OWNERS of the Millbrook Inn in South Pool have been ‘amazed’ at the support they have received after flash floods ripped through their new pub.

Charlie and Tess Baker took over the Millbrook Inn just three weeks ago and on Thursday afternoon the ‘little river at the back of the pub which is usually ankle deep, had swelled to two metres high and diverted through the pub’, explained Charlie.

While the nearby village of Prawle was completely dry, South Pool received 77mm of rain in just a few hours, and the Millbrook Inn and other local properties felt the brunt of it.

Charlie took to social media to ask for help, posting on Facebook on Thursday night: ‘We’re in need of anyone who can help put it back together. I’m told there’s more rain coming, so we desperately need sandbags or anything to help defend against further floods tonight.’

The community spirit of the South Hams is something to behold and Charlie said ‘around 100 people’ turned up the next day to help them out, from ‘people just on their lunch break who wanted to help with a mop and bucket to joiners, plumbers, sparks, it was amazing’.

‘I work as a volunteer for the Coastguard’, continued Charlie, ‘and those guys turned up almost immediately and we worked through the night’.

Charlie said they managed to get ‘a crazy amount done’ with the help from local people, ‘we had the water out in five or six hours’, he said, and the water left behind two to three inches of silt which needed shifting and then it was ‘mopping and cleaning’ and they managed to get the pub looking ‘reasonable’ in a couple of days - work that would have taken weeks without so much help.

The progress was so good, Charlie and his team were able to put on a reduced food and drink service on Saturday night.

Julie Whitley came to Charlie on Friday and said that although she could’t help manually, due to a bad back, would they mind if she set up a Crowdfunding website to try and raise funds to help them recover? ‘If you think it’ll help’, was Charlie’s response.

Due to previous flooding issues, the pub has no insurance to help the owners out, so Julie’s Crowdfunding website is aiming to raise £10,000 to help the couple get back on their feet.

‘Just replacing the electronic equipment is looking to cost over £5,000’, explained Charlie, ‘and we don’t know the cost of the rest of the damage to the building, and we’re going to need future flood defences to prevent this happening again’.

The website has raised more than £6,300 in just three days in support of Charlie and Tess, and it looks set to keep climbing. If you would like to donate to help the Millbrook Inn, visit the JustGiving page: https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/millbrook-inn

When asked whether there was more that was needed to help, Charlie said: ‘Bodies through the door is what we need now. The loss of trade if people think we’re closed is what is really worrying. ‘Our running costs stay high so coming down for a beer and supporting us is the best thing people could do.’

Charlie said a ‘massive, massive thank you’ to everyone who had helped them and said they were planning a ‘thank you/flood party’ at some point soon to give their thanks to everyone - watch this space.