The Crown Inn suffers as result of Cholderton Estate water outage

Residents of Cholderton, Newton Toney and Shipton Bellinger have had no access to running water since Monday afternoon, May 6.

Independent supplier Cholderton and District Water Company took more than 24 hours to deliver pallets of water bottles to community hubs.

The company has been shuttling tankers of water to the main reservoir and hope to restore the supply on Wednesday evening, May 8.

Pallets of water bottles can be accessed at The Crown Inn, The Boot Inn and Shipton Bellinger Sport and Social Club.

Pallets of water were delivered to The Boot Inn. (Image: Newsquest)

While this has helped villagers get by, several businesses have been left out of pocket during a spell of hot weather.

The Crown Inn, Cholderton, had to close as workers were unable to wash up, cook or pour drinks but pallets of water bottles were delivered to its car park.

Customers had their bookings cancelled but chef Dave Icely had been helping residents pack the vital supplies into their cars.

Pallets of water were delivered to The Crown Inn. (Image: Newsquest)

Pub helper Jim Lynch told the Journal: "We have been waiting for this weather for months and months. On a day like this, the beer garden makes it."

Mr Lynch doesn't expect any reimbursement as the pub's insurance company will look at the last four weeks of trading which are unrepresentative of how many patrons would have visited during the sunny bank holiday.

Shipton Bellinger Primary School and Cholderton Farm Shop and Cafe have also been shut this week due to the outage.

Villagers are still unsure of what caused the outage but many have worked together to deliver water to the area's more vulnerable population.

Wendy Sperry described the situation as "unfortunate", adding: "You have to be resourceful. Most people have got water sitting around in the garden. I have a water butt - that's what we're chucking down the loo."

Shah Ketan, who runs SPAR in Shipton Bellinger, remained open and extended his opening hours, supplying water to customers in need.

Shah Ketan has been able to keep SPAR open. (Image: Newsquest)

While the shop was unaffected, the upstairs flats where is staff live had no access to running water. Mr Ketan said: "People are quite unhappy. It's supposed to happen when they do small maintenance, usually one or two hours, but now it's been more than 48."

A Cholderton resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said it had been "a complete nightmare" for her three young children.

Slamming the "pretty slow" response from Cholderton Water, she said: "It's disgusting and no one can wash. Especially for the elderly people who have not got a car, it's not great. I think it's a bit daunting not knowing how long it's going to go on for."

A spokesperson for Cholderton Water said several tankers of water were being pumped into the reservoir on Wednesday afternoon, May 8.

They added: "Water will be slow to return whilst enough pressure is built to supply a reduced amount of water. Tanker services will continue throughout the day."

Residents have been asked to use water sparingly until pressure is restored and to check their taps have not been left on.