Brandon pub The Royal Oak floods for fourth time in as many months

[dutchman]

The Royal Oak's exterior and interior have been affected by the floods



Customers of a restaurant and bar that has flooded for the fourth time in as many months were left stranded as water flowed in, its owner says.

Khara Schrijvers said the flooding of the Royal Oak at Brandon, near Coventry, on Thursday was "definitely the worst we've ever had it".

Stagnant water had "hung around for hours, and caused the most damage", she explained.

"It came in so quickly, sandbags couldn't do anything."

Two flood warnings remain in place for Warwickshire, affecting the River Swift at Rugby and the River Blythe at Blyth End, following heavy rainfall in the wake of Storm Gerrit.

The water entered the building at about 15:00 GMT, "in the middle of a full lunch service", Ms Shrijvers said.

"Some were left stranded and trying to find people to pick them up," she said, with other customers forced to abandon their cars.

A new cellar cooling system, the third this year, had just been fitted the previous week.

"We're going to have to re-do the whole process again," Ms Shrijvers said.

Flooding had also caused the venue to close in October, "but it's never been as bad as this".

She has been running the restaurant for two years, and said it remained shut as there was no electricity and flood water was still at knee-height in all of the toilets.

Thick mud and sludge has also been left in the affected areas.

Ms Shrijvers said drains were unable to cope with the amount of water caused by the heavy rain.

"Our neighbour next door rods the drains almost every day to prevent this happening, but there's only so much he can do," she added.

[dutchman]

Spon End escaped this time. The owner of the chip shop told me he was out checking the drains every so often to make sure they weren't blocked.