Gloucester pub trades through floods thanks to local brewery

A pub in the Gloucestershire flood zone has enjoyed two weeks of unbroken trading, thanks to a local brewery.

Freeminer Brewery's Don Burgess responded to a call from old friend Paul Soden, licensee of Café René, who was without mains water after the downpours.

Burgess filled two containers with 1,000 litres of water each and transported them on a flatbed lorry, and made journeys every couple of days.

The pair created their own fully operational water system with a pumping station that pumped from the mains, which could sustain the pub until the water came back on. It meant the pub was the only one in the area able to open in the aftermath.

Burgess said: "We are a business, but we are a business that's in the community, and we are aware of that and we take it seriously. Paul's an old mate, I'd do anything to help him anyway."

After 16 days of using the system, Café René got its regular water supply back and is looking forward to the future.

Soden, who used to be chairman of SIBA, said: "We wouldn't have made it without Don, only him or another brewer could have supplied that quality of water, we are all still quite shell-shocked from the whole event, it's been quite emotional."

He also used the well in the middle of the pub to run the toilets. It is around 3-400 years old and usually pumps water around itself as an ornamental display.