“Our nightmare started around 18.00 hours on Friday 20th July 2007 when the road outside the Museum began flooding on the opposite side, becoming a raging torrent towards midnight as we watched the water level rise above 24” outside the Museum entrance door. By this time, the water levels over the house and Museum floors was reaching a 12” depth, however we were fortunate; for many houses in the village we flooded to approximately for feet.
My insurers, the National Farmers Union Limited were advised of the disaster on Monday (over the weekend we were advised to obtain humidifiers, but none were available within a considerable distance.)
It was from this point onwards our luck was to change. The NFU had connections with a group of companies by the name of ServiceMaster Ltd. Malcolm Holmes, manager of their Furniture Medic Company, whose cooperation I will never forget, for within twenty four hours four factory sized humidifiers were running around the house and museum areas. With the noise, it was like walking into a factory during the five week drying out process.
One hundred per cent of my ground floor furniture, books, records and other possessions were carefully packed into strong boxes and taken to a storage area in Leicester. These included the flood damaged furniture items which were repaired and returned as new. NOTHING WAS TOO MUCH TROUBLE FOR THE SERVICEMASTER LTD ORGANISATION.”
Wellington Aviation, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire
