A FLOODED cellar has been plaguing a couple from Tenbury.

Elizabeth and John Weston have been having to pump out the cellar of their home in Teme Street for the past six weeks.

The cause of the problem has been a burst water main in the road outside their home.

Now engineers from Severn Trent hope that they have repaired the burst but it still leaves a lot of drying out to be done.

The couple moved into their new home in September and are undertaking work on the property that is a grade II listed building dating back to the early 1800s.

"I went into the cellar to read the gas meter and found that it was swimming in water,” said Elizabeth Weston.

“At first we thought that it was rain water that was getting in but soon discovered that this was not the case. The water was perfectly clean and it clearly was not sewage or waste water.”

Severn Trent was called in and initially thought that the problem was as a result of seepage from a burst water main near to Barclays Bank but when the water did not stop getting to the cellar they had to look again.

“We had to use a pump for a couple of hours twice a day every day and as soon as we stopped pumping the water would start coming in again from under the floor,” added Elizabeth Weston.

“The floor of the cellar is brick on soil and the water has washed away a lot of the mortar but until it has dried out we will not know what damage has been caused to the building or if there is any structural harm.

“Severn Trent have been very good but it has taken a long time to find and repair the leak. On one occasion they came but there was a car in the way so it was not possible to do the job.”