Pub landlady says beer 'wasted' after flooding

Jemma Ovenden at the Oliver Cromwell pub said flooding had wiped out her cask beer stocks

A pub landlady said her cask beer stock was "all wasted" after her pub's cellar was flooded following Storm Henk.

Jemma Ovenden runs the Oliver Cromwell pub in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, but has been unable to sell any draught beer since the cellar was submerged on Friday night.

The county has had a number of flood warnings and alerts in place due to very high river levels.

She said: "The cellar filled up the highest it's ever been."

Ms Ovenden believed it would take a week to clean up the cellar

The freehouse started to fill with water on Friday, but thankfully the interior of the pub, close to the Great Ouse, was not affected.

She said: "The water came up so high... that the cellar filled up the highest it's ever been. It's completely taken out the electrics and the cooler and gone over the height of the barrels.

"Until the water is completely gone, we are not going to be able to get in there and fix the electrics and clean it up and go again."

The 32-year-old estimated it would take a week to clean up the cellar, depending on how much damage the water had done.

The Environment Agency said it would continue to monitor river levels in the area

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: "Over the last week we've had heavy rain fall over Huntingdonshire on ground that is already wet. Our Environment Agency teams have been out on the ground, working to minimise the impacts of flooding where possible.

"We've worked closely with partners and local authorities to co-ordinate our response across the district. We are continuing to monitor river levels at St Ives and St Neots, which remain high after the recent rain."