FLOODS have ‘wrecked’ one family home in Peter Tavy and damaged several others after torrents of water two feet deep flowed through the village on Saturday.

As the storms arrived early on Saturday morning and heavy rain poured throughout the day, the Colly Brook that runs through the village burst its banks. Combined with water rushing off the moorland hills, it led to a deluge flooding the heart of the village. The water poured down roads and driveways into several homes.

Among those worse affected was James McDowall and his family. The water gushed from a neighbour’s garden through their back gate and into their home.

He said: ‘The place is wrecked. Our kitchen, conservatory, all ruined. We have slate on the main part of the floor so replacing carpets isn’t an issue but we’re going to have to replace furniture, have the kitchen re-done, all of it.

‘It’s not just contents insurance either but we will need to get onto the buildings insurance as we may have to have the conservatory out and build a new one as water just kept flooding in underneath it even as it was being pumped out. We had over three inches of water in the house and we have a sill in the front and back door so it just kept the water in.

‘I was at work when it happened but my wife Cass rang me and said that whatever I was doing, I had to drop it and get home because we were flooded. She had been out herself shopping and came back to it all. Our neighbour had to be carried out of her home and I think she had it even worse than us.

‘That night I had carpet cleaners sucking up the water from 5pm through to 11.30pm. I’ve got two industrial dehumidifiers on the go now to try and get rid of the damp. The girls have gone to stay with family but I’m still at home trying to get it sorted so they can come home.’

James’ neighbours Dave and Maggie French were at home when the flood hit its worst point. They managed to get sandbags up and avoided major damage to their own cottage, though they still had some water in part of their kitchen.

Dave said: ‘We had so much water running down our back lane. It was 18 inches deep off the moor, running down the roads off Godsworthy and getting to two feet deep running down the heart of the village. We had sandbags and boards up so we kept the worst of it out. We were very lucky, it could have been much worse for us.’

Ken Ball has lived in Peter Tavy for over 70 years and said that the flood was among the worst he had seen in the village.

He said: ‘We had one like this a few years ago, where in one of the fields at the bottom of the village you could put a boat down in it. That one was caused by a big tree stump in the Colly Brook — this time we had water rushing down from the brook and off the moor. The moors just can’t take any more water. The weather was really rough at 5.30 in the morning and with all the heavy showers the moors just couldn’t take it.

‘We’ve had rain like that before but never had floods like that. Up in Surrey they’ve been flooded three or four times this year. In a way we are quite lucky that it doesn’t happen more often here, being so close to the moor and the river. Hopefully it’ll be another few years before we see floods like that again.’

See today’s Times for pictures of flooding across West Devon.

Peter Tavy flood pictures sent in by Dick Nicklin.