Duchess of Northumberland visits flood victims

Nov 14 2009 by Brian Daniel, The Journal

THE Duchess of Northumberland met elderly county flood victims yesterday as she re-opened their homes more than a year on from the disaster.

The Armstrong Cottages in Rothbury were under five feet of water in the floods which hit the village and other parts of the county in September 2008.

The elderly residents at the Cheviot Homes scheme had to be helped from their homes, some being carried out, as water caused extensive damage to their properties and belongings.

A week after the flooding, the duchess and her husband the Duke of Northumberland visited Rothbury to see the devastation and meet those affected, including the Armstrong Cottages residents.

Due to the 12 listed properties having stone walls, they had to be left for six months to dry out, with residents having to find alternative places to live.

Eventually the £700,000 renovation could begin and as properties were finished over recent months, residents returned – some more than a year on.

Yesterday, the duchess was back in Rothbury to re-open the Armstrong Cottages, and catch up with those residents she met last September.

She said: “In a funny way, maybe something good has come out of this. I was here a year ago and saw the devastation that the floods had left and actually honestly, I would have put money against me being here a year later, just a year later, and everybody moving back into their homes.

“It is amazing what has been achieved in a year. A lot of these people living in these houses here, Armstrong Cottages, they were very lonely and when I saw them a year ago, it was actually like a huge party.

“They were devastated to have lost their homes but they had made friends... they were having hot meals cooked for them and everybody of all ages and from all backgrounds pulled together to look after the people who were affected. That was very impressive.”

One of the people to meet the duchess was Mary Carr, 80, who lost all her furniture in the floods and was out of her home for a year and ten days.

She said of the special guest: “She is so nice and friendly with us all and interested and delighted for us that the homes have been restored so well. The support we had was really very, very good. People were so kind and we all pulled together.”

Ian Armstrong, who is a board member at Cheviot, added: “The residents were not such a cohesive community before the flooding that they are now. The Dunkirk spirit seems to have brought them together.”