AFTER suffering £50,000 worth of damage due to flooding, Otterburn Mill has thanked the emergency services and local support after reopening.

Flash flooding hit homes and businesses across Tynedale earlier this month, and Otterburn Mill has undergone a huge clean-up operation, which is almost complete.

Throughout the early hours of Sunday, August 11, river levels in the River Rede reached a record high.

Otterburn Mill suffered the when the shop was flooded with flood water rising to around two feet high inside the premises.

Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service attended the incident, pumping water from the car park at Otterburn Mill in an attempt to stop further water flowing into the already flooded shop.

The A696 in Otterburn was also closed as roads struggled to deal with the rising river levels and persistent rainfall.

Staff at the Otterburn Mill arrived on Sunday to clean the on-site Weavers Cafe that had also been flooded along with setting up a temporary shop in an office space upstairs.

The majority of stock had been damaged.

However, using residual stock in the warehouse, Otterburn Mill managed to fill the temporary shop with outdoor and lifestyle clothing.

Otterburn Mill has now returned its trading to the main shop after cleaning the space, and the Weavers Cafe has reopened after local businesses Coquet Cleaning Services, MB Domestic and Commercial Cleaning, and Jamiesons Dry Cleaners helped with the clean-up.

Owner, Euan Pringle, said he had never seen the building flood in his 23 years of owning Otterburn Mill.