Residents speak out after 700-year-old home in Aldwick floods

“I came down in the morning, put me foot on the carpet and it was just absolutely wringing wet with rainwater,” Said Fish Lane resident Helen Christmas, adding that their home has been in husband Peter’s family for five generations.

"I doubt we’re the only ones who’ve been affected. The road is flooded for some hundred metres down, and the water’s probably a foot deep outside.”

Neither Helen or Peter are sure of the damage yet – they have to get the house dry first – but it looks like they’ll have to fork out a new carpet, and maybe more if the moisture has damaged the property’s centuries-old structure.

"We just don’t know what the extent of the damage is just yet. There’s the carpet, but there are floorboards under that that could be damaged too, but we’ve just got to get the place dry. We’ve got to get a dehumidifier and dry it all out before there’s any structural damage.”

Fish Lane is one of dozens of roads across the county that closed today, after councils issued flood alerts for communities in East and West Sussex alike. It comes after heavy rainfall across large parts of the county last night, and a yellow weather warning which was in place until midday.

With 13 flood alerts issued by the Environment Agency across the region, a spokesperson for West Sussex County Council said: “We have attended numerous overnight Flooding reports due to Storm Conall, and are currently aware of a road closure in Vowels Lane, West Hoathly. We will keep you informed.”

The flooding was also contributed to by a blocked outfall pipe owned and operated by Arun District Council. “We know that it was important to resolve the issue and made arrangements to clear the outfall urgently. Because the outfall is in an intertidal zone, it makes clearance more complex requiring work to be co-ordinated around low tide,” a spokesperson said. “The work was completed, flood levels significantly reduced, and the road opened.”