A BURST main left residents in the Wark and Simonburn areas without water for around seven hours on Sunday.

The burst, in a field on the outskirts of Wark, happened at around 3pm, causing residences and businesses to have their water supply cut off.

The Battlesteads Hotel and Restaurant was one of the businesses affected by the interruption to its water supply.

General manager Katie Meyrick-Scott took to Twitter to seek clarity on the situation, and was told the supply would be up and running again by 7.30pm.

She said: “We had bottled water in the hotel to give to guests, so that wasn’t too bad, but we were concerned it was going to continue overnight, because we knew we’d run out.

“Residents just expect there to be water, which you would.

“They were very good about it, but we knew that if it had lasted a couple of hours more they would have been saying ‘when is this going to come back on’?”

Katie, who also lives in the village, said that running water was restored between 9pm and 9.30pm.

She added: “I tweeted them again after my original query but had no response.

“It took somebody to ring them before they came and brought bottled water for the whole village, which was frustrating.

“I think they could have done that right at the beginning.

“The main thing is that they are pointing you to a Twitter service that doesn’t necessarily do the job.”

A spokesman for Northumbrian Water said that vulnerable residents were supplied with water from 5.30pm, while it was delivered to the Battlesteads at 7.40pm.

He added: “We were in regular direct face-to-face contact with the Battlesteads throughout, which included the owner who was on the premises at the time.

“We apologise to customers affected by the burst water pipe on Sunday.

“We believe the burst occurred just before 3pm in a field on the outskirts of Wark and we had people on site within the hour.

“Due to the location of the burst, we brought in specialist tracker equipment and were able to restore supply to most of the affected properties by 10pm.

“We estimate that around 310 properties were affected in Wark and Simonburn.

“The majority of people had their water supply interrupted, with the rest experiencing low water pressure.

“As we worked to fix the burst, our team supplied bottled water to vulnerable customers.

“We also worked with the local businesses that were affected, including supplying bottled water where needed.”

samantha.spowart@hexham-courant.co.uk