AFTER the festive deluge, heavy rain and wind has continued to batter the Cotswolds this week.

In Shipston the Brailes Bridge has been closed three times in the last week, while earlier flooding on the River Stour covered the Mill Street car park near the B4035.

Meanwhile storms on Friday felled a tree between Church Lane, Toddington, and the A424 Evesham Road, in Stow, blocked the B4077 Toddington Road completely.

In Shipston, town councillor Fay Ivens and staff from the town council’s gardening contractor Lawns 2 Mow were out in force helping residents with sandbags.

But deputy mayor Philip Vial said the town had escaped relatively unscathed compared to some areas of Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and the south west. “No houses flooded. It was nowhere near as bad as 2007,” he said. “Lawns 2 Mow have been keeping an eye on the flooding, putting up warning signs in the car park and in the road and knocking on people’s doors who might have been affected.”

Elsewhere, the forest school at Winchcombe Farm Day Nursery, in Upper Tysoe, near Shipston, now has a stream running through it after the latest deluge.

But thankfully the forest school classroom – a treehouse – is unaffected as it is up high although the children’s dipping pond is now a swamp and their pirate ship has sunk.

Over the county border in Moreton, ward councillor Robert Dutton said the town had escaped quite lightly. “Moreton got off fairly scot free,” he said.

“We had problems again in Croft Holm, it got into one house but the resident had worked hard and there was no significant damage.”

While the rain is not at an end quite yet, forecasters are predicting a spell of brighter, drier weather for the Cotswolds from today.