said it was the first time this had happened and he was hopefully it would be a one-off, but he planned to get in touch with the EA again and see if there was anything they could do to stop it happening again.