Storm Babet: Popular Chesterfield pub devastated by flood as landlord left without a home and car damaged

The Anchor pub at the junction of Factory Street and Chatsworth Road in Brampton is currently closed after it was badly flooded on Friday.

Layonie Rawson, who runs the pub with her brother, Jamie Rawson, said: “We’ve got no power. I can’t even put a figure on how much it would cost to repair the damages. All our equipment, stock, furniture and carpets are damaged. Our cooling systems and refrigeration systems are in the cellar so they are broken too. We also have a kitchen on the ground floor and all the kitchen equipment has been ruined by the water damage. I’m not sure where to go from here. Our main focus at the moment is to clean up.

"It’s looking near impossible to get it back up and running. The pub doesn’t have flood damage for the insurance, just like most properties on Chatsworth Road. You can’t get flood cover in any policy because of the history of the flooding.

"And it’s not just not the pub being closed. My brother Jamie, the pub’s landlord, lives in the building. Now he has nowhere to live because there’s no power to the building. We also have a team of staff who now have no jobs or income for the foreseeable future, so it does have a knock-on effect.”

Layonie’s car, which was parked in front of the pub was also damaged. As the road was flooded, a Travis Perkins lorry drove through deep water, pushing her car into a wall.

Layonie said: “At first I wasn’t aware that flood was so bad in the area where my car was because I was down the cellar trying to salvage equipment and stock. By the time I came back to the ground level, it was already the point where my car was too engulfed to move it.

“But, I was checking on the car during the day up and until the point of that lorry passing, it had been stationary. But after the lorry passed, not only did it move my car, it pushed it into the building and that forced more water in the car and into the pub.

"Luckily it has not done a great deal of damage to the pub other than forcing more water in. But it certainly damaged my car, pushing water inside, causing a dent, scratches and detaching some parts. There’s still water in the car, the electrics are all gone. I can’t get any more water out of it because only one door is open, the other doors are completely shut. It will be towed tomorrow.”

Layonie’s friend has set up a GoFundMe page to cover the costs of a new car – as Layonie relies on it to take her daughter to school and to take her dad, a brain tumour survivor, to specialist appointments for his rehabilitation.

Following the incident, a spokesperson for Travis Perkins said: “We take road safety very seriously. We are aware of this incident and have launched an immediate investigation.”