The moment 'terrifying' flood hit 400-year-old pub

Pub landlord Mark Bentham said watching his business flood was "terrifying"

A pub landlord has recalled the "terrifying" sight of watching a river run through his 400-year-old pub, claiming it was a spectacle "you only see once in living memory".

Mark Bentham, landlord of The Bridge Inn, in Michaelchurch Ecclesley, Herefordshire, described his pub as a "lost cause" as Escley Brook burst its banks during Storm Claudia on Friday.

He said: "As the day went on the ferocity of the water, the speed that it came up, was something to behold, it really was.

"I think it was about 15:00 or 15:30 GMT on Friday afternoon that we realised no matter what we did and what we had done it just wasn't going to be enough and at that point it was pretty awful."

Landlord watched as river ran through the pub

Mr Bentham said despite anticipating "something quite dramatic" he did not expect "just how dramatic" it would turn out to be.

"It got to a point where really it was a lost cause and all we could do, quite literally, was open the doors and let the river run through the pub," he said.

"It was stressful at the time because we didn't know how bad it was going to be."

The pub landlord said at its peak the water level reached four inches inside the pub, which he said would have been much worse had it not been for his flood defences.

Storm Claudia caused record flooding in parts of the West Midlands.

He added: "When the water got to such a depth there was nothing more we could do so quite comically I decided - I was dripping wet, soaking and cold - and I just said to the guys I'll be down in a bit I'm just going for a bath.

"Five minutes later my partner came in with two glasses of sherry so we just sat in the bath drinking sherry, which I think is a wonderful response."

Record river levels triggered severe flood warnings across the region

But despite concerns the pub was a "lost cause" it was able to reopen by Saturday lunchtime following a "monumental rally round" by his team who worked through the night in what Mr Bentham described as a "wonderful" achievement.