THE BORROWDALE valley suffered its worst flooding in nearly 40 years on Wednesday.

A torrential downpour in the morning left a trail of damage and flooded a Rosthwaite hotel.

Susan Dowie, of the Royal Oak Hotel, said: “I’ve been here since 1970 and never seen it like this. Three of the guest bedrooms are under eight inches of water. Stonethwaite beck is four metres above its normal level.”

Two tents pitched at Stonethwaite campsite were washed away.

Campsite owner and farmer Victor Brownlee, who was drying out campers’ sleeping bags in his barn, said he hadn’t seen water as high since August 1966.

Three of his sheep drowned but he said he was lucky the number was not higher.

“I had quite a few below Grange level. I didn’t expect them to still be there but I found all 44 crowded up into a high corner,” he added.

Rising water levels presented too great a danger for a Duke of Edinburgh expedition, forcing it to re-plan its route.

Lesley Sleights, from the Isle of Man, was supervising 11 participants at Seathwaite campsite when water started to seep through her tent walls.

“I woke up at 3.30am and the rain was heavy. By six o’clock our tent was wobbling. It was like being on a water bed,” she said.

Without a mobile phone signal she tried to drive to warn her students before they set off on a route to Thirlmere at 8am.

But she had not reckoned on meeting four feet of water and had to be towed by a farmer.

The Borrowdale to Keswick road was later closed to cars.

Rachel Dunckley, of the Stonethwaite pub, described Leatheshead chef David Jackson’s ordeal as he battled his way to work.

She said: “He first set off on his bike but turned back when the water came above his seat. It was rushing down the road. Then he came back walking. It got as far as his armpits and he’s a big man.”