Home and pub almost destroyed in lorry crash

The pub had been sold and was due to be handed over to new owners

A lorry crash in which the driver was injured left a pub that had just been sold like a "pile of rubble", its landlord has said.

The collision, at about 05:30 GMT near Shrewsbury, also partially destroyed a nearby home and forced the closure of the main A49, until just after 16:00.

Firefighters took an hour to cut the lorry driver free before he was taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. He is not thought to be in a life-threatening condition.

The lorry hit the house, lived in by a family that runs the next-door Hong Kong City takeaway, and then ploughed into the Three Fishes pub. No-one else is thought to have been injured.

Landlord James Duerden, said the pub was just about to be handed over to new owners.

"It was a great local pub, part of a community, and now we’re left with just a pile of rubble," he said.

A parked car was also badly damaged

Landlord James Duerden said a large part of his pub had been destroyed

He said he did not live in the pub and had got a call at 05:30, before arriving to find what he described as "total devastation".

"I wasn’t expecting what I saw when there was a fully-loaded articulated vehicle in the back of the pub," he said.

He said "a good quarter of the pub" had been lost, along with an upstairs bedroom and all his stock had been lost when the power was cut.

"I’m really thankful there was no one in the building at the time," he added.

"I was really looking forward to finishing the last week of trading and giving the pub a really good send off," Mr Duerden said, having finalised the building's sale.

He said he was now talking to his insurers, but was "truly thankful" for all the messages of support he had received.

Mr Duerden has lived in the village for 38 years, having grown up there, and was "absolutely devastated" by what had happened.

"For the foreseeable future the business will be closed, I’m not sure where we go from here," he added.

The owners of the Hong Kong City takeaway, which escaped damage, did not want to talk, but Mr Duerden said their business was also an important part of the community.

A family were believed to have been at the house when the lorry struck it