Licensees confined to upstairs of pub after flood

Jim and Lyn Wainwright of the Camp House Inn, in Grimley, Worcestershire, are still waiting to find out the extent of damage to their riverside pub. 

An estimated 3ft of water has come into the venue and, despite efforts to move furniture and equipment to higher levels, the licensees fear the cost of the floods will be expensive. 

Worcestershire was one of worst-hit areas with some 200 homes affected according to the Environment Agency (EA). Water levels are expected to rise.

Jim told The Morning Advertiser​: “It's a nuisance, it's the fourth or fifth flood this winter. We're getting a little bit cheesed off with it all.

“There's going to be loads of damage. It's going to take a lot of sorting out. We have put everything up as high as we can get it but it's still come higher. 

“We put freezers and fridges in the air and it still got into them. 

“You can't walk in the pub anymore in waders, it's above that.”

The licensees have been confined to the upper floor of the site given the high levels of water inside the venue.

Jim said: “If you've got a boat, you can drop out the window and into the boat and row away but that's about it.”

Despite the area being waterlogged, Jim said the pub had still had a few phone calls to see if the pub was open.

He said: “You wouldn't believe it, you would think they'd see the state of the fields and things around us.”

The pub has been under the operation of the Wainwright family for 80 years, with Jim two years away from his 50th anniversary overseeing the site.

Pubs elsewhere faced water damage and reduced trade over the weekend when high winds and heavy rain swept across the country.