Extreme rain

This week started unexpectedly. A freak weather event on Monday caused localised flash flooding in our part of the Blackdown Hills, with rainfall of more than 15cm within 4 hours. Rain gauges and wheelbarrows left out overflowed, and rivers appeared from nowhere. Houses and roads at the bottom of the valley sadly flooded as the River Yarty burst its banks, and water poured down from the top of the hills, creating temporary rivers through fields and roads. Houses that normally would have been safe on the side of the hill had water coursing through them, finding any way to get down to the bottom of the valley. 

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We were lucky in that our property already has drainage channels either side to divert the hill water around the house; however what we didn’t anticipate was the amount of debris being washed down them, and blocking the small drain covers we have. Within 30 minutes the first drain was blocked and water was backing up into our shippon, resulting in us wading into the water and frantically raking away the weeds and moss. It took us another hour to realise the same was happening on the other side of the courtyard, with water backing up into the barn almost welly-height before we realised it wasn’t draining away and repeated the exercise, luckily with no damage to the buildings and only two rain-soaked outfits each. 

We’ve not even been here a year yet we’ve seen several occasions when this overflows and the water pours down the road, damaging the surface and causing some really dangerous driving conditions (especially in winter when it flows down the hill and freezes). The torrents were so strong this time that large lumps of flint washed down and were deposited along the roads. Since then, various stories have surfaced of burst tyres and stranded drivers – including a milk truck, having filled up at the farm down the hill on Monday evening and burst a tyre right outside our house. The sheer weight of the vehicle and its load meant the driver had to be rescued by a heavyweight recovery truck – two hours and two cups of coffee later. 

We’re so grateful that we got through without any lasting damage, although we’ve been clearing up debris since. It could have been so much worse.

 

 In terms of planning, things are progressing – albeit at a snail’s pace seemingly. We had a conservation surveyor round last week to take a look at the listed Tudor cottage – which was incredible to see him reel off the history of building simply by looking at the style and build design. He’s given us a list of documents to collate from various sources, validating his initial views, and helping to paint a picture of what’s happened to the building and what needs to be protected. As the council are likely to ask us for a Grampian Clause – which only gives us planning approval if we commit to timelines to restore the listed Tudor cottage – this view of urgent repairs and structural building requirements will help build our case for a slightly longer and more affordable timeframe. We have a meeting planned with our architect, planning consultant and conservation surveyor next week to align recommendations – hopefully after that it won’t be too long before the council agree to our plans… fingers crossed!! It’s been nearly 7 months now and I for one am running out of patience with the whole process…