Aldbourne is still coping with floods – and the fear is there’s more flooding to come

There is still a great deal of surface water on Aldbourne’s streets – just about every drain cover is spouting water and many homes still have sandbags and pumps in action.

The village Post Office, Café and Deli run by Sue and Mark Rendell has never closed during the flooding crisis. They have an ancient well under the floor behind the Post Office counter – long ago it was outside, but the building grew around it.

The rise in the groundwater level meant this well was about to flood into the Post Office. When the floods were at their worst they had five pumps going for three weeks to keep the level of the well below floor level. They were pumping out 2,000 litres a minute.

Sue Rendell is most grateful to the villagers who suddenly found they had pumps in their garages or lofts and came to the rescue. She also thanks Marlborough Fire Brigade – on the worst night they were pumping out the well until three in the morning.

The pumps and their pipes made it impossible to keep the café open. But on Saturday last the café re-opened for business – much to Sue and Mark’s relief.
Sue believes there is more flooding still to come. The heavy rains over last weekend on the fields and downs that surround the village will take up to three days to run down into the village.

Lottage Road is still officially closed to through traffic, but the water, though still flowing pretty fast, has gone down enough for most cars. The Lottage Road post box is still closed.

There was great frustration that letters had been left for about two weeks before a notice was put up. Then there was some hilarity that three Post Office managers had to come and declare the box still closed.

There is no hilarity at all about the amount of sewage flowing around the village. It is said that it has been well diluted by all the rain.

But there are reports of an outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting which is being put down to the sewage. People are being advised to report quickly to their GP and to let Wiltshire and parish councils know about the illness.

The sewage escapes are the responsibility of Thames Water and starting last Wednesday they have organised a clean-up team to visit Aldbourne twice a day – once at 7.30 am and again at about 14.30 pm. The aim is to clean up before the school runs.

When Marlborough News Online visited the village on Monday (March 3) there was a council clean-up team going wound all the surcharge points – and there was obvious signs of sewage leakage and children walking home from morning nursery.

Sue Rendell thinks they will have to have their pumps going at least until the end of March. The rain and its catastrophic effect on the groundwater levels in the valley in which Aldbourne nestles, has certainly been going on for far more than forty days and forty nights.