AN elderly man and woman had to be evacuated from a flooded farmhouse at the weekend.

Old Field Farm tenants Ron Bent and his sister-in-law Doreen Bent, both in their late seventies, were given temporary shelter by their landlord Herbert Hindley at Wards Place Farm, Glazebury after a huge water main sprang a leak near their home off the East Lancashire Road.

The farm cottage and surrounding farmland were flooded after the pipeline which carries water from Merseyside to Manchester sprang a leak.

Warrington Social Services arranged accommodation for the Bents at Holcroft Grange, Culcheth with United Utilities footing the bill.

United Utilities spokesman Polly Rourke told the Journal: "There was a problem with a valve on a large trunk main which led to quite a lot of water being released onto mainly farmland in the middle of Saturday night.

"We shut off the water in the early hours of Sunday morning. All the water had drained away by Sunday lunchtime.

"One property was quite badly flooded and the elderly residents are now in temporary accommodation at our expense while their house is restored and we’re working hard so that they can go home as quickly as possible.

"We’re really sorry about this. Work repairing the water pipe should be completed this week."