Emotional landlord assesses flood damage to pub

Landlord Paul Risbridger only took on the pub last year

A pub landlord has spoken of his distress after his premises were inundated with flood water.

Paul Risbridger only took over The Elm Tree in Ringwood, Hampshire, last year.

Water started coming in through the front door and then up through the floor of the kitchen on Wednesday night as Storm Ciarán hit the region.

Holding back tears, Mr Risbridger told the BBC: "You do long hours. I’ve put a lot of work in and obviously it knocks you back."

Water started coming in through the front door and then rose up through the kitchen floor

"It’s going to make things pretty hard for the next few days," he said.

Mr Risbridger is working to pump out water from the thatched pub, which has parts dating back to the 16th Century.

He said: “Hopefully as soon as we can dry it out and clean the floors up we can get operational again quite soon.

"Obviously the problem is going to be what the weather is going to do today and into tonight because it seems like this storm is not over yet.

"We are trying to pump out at the moment and to start drying things but we may be wasting our time, it might just flood again.”

The Elm Tree posted pictures of the flooding on Facebook